Household solar energy systems explained

    DEXTER — In June 1921, Doc Woodcock graduated from NH Fay High School in Dexter.  He boarded in town during the weekdays because his family lived in Ripley, seven miles out of town and an overwhelming distance for daily travel in those days. On June 6 Vaughan Woodruff, Woodcock’s grandson and the featured speaker at the regular First Friday public discussion at the Abbott Memorial Library, woke up that morning in Albany, 383 miles away, and made it to Dexter easily by the evening. 

    Woodruff, who is the owner and promoter of InSource Renewables, a Pittsfield solar energy company, brought up the contrast between his grandfather’s world and his own (in less than 100 years) to point out how changes in technology (transportation systems in this case) can affect thinking over time.  Woodcock would never have imagined traveling from Albany in six hours, much less feeling energetic enough to rouse a roomful of interested Dexter Dover Area Towns in Transition (DDATT) supporters with a lively explanation and investigation of the latest in solar energy systems and policies.
    After his own high school graduation (from MCI in Pittsfield) and then earning an engineering degree from UMaine, Woodruff, as did most of his peers, left the state to find higher paying jobs than could be found here. Yet the imprint of growing up in a small Maine town never left his mind, and he eventually returned, determined to convert his passion for renewable energy into a useful, thriving business in the central Maine area. 
    According to Woodruff, resistance to renewables is growing weaker as local people see more and more photovoltaic (PV) panels, small windmills, and solar hot water heaters around the area. He reminded the DDATT audience of the example that indoor toilets, when first introduced, were not an immediate success:  “People would say: ‘Do what?! Where?!’, but once they saw that it worked for the neighbors, the whole system of indoor plumbing came around into acceptance and turned into an essential trade.” 
    The rising awareness of central Maine people about the cost of energy to heat and run their homes is driving interest in solar energy systems. Woodruff believes that the solar “trade” has the potential to create new good-paying local jobs while increasing the quality of local communities, by making buildings more comfortable and less expensive to heat and cool.
    His specialty is solar hot water, which offers the most energy bang for the buck, but he is also expert and up-to-date on solar electrical systems. Many questions from the DDATT audience kept Woodruff hopping: feasibility of powering electric cars, reducing heating demand by insulating houses better, where and how to put solar panels on a roof or rack, are mini split heat pumps a fit with photovoltaics, how long is “payback” on solar installations and so forth.
    The policies of government play a key role in the support of new technologies, so Woodruff spends more time than he’d like down in the halls of Augusta, patiently bending the ears of legislators and regulators about the finer points of solar energy’s suitability to Maine and how its development is essential for rebuilding communities from the inside, instead of waiting and hoping for some factory or large corporation to come to town. 
    “As our youths leave, and as our dollars leave, we have less power,” Woodruff. He calculated that, in just area towns, $26,600,000 is spent each year on residential energy, most of which goes out of state to oil and gas companies. With smart policy and encouragement to reduce energy demand and build solar generating capacity, Woodruff estimates that number could be reduced by 75 percent.
    Woodruff’s fledgling business is not without struggles, but he’s optimistic about central Maine peoples’ spirits and resiliency and thrift (“I’m a tightwad and I bet most of you in here are too!”) and that we are in the midst of a major worldwide change in energy awareness that will encourage more use of solar systems.  Adapting to changing technologies takes time. In June 2114, what will Woodruff’s grandchild’s daily life be like?