Look at that 3D!

BJG has begun the design of two flumes for the Truckee Meadows Water Authority. These flumes are being constructed to replace existing flumes that do not have enough capacity and are not adequate for Reno’s seismic loads. We plan on supporting the wooden box flumes with steel bents at 24′-0″ on center. Water is heavy and the seismic loads are directly proportional to the weight of the structure plus the weight of the water so lateral loads are high. We have a 3D model of the preliminary first flume design built in Revit Structure, see below for the isometric view. We have another model of each steel bent built in Staad, a structural analysis program, with this model we can easily place lateral and vertical loads on the bents and see the resulting stresses in the steel members due to various code prescribed load combinations. Additionally, with Staad we can model the soil structure interaction and get a feeling for the actual movement that will occur when the soil beneath the footings deflects during a seismic event.

This is a great project to work on. We have worked with the Truckee Meadows Water Authority in the past and it has always been a pleasure. The flume is surrounded by a beautiful section of the Truckee River and if everything goes as planned a few of the observational site visits will coincide with a few casts of the fly rod.

Maps!

[geo_mashup_map]

Here are just a few “LEED firsts” that I have found while surfing the internet.  My favorites are “first”.

Favorites

• First LEED Platinum Single Family Residence in Western Puget Sound – Puget Sound, Washington
• First Ever LEED Certified Floating Green Building - Lake Mohave, NV
• World’s First LEED Certified Pizzeria – Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• First LEED Certified Parking Garage – Santa Monica, California
  • Here is more information on the project from the Santa Monica website. And a bonus…Their LEED Scorecard!!
• First Female, LEED Accredited Attorney in North Carolina – Charlotte, North Carolina

Restaruants

• First LEED Platinum Restaurant – Greensboro, North Carolina
• First LEED Certified Restaurant (McDonald’s) – Chicago, Illinois

Commercial Buildings

• Citi’s Frankfurt Data Center Earns First-Ever Leed Platinum Certification – Frankfurt, Germany
  

  The first flight ever from Kittyhawk to Kittyhawk

• Canadian Triple-A Office Building Aims for LEED First – Oakville, Ontario, Canada
• Broadway Launches First Ever LEED-Certified Theater! – New York
• First LEED Platinum Data Center – Sacramento, CA
• First Ever LEED Gold Certified Automobile Manufacturing Facility – Lansing, Michigan
• First LEED Factory – Grand Rapids, Michigan
• First Ritz-Carlton LEED Certified Hotel – Charlotte, North Carolina
• First LEED Platinum Skyscraper – New York, New York
• First (maybe second) LEED Gold Skyscraper – New York, New York
• First Certified Med Spa in the Country – San Francisco, California
• San Francisco’s First and Only LEED Certified Green Hotels – San Francisco, CA
• First Office Building in LA to Receive LEED Gold EB O&M – Los Angeles, California
• Waco Debuts Nation’s First ‘Green’ Chamber Building – Waco, Texas
• Florida’s First LEED-EB Gold Building – Tampa, Florida
• Africa’s First LEED Platinum Structure – Rwanda, Africa
  

Residential

• First LEED Platinum Home in Virginia – Arlington, Virginia
• New York City’s First LEED Platinum Certified Condominiums – New York, New York
• First Platinum LEED-Certified, 100% Solar Powered, Affordable Housing – San Diego, California
• Lansing’s First LEED Home – Lansing, Michigan
• Chattanooga’s first LEED Certified Residential Properties – Chattanooga, Tennessee
• First Gold LEED for homes certification in region – Baltimore, Maryland
• First LEED-for Homes Platinum Home in Arizona – Bellemont, Arizona
• First Student Build LEED-Certified Modular Home – Bel Air, Maryland
• Nation’s First LEED Platinum Affordable Housing – Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts
• First Home in State to Receive LEED Platinum – Washtenaw County, Michigan
• First in LEED for Neighborhood Development Pilot Program – Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• Project First in Nation to Complete Stage 1 Certification, begin Stage 2 of LEED ND – Hawaii
• First LEED Project in Oklahoma – Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Community gets Md.’s first LEED gold rating – Baltimore, Maryland
• Nation’s First Multi-Unit LEED Certified Building – Cambridge, Massachusetts
  

Government

• Chicago’s FBI Building Earns First Platinum LEED-EBOM Certification – Chicago, Illinois
• First City Hall in the Nation to Achieve LEED Gold (pdf) – Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
• Science and Technology Facility is first LEED Platinum Federal Building – Golden, Colorado
• First LEED Silver Pump Station at Clean Water Services Facility – Hillsboro, Oregon

Healthcare

• Dell Children’s First LEED Hospital in World – Austin, Texas
• Florida’s First LEED Silver Certified Healthcare Facility – Port St. John, Florida

Education

• First LEED-Certified Laboratory Renovation – San Francisco, California
• Univ. of Florida First LEED Platinum Stadium with Green Power – Florida
• Chicago’s first LEED-built green school – Chicago, Illinois
• Vermont’s first LEED platinum building – Middlebury, Vermont
  

Religious / Museum

• World’s First LEED Museum Complex – Grand Rapid, Michigan
• World’s First LEED Platinum Religious Center – Chicago, Illinois
  
• First LEED Certified Art Museum in New York- New York, New York

Get some things done

The second chapter, The Execution Difference, opens with more of the story of “Joe”, the loser CEO.  He is characterized as a “typical” leader that does not know how to execute.  I would characterize him more as a typical “Business Specialist” – a person with credentials in sales, marketing, administration but no background in the business at hand. If you follow the story, he also was stuck with or selected poor lieutenants to implement his grand visions for the company, as they had no background in the actual business of the company.  Joe and his team handed down targets and were surprised that the peons below didn’t meet their goals, no matter how much “chewing out” was applied. Of course it didn’t help that they had no understanding of the actual operation of their company. I think the most appalling point about this story is that the authors think that this type of leader is “typical” and did all the right things from a management point of view.  If  Joe was a “good manager”, what does that say about management?

The next parable of CEO incompetence is Richard Thoman, then CEO of Xerox, starting in April of 1999 after starting as president in 1997. This guy was completely insane to create the twin goals of completely restructuring administration and sales in the company at the same time. He alienated the customers and the employees. He was fired in May 2000. Alas, don’t fret for poor Mr. Thoman, according to Xerox’s 10-K, he still gets $800,000 per year after screwing up the company for only three years. I want to be so incompetent.

The next candidate for loser CEO is Richard McGinn, CEO of Lucent Technologies from 1996 until October 2000.  His problems are characterized as a failure to execute. However, it appears to be more of the same – a marketing guy trying to run a high-tech research and development company (Western Electric and Bell Labs spun off from (the old) AT&T). Cluelessness about the company led to bad decisions and things went bad… yadda, yadda, yadda. I discovered that Mr. McGinn also used $45 million in company funds to build a golf course near its headquarters. Apparently, this did get executed. Shortly after Mr. McGinn was shown the door, Lucent had to restate its earnings lower by $700 million; it appears that, in order to show progress on Mr. McGinn’s audacious sales goals, some people booked sales that weren’t.  Fear not for Mr. McGinn, he pocketed a cool $12.5 million in severance for screwing up the company for four years. Once again, I want to be this incompetent.

For the success parable, the authors discuss Mr. Dick Brown of EDS.

Dick Brown was brought in as CEO for EDS in 1999 after a stint at Cable & Wireless where he “turned the company around”. Prior to C&W he was CEO of Compuserve. Investigation reveals that Mr. Brown took C&W on a buying spree and made something like 60 deals in his short tenure there (1997-1999) He did focus the company on emerging communications technology and was able to impress business reporters. He left unexpectedly and quickly in 1999 for EDS.

There are far too many examples of Mr. Browns execution prowess for me to list here. He streamlined, re-focused, and “infused the company with and energy and focus it hadn’t experienced in years.” Online I found another fawning review of Mr. Brown’s leadership in a Fast Company archive article from 2001.  Based on our book and the Fast Company article, I’m quite sure that Mr. Brown was God’s gift to management execution. Our book was published in 2002. Mr. Brown was fired from EDS in 2003 after months of bad news concerning “innovative” leasing arrangements for hundreds of millions of dollars. It was interesting to note that Mr. Brown was the force behind the Super Bowl “herding cats” commercial (one of my personal favorites – I remember the commercial but until I looked this up I couldn’t tell you what company it was for – so much for brand association) The Fast Company article revealed the Jeff Heller, then the Vice Chairman of the Board hated the “cats” commercial. He was made COO at EDS after Mr. Brown’s departure. Again, do not cry for Mr. Brown. In addition to having his retirement vested and stock options on 344,000 shares granted, he was also given $12.4 million in severance pay. Just like the non-execution guys. In this case, I want to be as competent and then screw up just like Mr. Brown.

These parables of corporate CEO incompetence and execution brilliance are used as a tales of how important it is to “execute”.  The authors extend the ordinary definition of the word into a business … (wait for it)… paradigm which incorporates the following concepts:

1. Business goals should be set cooperatively between upper management (the strategery guys) and the managers and personnel in charge of implementing them. This avoids unrealistic goals and increases personnel buy-in. The whole team has to answer the following questions:
   • What is the goal?
   • Why is it important?
   • How can we make it happen?
   • When can we make it happen?
   • What tools/personnel/procedures do we need to make it happen?
2. Each goal should have milestones and have dependencies clearly elaborated. Each step (again) should be set within a frank discussion between management and personnel about the issues to make the step and who is responsible.
3. As milestones are approached, they should be evaluated and the goal re-evaluated to see if other issues need to be addressed to keep on target or re-evaluated completely.
4. A reward system must be in place to reward performance toward the milestones and tasks. This includes support performance by others internal to the organization (for example across business units so that internal competition doesn’t hurt the company’s goals.)
5. Managers need to be proactive in helping or replacing individuals that cannot meet milestones or goals.

It is easy (especially for me) to be cynical about this book, knowing in hindsight that one of their proudest success stories (the others, if you read ahead, is Jack Welsh of GE and Larry Bossidy of Allied Signal and then Honeywell) turned out a lot like their failure stories. We don’t know who Joe is or what company he worked for but, based on my research, it might be Inprise/Borland – the CEO and CFO resigned suddenly at the same time in 1999 amid problems that sounded a lot like Joe’s.  Cynical or not, the execution ideas, which I have reduced to the five “core” bullet points above, are really valuable. Much of the praise for Mr. Brown’s work is really commonsense streamlining of operations and allocation of resources. Mr. Brown tried to refocus the company on its customers rather than his division’s desires. He tried to break down internal barriers that were inhibiting business. Unfortunately he also made some bad financial decisions that placed EDS in a financial bind. So, execution or not, bad decisions make a mess of a company.

The other lesson I took form this chapter is that CEO’s get rewarded regardless of performance – in fact, when you think about it, the best thing to do for personal gain as a CEO is to screw up quickly and get a big severance – then you’re rich and you have all the time in the world. I’m sure this was not an intended lesson.

Postscript: Were are they now?

Lucent merged/was bought by Alcatel, the French telecom. The combined firm still struggles.

Xerox is on a roll after years of struggling with debt and bad decisions in diversification (Thanks, Mr. Thoman). The current CEO, Anne Mulcahy, is the recent the subject of an interview in Costco Connection. She comes from 16 years in sales and then a stint as VP of Human Resources, similar to the group above. However, she’s been doing the job since 2000 and is still employed. Perhaps we can get her take on execution – it might be more useful. I recommend that you read the interview.

EDS is now a part of HP. They never did get it all together.

I did not find that any of the CEO’s mentioned were working anywhere. Of course, if you got that kind of lump sum and payments, would you look for a new job? But, hey, I’m a cynic.

Maps!

I am a member of CoreNet Global, specifically the Northern California Chapter.  It is the world’s leading professional association for corporate real estate (CRE) and workplace executives.  I like Corenet because their membership consists of high level CRE people and companies as well as Service Providers like architects and other consultants.  The Northern California Chapter is one of the largest chapters in the world.

CoreNet is really good about sending out real estate reports and market indicator reports to their members on a regular basis.  These reports are sometimes available other places on the web and sometimes not, but either way, they do a great job of aggregating important information on the real estate market and distributing that to their members.

With the latest data deluge, I decided to play around with mapping some of the data using a website called GeoCommons.  GeoCput ommons make it easy to put data onto a map.  For instance, Colliers International releases reports on office vacancy every quarter.  They include a table of data for 50 or markets showing various metrics such as vacancy rates, square footage under construction, etc.  I took this table of data and put it into GeoCommons.  I had to fumble around with pdf (I found a way to copy tabular data out of a pdf), Excel and another website called batchgeocode.com (I used this to take the cities provided in the report and obtain a lat/long value for each, since GeoCommons requires a lat and long).

The final result is below.  Pretty cool, eh?  I only put one layer of data in this map.  I could have added any of the metrics found in the report, but it got messy quick with lots of transparent bubbles and such.  You can still see those other metrics when you click on the cities.

An Inconvenient Truth

A couple of months ago, we asked the USGBC for a bunch of data related to LEED projects.  Ask and thou shalt recieve, er something like that.  We received a giant, green boat load of data, stretching back all the way to 2000 and covering all LEED Rating Systems up through the end of 2008.

By any measure, the explosion of LEED and the USGBC’s popularity has been unprecedented in the AEC industry.  Let’s dive into that data a little bit, figure out where the growth will be in the coming years and see what has made LEED so popular.

LEED Rating Systems

To give some background, LEED has numerous rating systems that each apply to a different building or project type.  To date, the most popular has been the New Construction (NC) Rating System.  Since LEED NC is the oldest rating system, this would make sense.   LEED NC currently accounts for 58% of all certified or registered projects.  Coming in at a distant second are Core and Shell (CS) and Existing Building (EB) with 12% each.  Commercial Interiors rounds out the top 3 spots with 11%.  The other rating systems (also the newest ones) are in at 3% or less, but as we will see later, they are gaining ground.  Click here for a live Google chart where you can explore the data a bit more.

Registered and Certified Projects

Registered is one thing, but Certified is another.  Certified means you have a plaque on the wall, you have been through the whole process, peer reviewed, etc.  The graphs below show that while registered projects are up, and I mean way up, certified projects are slow to move along.  This criticism is nothing new, as this article from 2005 points out.  I don’t have data on whether any of the registered projects were out right rejected, but to date, the average LEED Certified NC project takes 1,015 days, from the date of registration to the date of certification.  That is 2.75 years.

YOY Growth for EB and NC

The other interesting thing I found is the growth of year over year growth of NC vs EB.  EB is the fastest growing rating system.  This coincides with what we have been hearing from numerous sources:  existing buildings will become the hot item over the next couple of years due to the current vacancy rates.  Many developers do not want to build new, when the costs are relatively high to build, rather than purchase existing.  (Cushman Wakefield report, CBRE Report, JLL Report)

A Convenient Ad Campaign

I noticed something interesting when I plotted all of this data.  There is a spike in the trends after 2006.  I believe that while green building and sustainable design would have continued on its slow course to the mainstream, it was Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” (wikipedia link) that set the trend ablaze with the general public.

An Inconvenient Truth came out mid 2006.  It broke all kinds of box office records for documentaries, won an Academy Award, was well received at numerous influential film festivals and the companion book became a New York Times best seller.  Al Gore is now a Nobel Peace Prize laureate due in large part because of his work with the climate.

I have often thought that the only thing that engineers would need to get the recognition they are seeking is to have a dramatic television series written about our daily lives in the office

Anyway, that is exactly what the green movement and the USGBC got with An Inconvenient Truth.  It was a jump start to the tune of a multi million dollar global ad campaign that went more mainstream than the green building movement could have ever hoped for or probably have done on its own.  Gone are the days of design professionals having to trying to convince owners to pursue sustainable solutions.  Owners are asking for it.  All thanks to Al Gore.

The coveted orange hood

While I was in college, I was involved with the UNR ASCE/AGC student chapter (on a side note, here are some pictures from a 2004 Regional Conference I helped  organize).  At every national or regional ASCE event I attended, there was always a lot of discussion on ASCE Policy Statement 465, Academic Prerequisites for Licensure and Professional Practice.  In this post, I will explain what PS465 means, give some history, and give my opinion on how ASCE has changed their position on the issue of education and compensation.

What is Policy 465?

ASCE currently defines Policy 465 as:

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) supports the attainment of a Body of Knowledge (BOK) for entry into the practice of civil engineering at the professional level. This would be accomplished through the adoption of appropriate engineering education and experience requirements as a prerequisite for licensure.

Body of Knowledge is a little ambiguous, so ASCE defines it as the necessary depth and breadth of knowledge, skills, and attitudes required of an individual entering the practice of civil engineering at the professional level in the 21st century.

What all this says is that (taken from the Policy 465 Key Points): It is evident that the exploding body of science and engineering knowledge cannot be accommodated within the context of the traditional four year baccalaureate degree.

What I have gathered from reading the ASCE documents on the subject, ASCE is unsatisfied with the current level of education of civil engineers; they want to raise the bar for civil engineers, which will in turn raise the public’s perception of our profession!  They would prefer to see a model similar to that of lawyers and doctors, where a broader education is taught in series (i.e. 4 year undergrad more breadth, followed by 2-3 years specialization) in lieu of the current parallel education (all sorts of stuff crammed into 4 years).

More information can be found at ASCE’s 465 site http://www.asce.org/raisethebar.

The History of Policy Statement 465

1998 – ASCE adopts PS465 which states “The ASCE supports the concept of the master’s degree as the first professional degree (FPD) for the practice of civil engineering at the professional level.”

2001 – ASCE adopts revised PS465 which states “ASCE supports the concept of the master’s degree or equivalent (MOE) as a prerequisite for licensure and the practice of civil engineering at the professional level.”

2001 – Business Case for the Master’s Degree: The Financial Side of the Equation.  This was a paper published in Civil Engineering Education Issues by Professor Jeffery Russell at the University of Wisconsin.  The entire paper was on compensation of civil engineers and comparing that compensation to other professions.  One of the original drafts of PS465 (page 14) cited this paper as the foundation for future drafts.

2002 – Another great paper by Professor Russell expanding on the Master’s Degree case.  He sells the case better than ASCE sells the case.  Read this paper.

2004 – ASCE revises PS465 to be more consistent with the first Body of Knowledge document. read “The ASCE supports the attainment of a body of knowledge for entry into the practice of civil engineering at the professional level. This would be accomplished through the adoption of appropriate engineering education and experience requirements as a prerequisite for licensure.”

2007 – ASCE revises the definition of Body of Knowledge (reffered to as BOK2) to be more consistent with the The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025.

2009 – ASCE releases latest version of 2025 Vision.

Opinion

In the current Body of Knowledge Document, ASCE states that “The ASCE Board of Direction has been consistent in its 1998 initial adoption and subsequent 2001, 2004, and 2007 refinements of the policy.  ASCE leadership strongly supports reform of civil engineering education and prelicensure experience.”

I disagree with this statement.   ASCE changed their position on two fundamental issues.

Compensation

ASCE backtracked on citing compensation as one of the major drivers for requiring additional education.  In the earlier drafts of the policy statement and the explanation, compensation was cited multiple times as one of the reasons for requiring more education.  There is not one mention of a compensation driver in the current Policy Statement, the FAQ’s or key points.  For an issue that seemed to be a fundamental part of the original argument, it strikes me as odd that there is no longer any mention of it.

Master’s or no Master’s?

ASCE backtracked on the issue of a master’s degree.  The 1998 Policy Statement recommended a master’s degree, with no other option.  This has gradually been decreased from a master’s, to a master’s or master’s equivalent to fulfilling a rubric of education/distance learning/experience requirements outlined in the BOK.  Per the BOK

The premise of PS 465 gradually shifted from a degree basis (for example, “the master’s as the first professional degree”) through the “master’s degree or equivalent” approach, finally settling on a BOK foundation. This provides flexibility for engineers who cannot or do not wish to pursue a master’s degree through traditional means.

I would love to see a 5 or 6 year program made mandatory for licensure, with more specialized licenses.  The extended education would broaden as well as add more depth to the education of an engineer and as Professor Russell cited, would only make better engineers.  I believe this was the intent of the original PS465.  It should have remained that way.

In Closing

One interesting quote from one of the first Policy Statements (page 30) was

The veterinarian who neuters your dog must have twice the formal education as the civil engineer who designs your community water supply system.

Advertising

This statement is inflammatory.  We should not devalue other professions in order to prove how valuable we are.  To ASCE’s credit, these kind of remarks are not found in the latest set of documents. If ASCE wants the public to value our services as much as the public values a veterinarian’s (or doctor’s or lawyer’s) ASCE should have remained strong on their initial Policy Statement of expanding education and not backtrack to accepting distance learning programs.  I doubt many veterinarians (or lawyers or doctors) take distance learning courses on how to neuter dogs.  I certainly wouldn’t want my brain surgeon to have taken online courses in surgery via Norwich University, which  conveniently enough advertises on the ASCE website.

Physics Based Games

Physics games set up an initial scenario and you have to use the laws of gravity, masses of objects, springs, etc. to reach some goal like putting a ball in a basket or putting shape into a certain spot.  I think what I like about the physics based games is the multiple steps to get to the final solution, as well as the trial and error involved.  I love trying things out, seeing that they don’t work and retrying over and over again.  Each time I get something wrong, I learn something new.

Some of my favorites include:

Assembler Series

Assembler

Over at physicsgames.net, they have loads of physics games.  Assembler 3 is addicting.  You move objects around by clicking and dragging them.  The neat thing about it, is that it knows the center of gravity of each item.  So for instance if you click and raise the corner of a box, it will “hang” by that corner and swing back and forth.  If you run that box into a smaller box, the small box will move around quite a bit.  The goal is to get the green circle into the designated area.  It sounds easy and up to about level 10 or so it is.

Civiballs

Civiballs

Civiballs involves little bowling type balls on chains.  You cut the chains to allow the ball to drop.  Once the ball drops it interacts with other objects to, with the ultimate goals of getting the balls inside the baskets.  You have to match the color of the balls with the color of the baskets.  Some of the levels get pretty complex with mutliple layers of interaction required in order to get the balls in the right baskets.

Word Puzzles

Come to find out I really enjoy word puzzle games.  I haven’t played that many, but the ones I have played I quite enjoy.  I found one in the back of the Southwest Airlines magazine (Spirit) on my last flight entitled Mix and Match.  I was thrilled that I completed the entire game before we got to the magic 10,000 foot elevation.  The game was essentially a crossword puzzle, except the clues were a little more obtuse.  You are given three words.  Two of the words describe the final answer and the third word is an anagram for the answer.  The answer is then placed around a the number corresponding to the clue, but you have to choose whether it is clockwise or counter-clockwise.  It sounds complicate, but once you get two or three it turns out to be a lot of fun.

Logic Puzzles

Puzzles!

I played logic puzzles all the time as a kid, and I am seeking them out now as an adult.  The logic puzzles I enjoyed the most are the ones where you are given a set of rules or statements and you have to infer through the process of elimination and powers of deduction, what the other choices are.  Puzzlersparadise.com has some interactive web based versions of the pencil and paper puzzles I loved as a kid.

Other panelists include:

• Scott Arfsten, Regional BIM Manager, Turner Construction Company
• Digby Christian, Senior Proejct Manager, Sutter Health Support Services
• Hans Lapping, Transactional Shareholder, Miller Starr Regalia

You can view the flyer here:  Innovation & Technology: Building Information Modeling (BIM)

The lunch will run from 11:30am – 1:30pm at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant in Walnut Creek (map).  Register Online by May 18.

Energy legs

We recently investigated adding solar power to one of our projects; a small retail building in California.  I learned quite a bit and I thought I would share some of the  information I learned.

Parapets

Many jurisdictions require screening for rooftop mechanical units.  A common way to screen mechanical units is to add parapets around the entire perimiter of the building.  Tall parapets will limit the area of roof that will be fully exposed during the day and therefore limit the amount of viable roof area used for solar power generation.   The parapets will shade the roof equal to 2 times the parapet hieght.  For instance, if your parapet is 3 feet, it will shade 6 feet of roof.  See the figure below for more information.

Usable Area and Energy Production

Net effective roof areas

A rule of thumb for the usable square footage (after you take into account parapets and other obstructions), would be to take 60% of the available area.  This reduction accounts for spacing of panels, mechanical ducts, walking areas, chords and other obstructions.

For the solar panel manufacturer we were talking with, thier product would produce 1kW of energy per 100sf.  This is the magic number that the solar industry wants to raise; if one manufacturer can produce more energy per sqaure foot for the same price, they have an advantage over their competitors. 

kW and kWh

Full solar production is during 10am and 4 pm (geographic assumptions include northern hemisphere, west coast, etc.).  On average, there will be 3 hours of full exposure in the winter and 7.5 hours in the summer in which the solar panels will be effective.  Averaged out over one year, that is 5.2 hours per day of available production. 

For instance, if your net effective roof area was 1000 sf, and you happened to building in the same region as our building, you would be able to produce 1000sf*1kW/100sf*5.2 hours/day = 52 kWh of energy. 

This brings up another topic, what is power and what is energy.  This website summed it up best (for me anyways):

Power may be measured at any point in time, whereas energy has to be measured during a certain period.

Disclaimer

This information is very specifc to the one job we worked on, in the one area and the production numbers was one specific product.  The technology is changing so fast, that these costs, available production, etc. might be completely out of date in a couple of months.  However, the tips presented above will stay the same.  Watch out for screening, your entire roof area will not be effective in generating power, solar panels will only produce power for a limited amount of time each day, and it will vary throughout the year. 

For more information, here is a good treehugger.com article on how solar works.