This month, Solar Washington interviewed Thomas Honles, Public Works Engineer with Island County, Washington and Solar Washington Board member.

Solar Washington: How did you become interested in solar? 

Tom Honles: Solar energy has been an interest of mine since my youth. My early experiences seeing my Dad waiting in long lines to fill up the gasoline tank in the family car, on the assigned day of the week, at the gas station during the energy crisis in the late 1970s formed my awareness of over reliance on fossil fuels and got me thinking about "sustainability" before that term became common usage. I was eager to learn about the environment, energy sources, and solar energy, such as solar thermal systems used for hot water and also solar photovoltaics used for spacecraft. Incidentally, my amateur interest in astronomy heightened my awareness of the tremendous power of the Sun, and of solar energy. The energy from the sun seemed essentially limitless, and much kinder to the environment than burning fossil fuels like gasoline.

Many years later, by then having graduated from college and well into a successful engineering career with Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the opportunity to lead the solar photovoltaic program to incentivize utility customers to install rooftop solar on their homes and businesses presented itself. Our team began and continued over the next few years building the program into an outstanding success. This eventually led to LADWP's own expansion into constructing commercial rooftop systems on City-owned buildings and utility-scale ground mounted systems. We designed and installed dozens of systems and by 2012 developed a 10MW solar installation at Adelanto Converter Station, a high voltage DC-AC station at the southern terminus of the DC transmission line bringing power to Southern California from a large coal-fired powerplant in Utah. That coal plant is now part of LADWP's path towards green hydrogen, with coal being largely phased out.

My largest project was Beacon Solar plus Storage project, delivering 250MW of solar and a battery energy storage system (BESS) tied into a new substation we constructed to connect the Beacon project plus 3 other large solar projects in the area to a 185-mile long 230kV transmission line to Los Angeles. In total, about 650MW of solar power was online by 2019 from that area near Mojave, California alone, and additional developer projects were being added to LADWP's renewable portfolio through Power Purchase Agreements (PPA's).

SW: Why did you join Solar Washington and what do you expect from Solar Washington?
TH: I moved to Washington in 2020 after leaving LADWP as an Engineering Manager and having been involved in other solar advocacy organizations in California and nationally, Solar Washington was appealing to me for my continued involvement and support for solar energy. My expectations for our organization and others like it is to continue to build awareness of solar energy and its related technologies, and to advocate for a more sustainable future throughout the energy sector, whether at the residential level, commercial level, or the industrial and utility levels. I think Solar Washington has done this well in the past and will continue to do so in the future. I'm quite honored to be on the Board as a board member.

SW: What is next for you regarding solar?
TH: My plans are to continue to support solar at all levels, as a professional engineer, as a concerned citizen, and as a consumer of electrical energy. One area that appeals to me from a technology perspective and from a sustainability perspective is the small but rapidly expanding field of agrivoltaics, which promises to provide numerous benefits to the agricultural sector. 

SW: Can you share any lessons you learned during your solar experience?
TH: One of the difficult lessons I learned, and had to learn more than once, was that there are voices very willing to detract from solar energy's potential and that I should not lose hope in the long-term vision. In my many years in my career I saw that happen at least 3 times, where successful solar energy projects and programs reached some intermediate goals and then faced demise due to decisions from powers that be, or perceived budget limitations, or economic competition from other fuel sources, both fossil and renewables. On one of those occasions the relative low cost of wind energy compared to solar energy actually threatened and clearly stalled growth in solar energy. However, just a couple of years later, the tables had turned, and it seemed like everyone could not build solar energy projects fast enough. To a significant degree the tax incentive structure created that boom/bust phenomenon. I think we face a similar challenging reality in today's market and political climate.

SW: Do you have any advice for anyone considering solar right now as a career or as a source of energy in Washington?
TH: My advice is influenced and colored by my profession as an engineer. With that caveat, I also bring perspective as a project manager and from an electrical utility perspective. There is no doubt that an education in a technical field, in science or engineering, is going to be advantageous. After all, it is the energy business. But one must also consider the business part of the industry, and a business education, especially one strong on knowledge of financial markets and international trade can be valuable. For those inclined towards a vocational and technical path, knowledge of electronics, electricity, construction safety and construction management are vital. I must add in this limited space a mention of all the other supporting areas that are career paths into the solar industry: environmental, land right-of-way, legal, and others. My largest projects would not have been possible without those.

Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts and perspective with our newsletter readers!