Renewable Energy Credits Questions

sub3marathonman
sub3marathonman Solar Expert Posts: 300 ✭✭✭
in General Solar Power Topics #1
I read in a posting by 671crackerbox, "but total so far is 12.71MW Sold 11 SREC's for $7200.No happy faces for Elec.Co here." That would be about $650/SREC. That system is in New Jersey.

So I am wondering what the situation is for people in Florida, or even other locations. It seems that these SRECs would be a significant impact on the payback time for any PV system.

How do you get one of the certificates? Can individuals get them or does it have to be something run by the state?
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  • ggunn
    ggunn Solar Expert Posts: 1,973 ✭✭✭
    #2
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions
    sub3marathonman wrote: »
    I read in a posting by 671crackerbox, "but total so far is 12.71MW Sold 11 SREC's for $7200.No happy faces for Elec.Co here." That would be about $650/SREC. That system is in New Jersey.

    So I am wondering what the situation is for people in Florida, or even other locations. It seems that these SRECs would be a significant impact on the payback time for any PV system.

    How do you get one of the certificates? Can individuals get them or does it have to be something run by the state?

    Here in Texas, most if not all rebate programs include the stipulation that all REC's become the property of the rebating authority.
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  • sub3marathonman
    sub3marathonman Solar Expert Posts: 300 ✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions

    That is interesting. So in the long run, it might have been better to get the RECs and skip the rebate?
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  • ggunn
    ggunn Solar Expert Posts: 1,973 ✭✭✭
    #4
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions
    sub3marathonman wrote: »
    That is interesting. So in the long run, it might have been better to get the RECs and skip the rebate?
    Risky at best. The rebates are known quantities, but REC prices are market driven.
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,613 admin
    #5
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions

    And it not like anyone ever got in trouble from expecting the government to keep its unsustainable promises. No...Never...Ever...

    Spain's Solar Sector Sues...

    From our own RSS News Feed, yesterday...

    Article:
    Spain's struggling solar-power sector has announced it will sue the government over two royal decrees that will reduce tariffs retroactively, claiming they will cause huge losses for the industry.
    In a statement, leading trade body ASIF said its 500 members endorsed filing the suit before the Spanish high court and the European Commission. They will allege that royal decrees 156/10 and RD-L 14/10 run against Spanish and European law.
    The former prevents solar producers from receiving subsidized tariffs after a project's 28th year while the latter slashes the entire industry's subsidized tariffs by 10% and 30% for existing projects until 2014.
    Both bills are "retroactive, discriminatory and very damaging" to the sector. They will dent the profits of those companies that invested under the previous Spanish regulatory framework, ASIF argued.
    The decrees are part of the newly launched tariff framework that will cut payouts for ground-mounted solar energy projects by 45% this year, killing future investment in the trade, which industry leaders expect will be frozen in the next few years. The law will also see tariffs drop 5% for small rooftop installations and 25% for large ones
    No...Way...

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #6
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions

    politicians are all alike aren't they.:grr the only things they don't seem to screw up are the things they benefit from.
    enough said.:-)
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  • ggunn
    ggunn Solar Expert Posts: 1,973 ✭✭✭
    #7
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions
    niel wrote: »
    politicians are all alike aren't they.:grr the only things they don't seem to screw up are the things they benefit from.
    enough said.:-)
    Discretion is the better part of valor. Rant deleted.
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,613 admin
    #8
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions

    Yep--it is difficult not to rant sometimes. :blush::cry:

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #9
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions

    On the opposite end of the spectrum, we technically have grid-tie availability here in BC. No rebates, no tax credits, no subsidies. Where's the incentive? Off-setting grid electric that they charge a whopping ten cents per kW hour for.

    Someplace between the sublime and the ridiculous there should be a sensible solution. Again that comes down to the "real cost" of utility power, which is subject to endless debate. Let's not debate it. :roll:
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  • Solar Guppy
    Solar Guppy Solar Expert Posts: 1,989 ✭✭✭
    #10
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions

    There are no REC's for Florida, like the NorthEastern States have setup

    There are third party company's that you can contract with, but the administrative costs are typically more than what the value of your generation yeilds, further for you in particular, I believe Lakeland Electric on there own sells your REC and is part of their net-metering agreement, so to be grid-tied, you forfeit those REC's

    In Florida, muni run power company's are NOT required to do net-metering, keep that in mind if your discussing this with them
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  • ggunn
    ggunn Solar Expert Posts: 1,973 ✭✭✭
    #11
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions
    Solar Guppy wrote: »
    There are no REC's for Florida, like the NorthEastern States have setup.
    ???

    I thought that REC's were a federal program.
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  • xiphias
    xiphias Solar Expert Posts: 52 ✭✭✭✭
    #12
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions

    No they are not.

    The following link is not an endorsement. It just describes SRECs and shows a map.
    http://www.srectrade.com/background.php
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  • strawbale
    strawbale Solar Expert Posts: 31 ✭✭✭
    #13
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions

    Here in PA RECS are running around $300., and yes, this significantly impacts pay off time, since the "income" from RECS is worth more than twice as much as the electric offset.

    I just received my $588. check from my energy company for what we over produced in 2010. I was very happy that they paid full retail price of almost $0.14/kWh.

    Strawbale
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  • jcgee88
    jcgee88 Solar Expert Posts: 154 ✭✭
    #14
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions
    strawbale wrote: »
    Here in PA RECS are running around $300., and yes, this significantly impacts pay off time, since the "income" from RECS is worth more than twice as much as the electric offset.

    The PA rate of $300/SREC is good! I have a brother who lives in
    PA who, I'm sure, will be happy to accept that.

    The best SREC rate in the country seems to be in PA's neighbor
    New Jersey, at about $600/SREC. I have a brother-in-law there
    whose 10kw system will break even in under 5 years because of NJ's
    robust payment rate. His contractor estimated his SREC generation
    as 1.2 times his DC STC rating, i.e., 12 SRECs/year.

    Missouri finally launched an SREC program this month. And
    last week, I received an offer from my Missouri utility company
    to purchase my SRECs. The proposed price is a bit low, at
    $100/SREC, but they will pay you up front for ten years worth
    of SRECs. They'd send me a one time lump sum payment
    60 days after I accept their offer. The utility company used
    PV-Watts to calculate my SREC production, arriving at 3.9 SRECs
    per year. My system has been in production for six months
    and has generated 2.3 mwh, so extrapolating that to a full year,
    yields 4.6 SRECs. In other words, their estimation technique
    is probably going to under-represent my actual total by 18%.

    In my case, the dollar value of my prospective SREC sale is about
    equal to the value of the energy the array generates, using
    current electricity rates.

    I am debating whether to accept the SREC offer. It's money
    on the table. There's no work on my part to document my
    production. Will something better come along? Should
    I just accept that they are likely under-representing my actual
    production? For the near term, I don't need to decide, because
    I upgraded my capacity a couple of weeks ago, so their initial
    offer was obsolete before it even arrived in the mail.

    Don't forget that SREC income is taxable!

    If I take this offer, and assuming the utility company replicates
    their offer for years 11 through 20, my breakeven point will be
    10 years*.

    *payback analysis includes the effect of income taxes on the
    SREC income; if the power company increases its electricity
    rates (high likely), the payback period is further reduced by
    probably 2-3 years.

    John
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  • xiphias
    xiphias Solar Expert Posts: 52 ✭✭✭✭
    #15
    Re: Renewable Energy Credits Questions

    Are there plans in MO to develop an SREC market? You might check with some of the aggregators to see where things are headed. I looked really quickly here:

    http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=MO08R&re=1&ee=0

    and it does appear there's a solar carve-out in the RPS. Question is whether they will go to a market system or let utilities go after RECs themselves.

    Might be you could a lot better than 100/SREC, although I have no idea what electric rates are in MO, whether the state will adopt an alternative compliance payment, etc.
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