Hi, I'm Jeff Rea, your host for Economic Outlook.

Welcome to our show.

We hope you make plans each week to join us as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives.

Solar technology uses specialized panels to harness the power of the sun to create electricity.

It is the most abundant of the renewable energy sources.

Even in the Midwest, where we're known for the cloudier days.

Solar energy has its merits.

We're diving deeper into solar this week.

Coming up on economic outlook, With increasing concern over climate change and energy consumption expected to grow by nearly 50% by 2050.

Much emphasis is being placed on renewable energy over fossil fuels in our region.

A number of solar projects have captured our attention.

Today, we plan to dive deeper into the future of solar in our region and across the country.

With TJ Kanczuzewski the founder of Inovateus Solar and Barbara Dale, the city of South Bend Office of Sustainability.

Guys, welcome.

Thanks for being here today.

Thank you.

Thanks.

So just to start a little bit, T.J., for somebody who's not familiar, just to help frame, you know, kind of your background or expertise, tell us a little bit about Inovateus solar and what you're doing there.

Sure.

Well, Inovateus got started a little over 15 years ago.

So the company's been based in South Bend.

When we first got started, we were a solar supply distributor, meaning that we we would buy solar panels, inverters, the electrical components, and then sell to companies who were doing installations.

We found at that time that there weren't a whole lot of companies doing installs in the Midwest.

So we quickly morphed into what's called an epic company, engineering, procurement, construction.

And then a little bit over time, we also became a developer in the solar space, which is much like being a real estate developer, but you're developing solar projects or you see a spot where there's a need for solar energy in the grid or for a specific customer.

So over the last 15 years, the company has grown and evolved, and today we're doing mostly large scale EPC, and development.

We've worked all across the country.

But over the last three years, we've been able to do a lot more work closer to home.

So even now we've got some great projects that are right, right in our backyard.

Great.

We'll talk a little bit more about that.

So, Barbara, let's come your way a little bit.

So somebody not familiar with the Office of Sustainability, talk to us a little bit about the function it does for the city of South Bend.

Sure.

So the mission of the Office of Sustainability is to mobilize the community to address the climate emergency.

And we do that through a number of different ways, including illuminating climate solutions, collaborating with community groups and designing, developing and delivering climate solutions ourselves.

Great.

And so obviously, timing critical.

As we said in the opening, a lot of of need on the power side in the in the years to come and a lot of thought about how how do we do it differently than we have historically.

TJ, let me come back your way for a second.

So.

So I lived in this area for a long time.

I think the the people have been here long.

time so wait we have this perma cloud that sits over this area.

We don't get enough nearly sun but sun to sort of make a difference.

But as you said, quite a few projects happening in our area.

Talk a little bit about just the maybe the climate generally in terms of of the growth of solar over the last few years and then why our area is has been right for some of those priorities.

Yeah, of course, South Bend and Michiana is not known as the sunniest part of the country, but the the technology that's behind solar has become a lot more efficient.

And solar panels today even.

And even so, 15 years ago.

Plus they do a pretty good job of creating electricity in low light conditions.

So as long as you have ambient light that's coming through the clouds, solar is viable.

So in our area, farming is a big thing.

There's a lot of corn, soybeans, all that in in our neck of the woods.

So that is using the same power that solar panels use.

So the technology is getting better.

But also there is a need on the grid for more electricity.

Coal fired power plants around the state of Indiana and around the Midwest are being shut down.

So there's a need for more electrons on the grid.

The other thing about our area is that we've got the right temperatures for for solar and solar panels.

Most people think the desert is a great spot, which it is.

There's a lot of sunlight there, but it's also a dusty place and it gets really hot.

And when it gets really hot, solar panels actually drop their efficiency in production.

So here in South Bend, you actually get the most solar power in the spring and fall months where it's typically cool and and can be sunny.

So it's a good place.

And also with the rain and the snow that we get it naturally clean solar panels Barbara lets come your way a little bit.

And so maybe I wonder what T.J. is talking about.

You know, so why why why the increased interest in solar?

What makes now sort of this ripe time for people to be thinking about it both at their homes or in their businesses?

Sure.

Well, as TJ mentioned, there's a need for solar energy production both on the sort of societal level and also on the individual level or at a business or a nonprofit might make economic sense to lower your energy bills by producing your own solar energy.

So the Office of Sustainability helps with that.

And with two separate programs.

One is the EASSI program for nonprofits and the other is vibrant places for businesses.

And we those programs also support are supported by the money that's coming through the federal government.

The Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill are both the largest climate investments in history and bringing a lot of money to make that install cost lower for individuals, businesses, nonprofit.

T.J. was hit on the cap on this.

So.

So this this environment federally in particular to to help infuse some dollars to do this talk about as you've been involved in the last 15 years how different it is today than than when you started in terms of having some dollars to actually encourage this to happen.

Sure.

Yeah, Like Barbara said, this is a great time in terms of support for renewables and solar in particular, especially when you've got the city of South Bend and Barbara and her team bringing local support behind it.

That makes it a lot easier for people to go solar and make the decision.

There's a lot of good information out there, but some of the things that are available now, obviously there's the 30% tax credit, which is available at the federal level.

But if you use US made components for a certain percentage of your of a solar project, you can actually get up to a 40% investment tax credit.

So if you use Crossroads solar panels, for instance, which are made here in South Bend, you can get up to 40%.

Now, there's also a lot of dollars behind technology and supporting companies that are all within the solar ecosystem.

So you have manufacturing component suppliers, developers and all that, and also grid modernization, which is something that's needed.

And there's a lot of with the investment or the IRA, there's a lot of money behind improving the grid, which makes solar, wind or any other renewables better in terms of distribution.

Yeah.

Barbara, come your way.

So like historically, maybe the environment hasn't been as ripe for me to want to do this at my house or my business.

The power companies didn't like it necessarily.

It wasn't always quite as affordable, but but that's been moving.

Talk a little bit about just sort of what that what that environment looks like today.

So sorry, can you.

Yeah.

I'm just thinking more of this environment like like 15 years ago, like the power companies, everybody is sort of pushing back and saying, wait a second, you can't do this.

But but I think the environment is more so as you're helping businesses think about building or doing solar at their home or their business.

Talk a little bit about what that environment looks like now.

Right.

So the technology has improved greatly.

The cost of installs has lowered greatly.

It's cost competitive or even cheaper than a lot of fossil fuel kind of infrastructure.

And there are more and more people that know how to do this.

Groups like TJ's that are available to help businesses and nonprofits and individuals install.

So there's a lot of more know how, better technology.

And then, yeah, the sort of moment where we're finally recognizing that climate change is a big deal and we need to produce more clean energy to do it.

And the city offers these programs to sort of demystify the process.

And we're always available for folks to come to to help sort of, yeah, just figure out the the process.

Yeah.

So, T.J., let's build on this a bit like this regulatory environment, because if I remember the the pushback from the utilities sometimes was a little bit like like you'll generate more power at your house than than will serve your house.

So some of that comes back into the into the system or into the grid.

And I don't think utilities were very receptive.

Are utility companies more receptive to this?

Is that still a challenge or barrier these days for folks?

Some are more receptive.

It's definitely still a challenge.

One of the interesting things in terms of like the energy market in the United States, like if you break it down, there's like 250 different markets.

So if you're a solar company and you look around the country, it can be different in a lot of different places, Right?

So where we are, Indiana, Michigan Power is the main utility provider.

Obviously, when you get to the west side of South Bend, but also maybe towards Goshen, Nipsco fuels that some of that service area.

So you have those two major companies, Indiana, Michigan Power, for instance, is a subset of AEP, Right.

And so AEP has some of their corporate initiatives in Indiana.

Michigan Power usually follows those, but they have some of their own as well.

But it's also different if you live in Indiana or Michigan, there's different rules that apply.

And those rules are put in place by the regulatory commission.

So there have been, I would say, push.

There's been a push back in both Indiana and Michigan by the major utilities to say, hey, we are the major suppliers of power on to the grid.

So if people are going to overproduce, well, we have the infrastructure that they're using when they overproduce, so we should only pay a wholesale rate.

So there are some things that change in the last couple of years in Indiana and Michigan.

I don't think it was necessarily the greatest move because on the flip side, consumers then want to be more independent and they want to figure out how to do it.

And it's actually moved a lot of consumers to do more energy storage like Tesla powerwalls and things like that.

And they're thinking, okay, well, I want to produce solar power on my house.

And if the utilities only give me X amount of dollars, well, I'll just store it in a Powerwall or a battery solution.

And when the power goes out, I can use that.

But also when the power is not out, you can actually switch to your battery and use that power.

So now there is a lot of support.

So AEP and I&M like they're doing solar on a large scale, right?

To keep their costs low and competitive.

They need to buy solar power at 100 megawatts, 200 megawatts plus.

So it's a I know there was like a long winded answer but it's it's there is support.

It's still competitive.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So previously you might have wanted to overproduce solar because you could get money back so it made it financially viable.

That was sort of a bonus of installing solar on your home as you get that money back and now with the wholesale rate, you don't get as much back.

So really the tactic just changes where you say, okay, I need to right size this solar installation for just my building.

So and that can still be cost effective, especially with the upfront costs being lowered through the federal grants, city grants and things like that.

And there are utilities like in other parts of the country that have more of a friendlier program where they really want to partner with their customers to put solar on their homes or their businesses.

So there are definitely more forward ways of doing it than we have in our area.

However, I have seen things change dramatically in the last 15 years.

So, you know, hats off to our local utilities for that.

Great, because we'll take a quick break here in the studio.

We're going to go out to the field.

George Lepeniotis co-host is out to further explore the solar story.

George, let me toss it to you.

Thanks, Jeff.

I'm on the near northwest side of downtown South Bend.

I'm joined by Kathy Schuth, executive director for the neighborhood over here, the neighborhood organization I'm sorry for for better clarity.

Tell me a little bit, Kathy, about your day job.

What is it you do over here?

Sure.

We're pleased to talk to you.

I'm executive director of an organization that has been serving the near Near Northwest neighborhood for almost 50 years now.

I've been here for eight of those years as executive director, but about 20 of those years as a neighbor.

And the organization serves to revitalize the neighborhood as a whole and has a mission of doing so through providing affordable housing, through community engagement, and then being an advocate for the neighborhood within the wider community.

So as you can imagine, my day job really is different on the day it could be working with public safety issues, it could be working with city and street and infrastructure issues.

It could be developing the next project in the neighborhood or talking to a potential business owner in the neighborhood that is interested in cooking up a project of their own.

So it is incredibly varied and it's a really fun and fulfilling job.

So right behind us is the community center.

Yes.

Is that where you spend most of your days?

Yes.

In this building.

And this building will get out of the solar panels on the roof later.

But this building has a lot of function in this community.

I mean, what it is that the residents come to the community center looking for and what services and amenities the center provides to the neighborhood.

Great.

This building as a whole holds our offices.

It also holds two retail spaces, which I should mention, one being Bran Lehrer Books, which amplifies minority voices and literature, but also our local performer coffee shop.

So people are coming to retail spaces, to our office, but also the community center itself is a public space that is open for a variety of uses, whether it be classes, workshops, events, both that we're hosting or that other people are hosting for the public.

We keep it reserved not for parties per se, but for those who are looking to do community oriented events.

So that's photography.

That could be, again, events about like we've recently had one about how to grow pollinator plants in your yard.

You know, it's a whole variety of things that neighbors bring to us as well as we present to neighbors that they're able to use that space for many of us who've grown up around South Bend don't necessarily know exactly what will define is the near northwest side.

We talked a little bit before we went on air.

It is to the east of here, the river to the northwest.

Is that Lincoln way through the south?

It's Lincoln way to the north.

It's about Angela Boulevard.

And now the new Cole line, Bike trails our western boundary.

So it includes Leeper Park, it includes Memorial Hospital area, and then kind of the area all the way over to about Wilbur on on the west side.

So what is it if you look at the neighborhood as a whole, what is the how would you define the neighborhood?

What would you give is it's characteristic.

Yeah, well, I should start by saying, of course it's the best neighborhood.

Of course.

Yes.

Not that I'm biased.

No, no.

But I think what the two things that we are told kind of repeated back to us that people see in the neighborhood in that they really find a dream in the neighborhood are that it's a neighborhood that really values community.

It's a neighborhood that really celebrates and values its diversity.

And so what that means, it's a racially diverse neighborhood.

It's a socioeconomically diverse neighborhood, and it's a neighborhood that really looks out for each other.

So, you know, like it is a front porch neighborhood in a sense.

We do have three historic districts, so there's some beautiful architecture here.

The whole neighborhood was built roughly around 1900, 1910.

So it has, you know, kind of like the in-town feel that a lot of people look for.

It's very close to downtown is very close to can anything you want to get to in South Bend, Indiana.

But it's a place where people know each other and want to work together to make it a better place.

And we feel like that's that's really something to celebrate in this neighborhood.

Pretty good walking score.

Very good walking score.

So really, we're up on the roof today because we we're talking about your solar panels.

So tell us a little bit about the solar project.

When did you first start putting panels on the roof of the community?

So, yeah, we had a break of our solar project into two phases.

Both of which had some incentives that we were able to take advantage of.

One was called the Sun Program and the State of Indiana ran that program in 2017.

And so we were able to get a solar array that basically dealt with about half of our electricity needs for this community center building.

And that was in 2017, and we got it installed at that point.

The city of South Bend last year in 2022, began their Energy Assistance and Solar Sustainability Initiative, their EASSI program and we were able to utilize that program which gave a 50% incentive to add solar to a nonprofit building to complete the array in a sense.

So we were able to double our array and kind of complete the system to is a ten kilowatt system.

Most of the year we'll supply almost exactly all of the electricity that we're able to use.

And then, of course, at the peak times, it may not cover that as much, but it goes through the main meter.

And basically anything that we create, we're able to use immediately.

If it's happening immediately or it comes off our bill at the end of the month.

Well, thank you for braving the cold wind tonight and bringing us up here to show us the panels and talk about the center.

Fantastic.

Jeff, back to you in the studio.

I'm sure you've got more to talk about with city and state funding that's allowing community centers and other nonprofits across our area to reallocate resources.

They never thought they'd be able to George Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Was good to hear from you out there.

Barbara, Let's come back your way.

So so let's just talk a little bit of I'm a homeowner.

I don't know much about whether this is the right for me, not right for me, whether I can afford it or not afford it.

Give us some maybe some of the advice that you're going to give somebody as they're coming into your office.

How did they even get started in this process?

Well, we have a partner, a nonprofit partner called Solar United Neighbors, SUN, and they facilitate sort of co-ops that help homeowners and individuals kind of connect to figure out whether this is right for them or not.

So I would direct them towards SUN.

And then also to think about how much energy demand your house has and the right size of your solar panel.

Like we said earlier, you don't want to overproduce necessarily that much at this point.

And there's a 311 page actually on the City of South Bend website that goes through a little bit of the details and the permitting process, the nitty gritty, things like that.

So definitely visit the 311 page.

So let's talk a little bit.

So there's a little this is a hot thing people are excited about it.

They're trying to learn and there's a lot of people probably offering to do this or probably one or two that maybe to stay away from.

To talk a little bit about just sort of the predatory piece of this and how to how to keep people away from getting mixed up in that.

Right.

So there you want to make sure that you're asking a qualified vendor.

So there are people who will come to your door and give you a deal.

That seems too good to be true.

And it probably is.

So make sure that you're checking that name.

And T.J., I think you might know more about how to do that.

Yeah, Yeah.

So I'm involved in a new venture called K2 Power Solutions, which is focused on residential and commercial solar in the area.

And one of the things that's definitely happened across the country is there are predatory companies.

It's kind of a snake oil sales pitch for the they'll say like, we'll pay you so much money to put solar panels on your house.

Now, there are some places in the United States where that can happen, like where you've got the right infrastructure and things like that, where a company because what happens, a company is going to invest in own a solar array on top of your roof.

The best way to do it is if you can own it yourself, you're going to get all the benefits and kind of maintain control over your array.

So first first off, if you've got the cash available or money available or if you want to go to your local bank to get a loan to do the project, kind of like a home improvement type loan, that's that's really the way to do it.

And in our area, it doesn't work for a company to come in and pay you X amount of dollars to put it on your house.

So there's a lot of people in our area have kind of been burned and maybe have a bad taste in their mouth because they have gotten this approach.

And a lot of times it's like through they'll be on Facebook and they'll say, get paid money to put solar on your house.

And yeah, and so that's how it happens.

So yeah, yeah, we have to keep a good name for solar in our area.

That's right.

Yeah.

So, T.J., let me talk for a second.

So in our last 3 minutes or so here, talk a little about, you know, like so it's right for some people, it maybe works on their business or works at home.

It doesn't for others.

But the power companies, like you say, are building more.

I think there's even some tax credits for some of that.

Talk about, you know, you know, how much homeowners should be thinking about this versus how much the power company is even thinking about this so that they what the energy they're giving you is cleaner.

Sure.

Well, I mean, when I talk to people, including my wife, it's it's our energy costs just continue to go up in our area.

And I just think that's just the nature of business and inflation.

And, you know, it's not necessarily the power companies follow this, just things are more expensive.

So but solar prices are coming down.

The cost to install it on your house comes down.

So the economics are a lot better.

So anybody can really take a look at seeing if solar works for them, you know, if they've got a good roof that gets good sunlight.

You kind of look at that, the number and the cost versus what you're currently paying for electricity.

And on a larger scale, utilities are looking at it because developers can put together a big solar project and offer the utilities very competitive rates for electricity.

So you've got that happening on the utility side.

I would say also on the residential side, there's a push to be independent, like there's a need and a want to be independent, much in the same way that a lot of things consumers purchase.

Now.

So, so so that independence is a big part of it as well.

And when the grid fails, if you have a solar panel and a battery, your lights will stay on.

Yeah, it's an element of resilience, especially as climate changes and we get more disasters.

This can really help individuals and businesses and everybody prepare.

Absolutely.

Sort of last minute or so.

Talk a little bit about just how receptive the community has been.

Sustainability has been doing this, how long and how many people are taking advantage of this.

Yeah, so there was a big push last year before the end of net metering and we saw like a 200% increase in how many solar panels were installed in the city of South Bend.

Now that the state legislature has changed those rules, there's less individual homeowners.

But with our EASSI program and vibrant places, last year we did seven solar projects with nonprofits, and those nonprofits get to directly reinvest the money that they would have spent on energy into the community and serving their constituents.

So that's been really wonderful to be a part of, and it's been really well received and vibrant places is open now.

So this is for businesses and there's a lot of solar 1 to 1 webinars that we're offering and continue to offer for any interested business to attend and see if it makes sense for you.

So where does a homeowner find that information?

That would be southbendin.gov/sustainability is maybe a home page, and then for vibrant places for businesses, it's southbendin.gov/vibrantplaces.

All right.

We've got Barbara Dale.

She is the with the South Bend Office of Sustainability.

And T.J. Kanczuzewski Nice with Inovateus solar guys, thank you for joining us.

Appreciate it.

Learn it the chance to learn more about solar and we'll look forward to having you back for some updates in the future.

Great.

Thanks.

That's it for our show today on behalf of the entire team here at WNIT thank you for watching or for listening to our podcast to watch this episode again or any of our past episodes.

You can find academic outlook at WNIT.org, or find our podcast on most major podcast platforms.

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I'm Jeffrey.

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