Paul Wilkins c.1992 Paul Wilkins SIEMENS SOLAR INDUSTRIES " WORLD OF SOLAR ELECTRICITY" is a nifty propaganda piece for PV. Music, graphics and well produced. It starts with materials, goes to Africa to show water pumping for irrigation, and a local telling Aid organizations: "Give us solar pumps, not diesel". Next we briefly see vaccine refrigerators and lighting systems. Cathodic protection for pipe lines, several communications systems in South America and the U.S., and navigation systems from buoys to light houses in Sweden. Next we get module testing, and how Siemens exceeds the JPL standards and UL testing. Gene Hitney of Hitney Solar Products takes us on a tour of a remote home in central Arizona. It is a 48 volt system with a 5kw inverter. The house has all the features of a 20th century home. The lighting is 48 volt and the rest of the equipment is 120. Right down to the evaporative cooler! ( I have known Gene for a few years, he has consistantly designed and installed excellent systems) There is a custom subdivision in Carlsbad California, near San Diego. It was built few years ago with 1 KW grid connected arrays on each roof. According to the video these homes are saving 25-35% on utility bills in an area with some of the highest rates in the U.S. John Long built a 24 home subdivision near Phoenix with a 200 KW array to power the whole place. The homes are rammed earth (not mentioned in the video), and very energy efficient. If the owners are reasonable power users they can come away at the end of the year with a $00 utility bill. All excess power from the array is sold to the utility. John Long is planning a TOWN north of Phoenix to be PV powered. Siemens claims that it built the LUGO, CARRIZO, and SMUD utility scale PV systems, that LUGO powers 3-400 homes, Carizo's 6 megawatts powers 2000 homes. The fact is ARCO SOLAR built LUGO and CARRIZO. Siemems declined to buy these plants when it bought ARCO a couple of years ago. Another fact is that the utility companies involved don't want to pay a price that gives the new owners of LUGO and CARRIZO a reasonable profit on their investment. So CARRIZO SOLAR is selling the modules (16-2000's, M51's, and the famous Quad-lams) from these former utility stations to dealers and distributors. To be fair: SIEMENS called me today. Their attitude is that as a company they did build CARRIZO and LUGO. And that these plants are accurate representations of PV technology. The last segment is on thin films for PV and their PV powered yard lighting. The fact is, so far, thin films have not made a dent in retail PV. In todays call they said that this part had been edited out. They are not working on thin films any longer If Siemens would edit the audio about CARRIZO and LUGO... . Other than this I recommend this tape for teachers and others interested PV. Now that more of the truth is available. The music is nice, the production values are good and the explanations on how systems work is very clear. SUN AMP POWER CO's "SOLAR POWER AND YOU" is a 15 minute video that shows the basics of how systems work then goes on a world tour of applications from navigation to refrigeration, hospitals to homes. I like it. It is educational, showing that PV is here now and affordable. It is partially a SUNAMP ad, but, what company would make an expensive production and not plug themselves? The dealer price is $14.95 and list price is $18.95. BASIC STUFF If you are interested in learning about video production equipment, from VHS to 8mm, cameras to editing, go to your local magazine store and see if they have VIDEOMAKER magazine. I have been reading this since I saw my first one. It has always had things of interest to me. A lot of practical how to information. Evaluations of equipment, questions and answers and lots of advertising. SOLAR POWERED VIDEO? Sure. Ihave been using 2 methods that work: a Sovonics (now United Solar Systems) fold up module that puts out about 5 watts takes 5 or 6 hours to fill my 2 ah batteries. The fast way is to using the tuner that came with my recorder (I still use a camera and separate recorder) and a 100 watt Statpower inverter off my house or RV batteries. Some cameras use lead acid batteries, most use nicads and after awhile they do not hold a charge as long as they did new. This is called battery memory. There are products now that discharge these batteries and recharge them all the way, available from several sources. I have not tested any. One brand can be used AC or DC. I called a camera battery manufacturers in Colorado to ask about charge rates, finish voltages etc. They told me they did not have this information. They told me that my battery is lead acid. And that is all they know. I wanted the information to size small PV panels for camera charging. FORMAT: You can go nuts here. There is VHS the most common, S- VHS an expensive higher quality picture variation. If you want to do good quality video S-VHS has the best resolution and lots of good editing, titling and post production equipment. It is sometimes referred to as "industrial equipment". VHS-C is small cameras that do not record as long on standard play and have an adaptor so they can be used in standard VHS machines. 8mm and HI-8 take great pictures, but you cannot edit their sound, without changing the video or vice versa. This has to do with the audio signal being mixed with the video signal and recorded on the same tracks as the video. To view 8mm needs to be dubbed to VHS to be watched on most players, or through the camera outputs to a TV. More and more HI-8 equipment is becoming available, Sony just introduced an editing machine, others are making or working on editors, titlers etc. I would have a hard time at the present, deciding between S-VHS and HI-8. Budget and camera size would be my deciding factors. If I could have both I would. Another small detail: Cameras that you hold in front of your face, all small formats, tend to wobble around more than full sized cameras that you can rest on your shoulder. Smooth motion is valuable which brings us to TRIPODS. Use them. Don't go for the cheapest one you can find. Do get a fluid head tripod that has leveling bubbles to make your setup quick and accurate. Even being 5 degrees off will drive your audience to distraction. Fluid head tripods let your camera move smoothly in all directions. When you are looking at tripods check the knobs that lock the head in place. Does the camera move when you lock or unlock them? Look at another tripod! Generations: 1st generation is what you shoot. 2nd generation is what all your 1st generation gets edited into, and 3rd is what you copy from 2nd to send to your friends. And herein lies the rub. Each time you copy you loose quality, regardless of format. This is an excellent reason to script your shooting and make your first generation as perfect as possible. ( I saw an article the other day that says 5 generations is the maximum, 10 with S-VHS!!) Well, I have learned a few things in the last few years: 3 generations maximum using VHS, copies from long play or super long play don't look very good, even 2nd generation, use a tripod as much as possible, don't rush things, if you have access to a community college that has video training, get it, it can give you access to editing facilities. If you can afford S-VHS do it, the resolution is better and so are copies. (You can do your work in S-VHS then make copies on standard VHS) Use quality brand name tapes, cheap, house brand tapes have a reputation for not looking good, and shedding material onto your players heads and screwing them up. Read, talk to other video users, and read some more. Many towns have commercial editing facilities that rent editing suites by the hour. If you know how to use their equipment they charge 1 price, if they train you it is another price. They usually have the latest technology in editors, sound equipment, titling and special effects. After you do your shoot you can rent time and make good copies. The advice and instruction are well worth the money spent. One editing suite can cost $15-30,000 in equipment. So if the price to use it seems high, that's why. Access Author: Paul Wilkins, 2303 Cedros Circle, Santa Fe, NM 87505 ¥ 505- 473-1067. Sun Amp Power Co., 1902 N.Country Club Ln, Scottsdale, AZ 85201 ¥ 800-677-6527 Videomaker, POB 558, Mt. Morris, IL 61054. $22.50 /12 issues. Editorial and letters go to 290 Airpark Blvd, Chico, CA 95926 Siemens Solar Industries, POB 6032, Camarillo, CA 93010