Professor Scott Sklar

Professor Scott Sklar

Director - George Washington Solar Institute

School: School of Engineering and Applied Science

Contact:

Mobile Phone: 703-522-3049

Tompkins Hall 725 23rd Street, NW, Suite 103 Washington DC 20052

Professor Scott Sklar serves as Sustainable Energy Director of GWU's Environment & Energy Management Institute (EEMI), and the Director of George Washington Solar Institute (GWSI). Professor Sklar is also the Founder and President of The Stella Group, Ltd., a 21 year old global strategic technology optimization owner’s-rep firm for clean distributed energy users and companies which include:

Advanced batteries and controls
Blended systems: microgrids & zero energy buildings
Energy efficiency and CHP (combined heat and power)
Fuel cells, geo-exchange
Heat engines
Mini-generation (natural gas/propane)
Micro-hydropower and water energy (free flow, tidal, & wave, etc.)
Modular biomass/biofuels
Photovoltaics
Small wind
Solar thermal (including daylighting, water heating, industrial preheat, building air-conditioning, and electric power generation)

The Stella Group, Ltd. blends distributed energy technologies, aggregates financing (including leasing), with a focus on system standardization.

Prior to teaching at George Washington University and forming The Stellar Group, Professor Sklar worked for 10 years as an energy and military aide to Senator Jacob K Javits (NY), three years as both Washington, DC and research director of the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) a federally-funded applied clean energy technical center, two years as Political Director for The Solar Lobby founded by the big-nine environmental groups. Thereafter he was Executive Director simultaneously of two renewable energy industry associations, the National Bio Energy Industries Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association in Washington, DC. for 15 years.

During his Senate tenure, Professor Sklar co-founded the Congressional Solar Caucus that lead many of the innovative legislation promoting renewable energy in the 1970’s. Professor Sklar is co-author of two books, The Forbidden Fuel, published in 1985 and updated and re-released in early 2010 by University of NE Press, and the Consumer Guide to Solar Energy, which was re-released for its third printing.

The Two Buildings

Professor Sklar lives in a solar home in Arlington, Virginia which has solar water heating, passive solar building features (including double-paned, argon-filled, low-e coated windows, LO/MIT thermal barrier paint in the attic, R38 insulation), energy efficient fixtures and appliances (such as the Whirlpool Cabrio washer), 1.2 kW of Solarex polycrystalline photovoltaics, 3.85 kw assorted PV, and 720 watts of Stion, and 0.5 kW of UniSolar ‘peal-and-stick’ modules on a metal-seamed roof on the front porch, and a 16 AGM gel cell (glass matrix) Concorde battery bank tied to an Outback Radian web-enabled inverter. The house has a photovoltaic roof vent fan and an Earthlinked direct exchange ground-coupled (geothermal) heat pump for space heating and cooling, and an advanced Sage electrochromic glass sunroom windows that darken/lighten via electricity.

The Stella Group's Virginia office building (behind the residence) has 1.5 kW of UniSolar photovoltaic roofing shingles, a 3.6 kW GridPoint smart battery bank, a 0.5 kW small wind turbine by Primus Power, and has a 2 kW ReliOn fuel cell (running on recycled industrial hydrogen in canisters) tied to a dedicated Xantrex inverter. The building has LED lighting, solar daylighting by SunOptics to the bathroom, and a solar-driven Nextek ceiling van.

The awning between the buildings has solar-powered LED lights using the first use of nanotechnology photovoltaics electric-generating dyes.

Research Interest

Publications and Presentations

Professor Sklar routinely authors articles and is called on to present in webinars, and he has authored and coauthored many papers, including two with GWU faculty on community solar. Selected publications and presentations include:

D. H. B. Gai, E. Shittu, D. Attanasio, C. Weigelt, S. LeBlanc, P. Dehghanian and S. Sklar, "Examining community solar programs to understand accessibility and investment: Evidence from the U.S.", Energy Policy 159 (2021) 112600
T. Stanton and S. Sklar, "Utility Tariff On-Bill Financing: Provisions and Precautions for Equitable Programs", Nat'l Regulatory Res. Inst. NRRI January 22 2020 (https://pubs.naruc.org/pub/0E0B2716-947E-B0A8-2899-3DCA0F0C8F16)
S. Sklar, "Resiliency, the Electric Grid & Renewable Energy", Solar Today (pg. 14), April 2018
S. Sklar, "Puerto Rico needs Microgrids and Private Buy-in for Reliable Energy", The Hill October 4 2017
D. Attanasio, J. Forrer, A. Ronen and S. Sklar, "Catalyzing Community Solar: A Handbook for Municipalities", The George Washington University October 2017 (https://www.ourenergypolicy.org/catalyzing-community-solar-a-handbook-for-municipalities/)
S. Sklar TEDx Talk: "The Future of Personal Energy Use: The convergence of personal power with personal security, personal transportation, personal communication and personal networking“
S. Sklar, "Perspective on multi-scale assets for clean energy technologies in buildings”, Environ Syst. Decis. (2014) 34(323–325)
S. Sklar and K. Sheinkopf, "A Consumer Guide to Solar Energy", Taylor Trade Publishing; 3rd edition (August 5, 1998), ISBN. 978-1566251778

Distinctions

On June 19, 2014, Sklar was awarded the prestigious The Charles Greeley Abbot Award by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) and on April 26, 2014 was awarded the Green Patriot Award by George Mason University in Virginia.

Classes Taught

Professor Sklar has taught GEO 2134 Energy Resources for 11 years which is an "interdisciplinary course on sustainable energy". He also teaches two graduate courses within GW Graduate School of Professional Studies:

PSUS 6224: Sustainable Energy Production & Climate Issues, GW Sustainable Urban Planning Master of Professional Studies

PSUS 6235: Renewable Energy & Critical Infrastructure (the first course in the USA on "Renewable Energy & Critical Infrastructure"), GW Sustainable Urban Planning Master of Professional Studies

All Professor Sklar's classes tour his two self-powered buildings near the Clarendon metro stop in Arlington, VA (three metro stops from the GWU DC campus).