Nov 8, 2012 5 min read

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Ron Berman is energized. So is his Bentleyville farm.

A former hardware store owner, Berman likes to hammer home his messages about solar energy. He is a user, devotee and advocate of this alternate energy source, and is eager to discuss every aspect of it that is under the sun.

“I’m pushing solar, and I can talk about it until you’re bored,” said Berman, 63, who also teaches a solar course.

He isn’t a fan of coal, gas or oil, the traditional sources, but concedes these are major industries that will continue to flourish largely due to political reasons.

But Berman is a staunch advocate of the sun. Energy from our nearest star is free, cleaner than other sources and readily available, even on the grayest Western Pennsylvania days. Yet, he laments, it is tragically underused.

“Every day, the sun shines on the Earth 10,000 times more energy than we use worldwide.”

Berman uses it to heat his home and provide hot water. He lives on a 37-acre farm that was part of the 2012 Pittsburgh Solar Tour Oct. 13. Tourists had access to 30 homes or businesses in Southwestern Pennsylvania that had gone solar, and got to talk with owners and installers about the transition, Each site was given a title; Berman’s was “A Solar Man’s Solar Farm.” A Canonsburg home, “Sun on Sundial Drive,” was on tour as well.

The event was enlightening for many who visited the homes and/or businesses that are converting solar energy to electricity. Berman readily admits that “people don’t have enough knowledge of solar” and regrets that even after gathering “information they still want to use gas, still want to use coal.

“Coal is the worst. If you burn it, you have CO2. Gas produces about half as much CO2, but it’s still CO2. There’s no CO2 with the sun, it makes no noise, has no moving parts and is guaranteed to last more than 25 years.”

Some homeowners, however, have a comfort zone with coal or gas because they have used that source. Some also are wary of the cost of installing a solar energy system. Purchasing solar panels, having them installed and having other work done can be expensive,

Berman said the average is about $30,000, but added that costs can be recouped over time.

A federal tax credit enables a homeowner to recover a large chunk of that. Anyone who has made qualified energy-efficiency improvements can get back 30 percent of the cost of the system by filling out Tax Form 5695. If you pay $30,000 for your system, you recoup $9,000. This one-time credit is guaranteed through 2016.

Alternative Energy Credits also are available through the Pennsylvania Alternative Energy Program. “”They’re given every year for green energy,” Berman said. “Utility companies buy energy credits from you and turn them in to the (Public Utility Commission) because utility companies are required to generate a certain percentage of energy from green resources.”

And solar energy system owners get a break every month with drastically reduced electric bills.

Pennsylvania no longer offers rebates to homeowners and small busineseses for using this source, The Pennsylvania Sunshine Solar Program, enacted in 2008 during Gov. Ed Rendell’s administration, provided $100 million to help fund solar electric and solar hot water projects. That money has been exhausted.

“A solar energy system can pay for itself in seven or eight years,” Berman said.

For Berman, solar is something old, something new. He was attracted to the concept in the 1970s, during the first oil embargo “when we were held hostage by the oil countries.” There was a gasoline shortage then and a motorist was allowed to fill up every other day, according to whether the last number on his/her license plate was odd or even.

“At that time, the country wanted to go solar and I became passionate about it,” he said.

That was his avocation, but his vocation for 30 years was being co-owner of Caste Village Hardware in Whitehall, in Pittsburgh’s South Hills. Berman shared the business with his brother, David, until they sold it in an auction about eight years ago.

Ron Berman worked at Lowe’s in Washington for two years before sustaining an injury, then while perusing Craigslist, he found a job in BP’s solar division. It became a merger of avocation and vocation that endures today.

He moved on to Vox Energy Solutions in Pittsburgh’s north suburbs, where he started in sales and now serves as a consultant. Berman also teaches a course, “Solar Power Training,” for Education and Technology Institute, a nonprofit that provides employment and training services for residents of Westmoreland and Fayette counties.

One week each month, Berman conducts classes for four days at one of three sites – Monessen, Uniontown and Greensburg – then at the other sites in subsequent months.

Topics include The History of the Sun, Solar Thermal Residential, Electric Bill and Home Evaluation.

In the first hour of each first class, Berman talks about the sun. “It’s the greatest furnace we know.”

He preaches a sense of urgency about solar use, to national leaders, legislators, his students . . . anyone willing to take action.

“Solar is not going to happen at one time,” Berman said. “I tell my students, ‘Think what the world will be like in 2050, with technology changing so much. Are we going to waste money or will our leadership take control and say we’re going to be 25 percent green by 2025 and 50 percent by 2050?

“That should be our goal.”