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Here's the text of the entire article (quick before it disappears). Jon ================================================================== Welcome to Solar Central New York Where the Meters Run Backward Sunday, March 16, 2008 By Tim Knauss Staff writer Since Arden Zipp and his wife, Kathy Vernay, moved into their new house last August, their electric meter has never risen above zero. Unlike most meters, theirs runs in both directions. If the solar panels on their roof make more power than Zipp and Vernay can use, the meter runs backward. Thus far, National Grid owes them for electricity, not the other way around. "We just sit here and smile at this point," Zipp said. When Zipp and Vernay had their house built last year in Tully, they spent about $30,000, after incentives, to install 600 square feet of electricity-producing solar panels, or photovoltaics, on the south side of their roof. The couple are among more than 1,800 families across New York state who take advantage of state incentives to generate some or all of their power with photovoltaics. Most of those solar panels were added during the past two years. Of the 239 homes with photovoltaics in National Grid’s territory, for example, two-thirds were installed during 2006 and 2007, the utility reports. New York ranks fifth in the nation for solar power. Unlike in other leading states, New York residential customers account for most of the solar power, thanks to subsidies the state makes available to them but not to large commercial projects. For residential and small commercial customers of most major utilities, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority pays close to half of the cost of installing photovoltaics. In addition, state utility regulations allow such customers to use special "net meters," which run forward and backward, so they can accumulate credit on their utility bills for every kilowatt-hour they produce. That way, they don’t have to wait for a sunny day to run the washing machine. If they use more power than they produce, they simply pay for it at the standard utility rate. The incentives amount to thousands of dollars for each customer, but solar pioneers don’t get rich from their investments. Most can only hope to break even. The 7.1-kilowatt system Zipp and Vernay installed, for example, cost $61,600 before subsidies. That’s very close to the statewide average cost of $8.60 per watt of power installed. After a $28,288 payment from NYSERDA, plus state and federal tax credits, Zipp figures his final cost at about $30,000. Even at that price, it could take 20 years or more to make the money back from utility savings, depending on what happens to the price of electricity. As it turns out, Zipp and Vernay bought a bigger system than they needed, not anticipating how little electricity they would use in the energy-efficient house they built. But even smaller photovoltaic systems -- the average size produces 4.5 kilowatts -- often take at least 15 years to break even, contractors say. "If you’re looking for payback, this is not the thing to invest in," said Francine Notte, vice president of ETM Solar Works, the Endicott company that installed the photovoltaics for Zipp and Vernay. Most people install solar power to save the planet, Notte said, not to save money. Zipp retired last year after teaching chemistry for 41 years at the State University College at Cortland. Vernay, a former high school science teacher, works as a physician assistant and owns a Curves fitness center. They said they were drawn to solar power because it uses a free, infinitely renewable energy source -- sunlight -- and because it emits nothing that would increase global warming or otherwise harm the environment. "The important thing to me was not to be using fossil fuels," Vernay said. "I’ve been waiting to do this all my life." Solar follows the subsidies Photovoltaic cells convert sunlight directly into electricity. They contain silicon-based semiconductor materials similar to those used in computer chips. When sunlight strikes the silicon crystals, the solar energy knocks electrons loose, causing electricity to flow through the material. The more sunlight, the better, but you don’t have to be in Death Valley to make good use of photovoltaics. A solar panel in Syracuse will generate about three-quarters as much power as the same panel in San Diego, according to estimates from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Zipp and Vernay get all the power they need from their system -- and then some. They’ve accumulated a surplus of about 2,600 kilowatt-hours. They could have built a smaller system. Based on their previous residence, a big rambling farmhouse, they installed enough panels to generate an average of about 675 kilowatt-hours a month. But in their new house, with its super-insulated walls and passive-solar lighting, they use only about 470 KWH a month. They can bank the surplus against future use, but Zipp said he doesn’t see how they could ever use it all. So they’re looking at alternatives, such as buying a plug-in hybrid car they could recharge at night. Another option would be to use some of their modules to charge batteries to provide power in case of a system outage. They also could sell the surplus to National Grid, but the utility’s cash payment would only match the wholesale price of power, about 7 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with a retail price of about 16 cents. "We could sell to the neighbors," quipped Vernay. You might expect to find the most solar power in regions with the most sun -- scorched areas like the desert Southwest. In fact, the world’s greatest concentration of solar power is in Germany, where the sun shines less than it does in Central New York. Because it is still expensive, solar goes where the subsidies are. Germany has more than five times the solar capacity of the United States and is adding it fast, despite having sunlight on par with Alaska, said Monique Hanis, of the Solar Energy Industries Association in Washington, D.C. Last year alone, Germans installed 1,200 megawatts of solar power, 60 percent more than all the solar power ever installed in the United States, which adds up to 750 megawatts, Hanis said. (Those figures include both grid-connected photovoltaic systems and utility solar-thermal electric plants; the latter are large facilities typically located only in the desert Southwest.) Solar companies have responded to the German demand by setting up shop in Germany and investing billions in production facilities. At lease one out of every four photovoltaic modules is manufactured there, according to Loy Energy Consulting, of Berlin, Germany. Demand in Germany has been spurred by a generous "feed-in tariff." Adopted in 2000, it allows Germans with photovoltaics to sell electricity to the grid for 20 years at up to 57.4 eurocents per kilowatt-hour (about 88 cents U.S.), three to four times the retail rate they would pay on their electric bill. The tariff is paid for by a surcharge on German electric bills, typically one-half eurocent per kilowatt-hour. Besides subsidies, demographics help determine where you’ll find solar power. Photovoltaic systems (PV systems for short) tend to be popular in college towns where higher education and environmental awareness go hand in hand -- in other words, Ithaca. Ithaca shines as solar central Ithaca is the solar power capital of the state, with 55 grid-connected photovoltaic systems. Including nearby villages such as Freeville and Trumansburg, Tompkins County boasts 78 grid-connected systems, with a maximum output of 349 kilowatts. That means approximately one out of every 250 owner-occupied homes in Tompkins County has a PV system. In more populous Oswego County, by comparison, there are three PV systems, a rate of less than 1 per 10,000 owner-occupied homes. Customers in many parts of the state must hire out-of-town contractors to install PV systems. Zipp and Vernay hired an Endicott firm. But Ithacans have at least four companies to choose from within their city. Art Weaver, who holds M.D. and Ph.D. degrees, founded one of them. Weaver worked as a staff scientist at Cornell University until five years ago, when he left to start Renovus Energy. The 10-person company installs about one solar project a week, three-quarters of which are within 50 miles of Ithaca, Weaver said. Weaver said he took a risk to change careers and start a business out of a belief that the world’s energy and environmental problems were spiraling out of control. "I’m supposed to be making a contribution to our world, and making it a better place," Weaver said. "I just decided that I had to do something." New York ranks fifth for solar power behind California, New Jersey, Nevada and Arizona, said Larry Sherwood, a consultant for the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. California leaves other states in the dust with 325 megawatts of photovoltaics, more than 20 times what New York has. The difference stems mainly from the limitation on subsidies in New York, Sherwood said. The other leading states typically subsidize PV systems up to 2 megawatts in size, but New York provides incentives only up to 50 kilowatts for non-residential systems, 40 times smaller. The proposed 3.2-megawatt solar project proposed at Destiny USA, for example, would not qualify for a subsidy under NYSERDA’s program. NYSERDA’s residential incentives are limited to systems no larger than 10 kilowatts. The authority pays for the subsidies out of money collected from a Renewable Portfolio Standard surcharge on utility bills. On your National Grid bill, it’s part of the charge listed as SBC/RPS. The RPS portion amounts to 0.0623 cents per kilowatt-hour, or about 40 cents per month for a typical customer. NYSERDA uses the money collected under this charge to support the state mandate that 25 percent of our electricity should come from renewable sources by 2013. Among other projects, it provides solar incentives. Clean, renewable, reliable A state Renewable Energy Task Force convened last June by Lt. Gov. David Paterson recently recommended increasing the amount collected from ratepayers and extending solar subsidies to projects as large as 2 megawatts. The task force said New York should increase its solar capacity seven-fold in the next three years -- from 15 megawatts to 100 megawatts. Solar power is relatively expensive, but that could change as the costs of other energy sources rise, said New York Power Authority project manager Guy Sliker, who has overseen more than two dozen solar installations at NYPA facilities and those of other public agencies. And solar’s many virtues demand attention, he said. Not only is it a clean and renewable form of energy, but it also produces power where and when it’s most needed, Sliker said. On a blazing summer afternoon, for example, photovoltaic systems are generating power. That reduces peak demand on the electric grid, which not only lowers prices but helps prevent strain on the system that can cause power failures. Compared with other power sources -- from nuclear plants to wind turbines -- solar panels are easy to install close to homes and businesses. That reduces the amount of power that must travel over transmission and distribution lines, which lose some of the power they carry. And with no moving parts, solar panels are very reliable, he said. Solar remains a negligible source of electricity for now -- less than 1 percent of the state total, according to the Public Service Commission. But that may change, Sliker said. "The price of energy is going through the roof," he said. "With that will come a much harder look at these kinds of technology. And one of the advantages that solar has is its simplicity of use and its simplicity of installation." You can contact Staff Writer Tim Knauss at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 470-3023. Read his blog at http://blog.syracuse.com/greenfinder/ ================================================================== Yes, the sun shines in Syracuse Full midday sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface carries the equivalent of about 1,000 watts of electrical power per square meter. That means that in one hour, one square meter of surface area receives 1,000 watt-hours of energy, or 1 kilowatt-hour, enough to power ten 100-watt lightbulbs for an hour. One year of perfect sunlight would produce 8,760 kilowatt-hours per square meter. But sunlight varies with the weather and time of day. To estimate solar energy (or "insolation") at a specific location, scientists use weather data to calculate the average kilowatt-hours per square meter per year. Syracuse receives an average of 1,533 kilowatt-hours per square meter per year. That’s equivalent to the sun shining full-strength 17.5 percent of the time, or 4.2 hours per day, on average. Germany, the world’s leader in solar electric power, sees less sun than Central New York. Average insolation in Germany ranges from 900 kilowatt-hours per year in the north to 1,300 in the south. Here’s how Syracuse’s sunlight stacks up against other U.S. locations: 81 percent of Miami. 65 percent of Phoenix. 74 percent of San Diego. Sources: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Solar Energy Industries Association What’s a kilowatt? Electrical power is measured in watts. A 100-watt lightbulb uses 100 watts of electricity. A kilowatt is 1,000 watts. A megawatt is 1 million watts. In theory, a 7-kilowatt photovoltaic system produces a maximum of 7 kilowatts of power, or 7,000 watts, enough to light 70 100-watt lightbulbs. (Actually, the systems are about 75 percent efficient, so the maximum output would be more like 5,250 watts.) Use of electrical energy is measured over time. A 100-watt lightbulb running for one hour uses 100 watt-hours, or one-tenth of a kilowatt-hour. The average Upstate household uses 640 kilowatt-hours per month. © 2008 The Post-Standard. Used with permission. Copyright 2008 syracuse.com. All Rights Reserved. _______________________________________________ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
