How do we get more people into Solar?

Re: How do we get more people into Solar?

California, and many other states, have Solar Access Laws:

California provides perhaps the most comprehensive set of state laws designed to encourage solar access and prevent restrictions on solar energy systems. These laws address municipal restrictions, residential landscaping, and homeowner association restrictions. California’s solar access laws appear in the state’s Civil, Government, Health and Safety, and Public Resources Codes. California’s Civil Code (714) ensures that solar easements may be created to ensure that proper sunlight is available to those who operate solar energy systems, including passive solar design. The Civil Code also states that no covenant or restriction contained in any document pertaining to the sale of property can contain language that explicitly prohibits or restricts the installation or use of a solar energy system.

But, these laws plus solar panels do make for some ugly local fights:

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Call it an eco-parable: one Prius-driving couple takes pride in their eight redwoods, the first of them planted over a decade ago. Their electric-car-driving neighbors take pride in their rooftop solar panels, installed five years after the first trees were planted.

Trees — redwoods, live oaks or blossoming fruit trees — are usually considered sturdy citizens of the sun-swept peninsula south of San Francisco, not criminal elements. But under a 1978 state law protecting homeowners’ investment in rooftop solar panels, trees that impede solar panels’ access to the sun can be deemed a nuisance and their owners fined up to $1,000 a day. The Solar Shade Act was a curiosity until late last year, when a dispute over the eight redwoods(a k a Tree No. 1, Tree No. 2, Tree No. 3, etc.) ended up in Santa Clara County criminal court.
The couple who planted the trees, Carolynn Bissett and Richard Treanor, were convicted of violating the law, based on the complaint of their neighbor, Mark Vargas, and were ordered to make sure that no more than 10 percent of the solar panels are shaded...

Besides the costs and issues of installing solar--the questions about trees, a neighbor's addition, etc. blocking your large investment--then there are the questions (at least for Grid Tied Solar Electric systems) of what the government will do next...

In California, we already have had Solar Grid Tied virtually killed for 6 months because of changes in the law that made solar grid tied systems use Time Of Use metering--and actually increased the monthly bill (even when using solar power) vs their old flat rate bill without solar.


What will they do in the future--well, in our Northern California rate plans with solar -- there is a clause that binds us Grid Tied Solar users to use, a yet to be defined, real-time billing system:

DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES EXEMPTION: Any customer under a time-of-use rate schedule using electric generation technology that meets the criteria as defined in Electric Rule 1 for Distributed Energy Resources is exempt from the otherwise applicable standby reservation charges. Customers qualifying for this exemption shall be subject to the following requirements. Customers qualifying for an exemption from standby charges under Public Utilities (PU) Code Sections 353.1 and 353.3, as described above, must take service on a time-of-use (TOU) schedule in order to receive this exemption until a real-time pricing program, as described in PU Code 353.3, is made available. Once available, customers qualifying for the standby charge exemption must participate in the real-time program referred to above. Qualification for and receipt of this distributed energy resources exemption does not exempt the customer from metering charges applicable to time-of-use (TOU) and real-time pricing, or exempt the customer from reasonable interconnection charges, non-bypassable charges as required in Preliminary Statement BB - Competition Transition Charge Responsibility for All Customers and CTC Procurement, or obligations determined by the Commission to result from participation in the purchase of power through the California Department of Water Resources, as provided in PU Code Section 353.7.

So--any of us that have expected a stable rate plan environment for our 25 year investment--who knows what will happen... Will the governor, with a stroke of a pen, change the rules again--I am sure he will. The above real-time pricing plan may be in place as soon as the next couple of years...

Uncertainty over long term costs, availability of shade free sun in an urban environment, and changing laws/regulatory environment--all make long term commitments to solar somewhat of a gamble.

-Bill

Re: How do we get more people into Solar?

I guess you are near Riverside CA--so you should have good sun and good weather--perfect for solar...

Almost always, your first expenditures should be towards conservation (insulation, windows, heating, cooling, appliances, lighting, etc.) as conservation expenditures usually off a better return on investment.

Solar Thermal (domestic hot water and perhaps space heating) is probably the best bank for your buck.

Solar PV electric Grid Tied systems are the next best investment--and in California you should be able to get 1 year net metering--where your power company acts just like a big AC battery with 1 year of storage for only $6 per month or so... And yes, at the end of one year (in California), your excess cash in the bank is "given" to the utility (plan is set up for home owner to end up with zero power usage--really zero $$$ usage--over the year). If you have too large of system, your money is lost. If you have too small of system (in California), the required change over to a Time Of Use billing plan can actually increase your power bill if the GT Solar is unable to spin your meter backwards during the peak daytime billing (and/or you use too much of your power during peak billing times).

The State of California has done as much as they can to tilt the equation towards the customer (Utility company is forced to buy your electric power at retail prices and sell it back to you later at retail--or if you have a Time of Use power plan, they will buy it at $0.29 per kWhr and sell it back to you at $0.09 per kWhr)...

But even with all of these incentives, it still is pretty close to a wash if your electric bill all fits into the first power tier level (for me, around $0.115 per kWhr for flat rate residential). My Grid Tied system costs about $0.25 per kWhr without rebates and around $0.14-$0.17 per kWhr after state rebates (installed several years ago).

So the only way, in the end, I will "make money" on my system is if I use more electric power--and towards that end, using some spot cooling/AC (couple weeks per year it gets hot here) and some sort of electric vehicle where my incentives. Plus the concern that California was going to really jack-up power costs because of regulatory miss-mismanagement (before the current oil price shock).

For larger power users in California, and some other states, electric rates for those with AC, electric heat/hot water, etc. can get into the $0.30+ per kWhr--and solar Grid Tie is already capable of beating those rates--especially if you include rebates/tax credits.

In the end, you are correct in that the systems cannot be easily moved as people move, and, so far, solar PV does not save most people much money. And the unknowns ahead for even people like me that already have grid tied solar are pretty worry some... California is heading towards "real time pricing"--and at this point in time, those of us with GT solar may (will?) be forced switch from our current rate plans onto real time pricing... And how do you plan for a billing system you have never seen with rates that you don't know, and usage times change minute by minute...

I cannot convince you to go with Solar GT--but, for now, I am very happy to be getting a fixed $5 electric bill per month--or $60 per year and I still have enough free power "left over" to run an electric car about 4-6,000 miles per year (SWAG) from a 3kW GT system.

Still thinking about the SolarRoofs.com thermal system to better control our gas bill which will be going up in the next few months too...

-Bill

Re: How do we get more people into Solar?

BigFatRatt wrote: »

BB I thought the PUC cannot force a utilty to buy your power. I thought with net metering all your getting is "in store credit" for the year (your big battery metaphor). What I'm not getting is this buy for .09 and sell for .29 you mentioned - is this part of the net metering. (An example, get solar, net meter, make power all day, "sell" for .29, use pool pump at night and use power at .09)

Yes, you are correct "(An example, get solar, net meter, make power all day, "sell" for .29, use pool pump at night and use power at .09)"...

The .29/.09 is the summer spread for E7 Time of Use plan under my current PG&E plan... So, they are "forced" to buy expensive power from me (Peak times: noon-6pm, Mon-Friday) and sell it back to me during off-peak times at low rates. Assuming that I can generate lots of power during peak times (which I do), I get a huge break on purchasing off-peak (my solar panels generate about 3x as much "kWhrs" during peak vs off-peak).

The PG&E billing (baseline, tiers, time of day) are all based on kWhrs... However, the "bank" is all based on dollars (month to month accounting, settle up last month's bill of the year--either I pay the negative balance, or my positive balance goes up in smoke--I can choose to pay the expected negative amounts once a month, or write one big check at the end of the year--"free loan" if my account is negative balance at the end of 1 year).

The E7 rate plan is pretty good for solar (peak is mostly when the sun is shining). The E6 plan, however includes peak and partial-peak time periods that go to 9 or 10 pm at night--and have more pricing bands (off, partial, and peak) include partial peak during weekends and holidays, and change between summer and winter...

I think, for most people E6 TOU (with a GT system sized to zero out your bill over 1 year average) may be better than E1 flat rate residential--but it is complex and difficult to really overlay your energy usage against the E6 plan (which is now required for all Northern California Home Solar generators--I think)...

E7 is easier to explain to the family and to avoid heavy power usage with the noon-6pm Mon-Friday all year long. But because it gave so much advantages to Solar GT customers--it is probably why it was discontinued for new installs (currently, our older system is grandfathered in--for how long, don't know).

-Bill

I need to add that you will have to becareful of the baseline/tiered rate plans (at least with PG&E)... It is not clear to me exactly what happens if you sell 300 kWHrs at peak, and buy 900 kWhrs off peak. I believe that you are put in the 600 kWhr rate tier (for me, the first break is at ~300 kWhrs per month) and so for the "second" 300 kWhrs, you will be paying a higher rate.

Here is a post I made last month that details how PG&E manages baseline/tiered pricing with Solar GT and TOU billing.

Re: How do we get more people into Solar?

BFR,

The Rate Link/Post is larger than it has to be... There was a problem a couple years ago on how PG&E calculated the base rate usage--for a while, they charge both the using of electricity and the generating of electricity as positive numbers when adding up your base rate tier...

I.e., -300 generated peak, +300 used off peak--base rate was 600 kWhrs vs what you would have expected to be zero kWhrs...

That has been fixed (it will be zero kWhrs used in terms of billing tiers), and you can ignore that discussion--but I did not care enough to try read through, edit, and cut out that part of the discussion... I never go above base rates (generating or consuming), so it does not affect me (at this time).

-Bill

Re: How do we get more people into Solar?

I know how to get more people interested in Solar--Have the government put a stop to it:

US halts solar energy projects over environment fears

The US government is putting a hold on new solar energy projects on public land for two years so it can study the environmental impact of sun-driven plants.

The Bureau of Land Management says the moratorium on solar proposals is needed to determine how a new generation of large-scale projects could affect plants and wildlife on the land it manages.

The move has angered some solar energy proponents who argue it could hold up the industry at a vital juncture, given the pressing need to secure alternative energy sources at a time of soaring oil prices. "This technology has been around for nearly three decades.

If there is an environmental concern, that can be addressed without putting a halt to this technology and helping to impact our greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental degradation from coal-fired and natural gas plants," said Brad Collins, executive director of the American Solar Energy Society...

-Bill