Staff Writer

 Sharon Staz, general manager of Kennebunk Light and Power District, is heading to Japan later this month to learn about solar power. She spoke about what she expects to find and what she hopes to bring back.

 Why are you headed to Japan?

I was asked by the American Public Power Association to be their delegate to this mission. The Solar Electric Power Association has sponsored three such trips over the last few years. The first was to Germany, the second was to Spain and this third one is to Japan. It’s to learn about how solar instillations or development of all types of manufacturing incentives are being used in other countries and how they might work or might not work in the United States.

Have you ever been on one of these trips before?

Never. This is my first opportunity and it’s quite an honor, quite a privilege.

How did your name come up to go on this trip?

I think it’s because I’ve been fortunate to have been a member of the APP for the last five and a half years. I recently served on the executive committee and they try to get general managers or CEOs who are dedicated to public power and furthering our interest in renewable energy, which I certainly am, to go on these, and that’s why they ask and have been willing to sponsor me for the trip.

So you go on behalf of the APP and learn what you can to bring it back to the states?

There is a cost (to attend) and the American Public Power Association will pay that cost. The airfare and any extra time and expenses will be my responsibility.

Why are you willing to take on that responsibility?

Because I think it’s an excellent growth opportunity personally to be with 18 other utility executives from across the country and to have such an experience of meeting with utility executives in another country, in this case Japan, where technology is very far advanced and I think what I could bring back hopefully to the community and to public power as a whole will be beneficial.

How do you think this conference is going to affect your work in Kennebunk?

One can never pinpoint that but we’ve got eight solar installations in Kennebunk right now on individual homes. We as a district have been kind of back and forth as to (whether) we should be looking at some type renewable generation other than our (hydroelectric dams). We did a wind study the last year and a half in conjunction with the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport & Wells Water District on some land that the owners gave us permission to do the testing. They were very excited about the possibility of wind production. Unfortunately those tests didn’t prove to be viable and solar seems to be the next good thing to look at. It will be interesting to see how it’s handled in other places.

Do you feel that solar energy is something you can expand in Kennebunk?

That’s what we’ve got to learn. We don’t know. Solar in Maine, I think, is very much in the experimental stages. We do have several of them installed here. Central Maine Power will be working on a grant with some larger arrays as part of their new transmission line.  All of this has to be investigated and studied and looked at as we go forward.

Maine isn’t known for its sunny weather year-round.

Absolutely and we understand that. We need to learn about the technology and we need to see what the viability of it is in our state. We need to look at all of the resources that are available out there. We know that renewables are not base load necessarily, in terms of the fact that they do not generate (constantly) like a fossil fuel plant or a nuclear power plant can do. But they need to be a part of the mix and what judgment must be made is how much a part of that mix and how do you go about it  – should it be (imported from outside the district), should it be a team effort with a company that does it as part of the district, there are all sorts of possibilities out there. I think I will be exposed at the end of the month to some possibilities we haven’t even thought of here.

When does the conference take place?

It’s at the end of July, actually I’m going to be taking some extra vacation time and going over a couple of days earlier, but I’ll actually meet up with the group on the 25th of July. We meet in Tokyo Sunday night for dinner and we will go over the itinerary for the week, and it is a work week. We will start at 7 a.m. or 7:30 a.m. every morning and the earliest we end is 6 o’clock three nights and the other two, we end at 8 o’clock.

During the workdays you have, what do you expect to be learning?

We have meetings scheduled. For instance, the very first day we have a workshop with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, which is a Japanese organization. We’re meeting with them for two hours in the morning and we will be at their offices in Tokyo. We then leave there and go to another city and we tour a factory there were they prefabricate houses with (photovoltaic) systems already installed in them. It’s an hour and a half bus ride, a two-hour tour at that factory and another two-hour ride bus ride back to the hotel.

The next day there are meetings with a Japanese manufacturing plant tour, several research center tours, a research center for PV systems. It’s just exciting, it’s just amazing what they have lined up for us and knowing the people that have organized this and what little I’ve learned about Japanese culture I’m sure this is going to work like clockwork. They’ll have us working.

Do you like sushi?

I’m beginning to develop a taste for it.

Have you ever been to Japan?

No, I’ve never traveled this far. It’s a brand new experience in many, many ways.

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.