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Archive for April, 2010

Home solar panels doubled electric output last year

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Homes generated twice as much power from rooftop solar panels last year than in 2008, says a new report by the solar power industry.

These photovoltaic (PV) systems were buoyed by expanded federal tax credits and falling PV prices, causing them to produce 156 megawatts of electricity in 2009, up from 78 megawatts a year earlier, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

“Despite the Great Recession of 2009, the U.S. solar industry had a winning year and posted strong growth numbers,” Rhone Resch, the group’s president and CEO, said in the announcement. “We expect 2010 to be a breakout year for the U.S. solar industry.”

Last year, the U.S. government lifted its $2,000 tax credit cap on residential solar panels (also on windmills and geothermal heat pumps), allowing homeowners to deduct 30% of their total costs. Also, the report says, the price of PV modules has fallen more than 40% from mid-2008.

Still, solar energy continues to provide only a tiny amount of U.S. electricity — less than 1% of the total.

Solar Power In Ontario Could Produce Almost As Much Power As All U.S. Nuclear Reactors, Studies Find

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

Solar power in southeastern Ontario has the potential to produce almost the same amount of power as all the nuclear reactors in the United States, according to two studies conducted by the Queen’s University Applied Sustainability Research Group located in Kingston, Canada.

One study, accepted for publication in the journal Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, discovered that if choice roof tops in southeastern Ontario were covered with solar panels, they could produce five gigawatts, or about five per cent of all of Ontario’s energy. The study took into account roof orientation and shading.

“To put this in perspective, all the coal plants in all of Ontario produce just over six gigawatts. The sun doesn’t always shine, so if you couple solar power with other renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro and biomass, southeastern Ontario could easily cover its own energy needs,” Professor Pearce says.

A second study, published in May issue of the journal Solar Energy, looked at land in southeastern Ontario that could be used for solar farms. The study considered land with little economic value — barren, rocky, non-farmable areas near electrical grids — and concluded it has the potential to produce 90 gigawatts.

“Nuclear power for all of the United States is about 100 gigawatts. We can produce 90 on barren land with just solar in this tiny region, so we are not talking about small potatoes,” Professor Pearce says.

New Models for Rooftop Solar Power

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Southern California Edison has launched one of the most ambitious solar initiatives yet. It involves using the roofs of commercial buildings to develop renewable energy resources. Building owners get paid to host the solar arrays on their rooftops, and the utility takes all the risk.

Misery makes strange bedfellows. And so can a renewable portfolio standard. With about half of states now giving their utilities deadlines to get a certain percentage of their energy from renewables, utilities have been forging new relationships with real estate owners and the solar industry.

Utilities across the country are announcing plans to develop tens or hundreds of megawatts of solar generating capacity in partnership with building owners. It has the markings of a national trend that could be very good for the solar industry — and for companies with certain kinds of commercial real estate.

When you see solar modules on the roof of a building, they might not actually belong to the building’s owner. Two common ownership scenarios have been around for several years: Buying and installing a solar power array means taking the financial incentives and risks, along with the power, with a fixed up-front outlay. There’s no incremental cost for the power.

When a third party owns the array, they own the power, and sell it to the occupants. There’s no up-front cost to the building owner, just a monthly power bill. The rate per kilowatt-hour is negotiated for the life of the agreement, so it acts as a hedge against fluctuations in utility tariffs.

Lately, utilities have been pursuing more solar power projects, and devising new ownership models, to meet renewable energy requirements in their states. In one model, the utility signs a lease for the roof of a building and installs a solar array on it. The utility keeps the power to serve local customers.

Programs like SCE’s utility-owned rooftop solar could create the revenue certainty landlords need, to develop solar into new buildings — especially where net-metering rates are low or the electric load in the building is small.

But for now there are enough flat roofs, and willing owners. SCE calls it “harvesting a scarce commodity,” referring to the unused rooftop real estate in southern California, an area with an abundance of warehouses.

To be selected, a building has to have a large roof — 250 thousand square feet or more. And it has to be in Southern California Edison’s territory — for now. PG&E, in northern California, is expected to launch a similar program soon.

Exactly how this model will expand is uncertain. It’s not just implemented state by state, but utility by utility. Regions to watch are Northern Carolina, where Duke Energy has proposed an 8 megawatt program, and New Jersey, where PSE&G wants to install 120 megawatts. Utilities in Colorado, Arizona and Texas are also lining up to install distributed solar resources, using this new ownership model.

Schools continuing to embrace solar energy

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Homeowners aren’t the only ones saving considerable amounts of money on their electric bills with help from solar energy. Taxpayers in many parts of the country are seeing the benefits as well, with a growing number of schools and other institutions saving money by installing photovoltaic panels.

One of the latest examples comes from Amesbury, Massachusetts. A report in the Newburyport Daily News notes that the town’s high school is set to receive a $150,000 energy efficiency and block grant that will be used to install photovoltaic panels.

The newspaper added that the system is expected to generate 35 kilowatts of electricity and that the array will be installed on the school’s cafeteria.

Many other schools around the country have invested in their own solar panels to save money and help improve the environment. When educational institutions go solar, they have the added benefit of providing a new learning tool for students who can get a firsthand look at clean energy generation.

Elsewhere, a number of businesses have also chosen to take advantage of state and federal tax incentives by investing in money-saving solar energy technology.

Posted in Commercial Solar PV, Solar Rebates and Incentives | No Comments »

Solar power incentives help support businesses who want renewable energy

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

READINGTON — Several solar projects are rising at Central Jersey businesses as state and federal incentive programs help cover their costs.

The projects are a way for businesses to cut energy costs, said Jim Lacanna, business management developer for Global NES, a North Brunswick-based solar energy consulting company. That could mean more jobs in New Jersey — for those working at the cost-saving companies and those installing solar panels, as well as a cleaner environment as companies use their own energy instead of relying on fossil fuels.

New Jersey has more solar panels per square mile than any other U.S. state, Board of Public Utilities Commissioner Joe Fiordaliso said. Now, with subsidies such as rebates and credits, solar energy is becoming a possibility for more business owners, large and small. Renewable energy sources such as solar panels will help pave the way to a better environment, he said.

Solar panels, which tend to have a high set-up cost, might make more sense for businesses, which typically use more power than residences, said Michael Kerwin, president of the Somerset County Business Partnership. The payoff for solar panels on businesses may be a few years versus more than a decade for some households.

“You cannot do a solar project without some kind of subsidy. The trick is how to get there?” Kerwin said. “At the end of the day, you have to go through the analysis and ask yourself, “Does this make economic sense?’ ”

Readington River Buffalo Farm, off (Hunterdon) County Route 523, recently secured several solar panels to the side of a barn that protects John Deere tractors and other equipment. Now the farm has the power to harvest the sun, which will provide 100 percent of the farm’s energy.

“We are trying reduce our footprint and only leave a finger print,” Scarlett Doyle said about producing the farm’s 40,000 kilowatt hours of energy from the sun.

Readington River Buffalo Farm’s project cost approximately $275,000, said Jerry Doyle, who owns the 300-acre preserved farm with his wife, Scarlett and son Eric. In addition to the credits and rebates, the Doyles are applying the $600 they had been spending monthly on electric costs to repay the loan for the system, Jerry Doyle said. But once the loan is paid off — in five years — the price of the sun – unlike oil and gas – will be free.