Items in the Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric Category
“Net Metering” vs “Buy-All-Sell-All” How North Carolina Treats Residential Solar Installations
Posted in Green Building, Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric - 21 January 2012Updated
It’s been over a year since I first wrote this blog post about “net-metering” vs “buy-all-sell-all” and it’s time for an update.
There is no national standard yet when it comes to small generators of renewable energy, i.e. wind and solar, which prompted this original post a while back. To further complicate matters, how these systems are treated varies not only state to state, but even within a state, variations exist between energy service providers. To get the installation that’s best for you, it’s important that your installer look at your particular situation and determine the most advantageous set up.
Let’s start with a few upfront assumptions: 1) since I’m writing from central North Carolina, most of our customers are interested in solar, but how our utilities treat wind powered generators is very similar 2) we are talking about grid-tied systems, not battery based systems, see my other post about when it makes sense to use a battery based system.
Next, before we talk about the difference between “net-metering” and “buy-all-sell-all” you need to first understand that renewable energy production is made up of two parts, each attributed a financial value: 1) the actual electrons produced, measured in kWh and 2) the “clean energy credits” assigned to these electrons, called “RECs” or “Renewable Energy Credits”. While it differs state to state, most states have something called a Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, which mandates that electric utilities produce some portion of the electricity they sell to customers from non-polluting, renewable energy sources. These mandates vary in each state and typically increase over time. Utilities have two options to meet these mandates, they can either produce clean energy themselves through large scale wind or solar farms, or they can purchase RECs produced by many small generators such as homeowners and small businesses. These RECs can be traded and purchased on an exchange and the price for RECs varies widely depending on where you live and the applicable regulations governing the sale of RECs in your state.
So now for some definitions:
Buy-all-sell-all means, you buy all of your electricity from the grid and you sell all of your electricity to the grid – which means you have two meters, one to measure what you produce (sell) and another to measure what you consume (buy). While the utilities sell you power at retail prices (anywhere from $0.11/kWh to $0.15/kWh) they are only required to purchase it from you at wholesale prices (about $0.07/kWh). You get a bill from your utility for the power you consume and you get a check from the utility for the power you produce.
Net metering is used with an electric meter that turns both ways, forward (consumption) and backwards (production) and where you are billed or compensated based on whether you use more or less than you produce. Your financial incentive here is “avoided costs”. A special meter is required for this, in order to track production vs consumption. In some cases this can be advantageous, as you are able to “sell” your power at the higher retail price since you are essentially building up “power credits” by “rolling back” the meter during the day.
Grid-Interconnected or Batteries?
Posted in Green Building, Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric - 7 January 2012Many customers assume that when they install a solar system, they are going to be able to “unplug” from their electric utility and are surprised when we explain that they probably don’t want to do that. Here are a couple of simple reasons why:
- Unless you’ve designed your house to achieve a very high degree of energy efficiency from the outset, you likely can’t afford to completely offset your electric consumption with solar. Most houses use far too much electricity to be able to affordably offset their total use entirely with solar.
- Solar is not consistent minute to minute, hour to hour or even day to day. Solar panels are highly affected by clouds and may be reduced to zero production for days at a time during a period of cloudy or stormy weather and our electric appliances really don’t like power fluctuations, so some way of ”regulating” that power is required.
- As you know, the sun only shines during the day when most people are at work and you are using little electricity at home. Most residential consumption occurs in the late afternoon when the sun’s energy is waning.
- Without storage, all that power you produce during the day will simply go to waste. You need to be able to store the power somehow and storage remains a sticky problem to this day. Batteries are currently the only practical method of storage for residential customers, but batteries present many challenges, such as cost, safety and maintenance.
So unless you are installing solar somewhere far “off grid” and it is prohibitively expensive to bring power to the house, your least expensive and most practical option is to remain tied to the grid. By installing a grid-interconnected system you are essentially buying into an insurance policy that provides you with consistent reliable power year round, regardless of the time of day or season. When the sun is shinning you are sending power to the grid and when the sun is not, the grid is returning you the favor. While most of us would love to “unplug” the reality is a little less dramatic, but nonetheless satisfying. The AC solar systems we install use Enphase microinverters which provide near real-time production data that can be monitored on the internet allowing you to see the positive impact you are having on the environment with your solar system. Contact us today for your free solar consultation.
Canadian Solar.
Posted in Financial & Incentives, Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric - 27 December 2011There are a lot of different ways governments encourage the development and growth of clean energy. While staying with Dawna’s family just outside of Ottawa this Christmas, we had the opportunity to visit a neighbor’s solar installation and talk over the economics of this particular system. In Canada they don’t subsidize the manufacturers (China) or the installers (U.S.A) but rather they subsidize the production in the form of high retail purchasing of kWh produced ($0.802 / kWh)
This particular system was a 10kW system and the owner told us he averages about $12,000 per year in revenue. This for a system he paid $86,000 to install. All in all he’s expecting to have the system paid for in about 10 years, while the contract with the federal government is for 20 years, and the panels are rated at 80% production at 20 years. A pretty good deal for people who take the time to work out the math. This particular system like those we install uses an Enphase micro-inverter for each 200w panel which allows him to look at the performance of each individual panel.
Windows, Solar, Tankless Hot Water and Solar Hot Water, So… Tell Me More!
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric - 15 August 2011I was at a “meet and greet” dinner party this past weekend in Carrboro to meet some of the families who, like us, have a kindergartener heading off to school this year. Usually, when people find out that we specialize in energy efficiency and solar, we get asked a lot of questions about how it all works and usually a lot of details on the economics of it all. I’m always surprised at how many misconceptions persist regarding certain so called “energy efficient” upgrades and how little is known about solar technology.
So, as promised, I am writing this as a general informative blog on the topic – let me start with some of the most common misconceptions: (more…)
There Is No Denying It – Solar Hot Water Works
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric - 5 August 2011
I’ve just come back from closing out our latest solar hot water installation with a client in Durham and as always enjoyed seeing such a simple technology at work. At 9:30 this morning, their collectors were already at 90F on a fully overcast day, their 80 gallon solar tank had nicely stratified hot water, 114F at the bottom, 135F at the top, and everyone had taken their showers already.In terms of technology and how it works, there are many advantages to solar heating for your water system over traditional water heating. Not the least of which are lower costs of operation, cleaner air and a cleaner conscience. With solar heating you can heat your water well beyond the temperature you need without an energy (cost) penalty thus storing the heat for (more…)
TED – The Energy Detective Can Make All The Difference
Posted in Energy Efficiency, News, Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric - 2 August 2011Sundogs Solutions is happy to announce that we are offering installation of the TED 5000 energy monitoring system to our customers. The TED series of energy monitoring devices allows customers to (more…)
Can’t Help it But I’m Still Like a Kid at Christmas After a Solar Install
Posted in Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric - 28 July 2011There is something truly amazing about actually seeing in simple terms the power of the sun in action. Such a simple and elegant way to heat water, and virtually for free, day after day. After finishing the installation, checking all our pipe runs and configuration, we turned on the system and watched as the sun warmed this family’s water in their 80 gallon storage tank from 70F to 145F in less than an hour.
The amazing power of the sun
I still get giddy when I see it at work and it was fun to see the excitement in the other installers with me as we heard the system humming and watched the temperature gradually rise to the desired level. The only energy used was a little power to run the controller and the pump. Simply amazing. It’s also really satisfying to simply turn off the switch for the hot water tank and know you’re still getting more hot water than you need, virtually free!
Solar Installations Shown To Increase Property Value
Posted in Financial & Incentives, Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric - 23 June 2011Are you thinking of selling your home and looking for ways to differentiate your home from the others around you? A recent study from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory, has shown that homes with relatively new PV systems installed command a higher sales price than comparable homes without PV.
(more…)House Proposes New Bill to Improve Solar Access for North Carolinians
Posted in Legislative, Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric - 8 April 2011This week the house introduced House Bill 724 which contains limitations on the ability to restrict solar collectors on residential property, among other things.
Whether or not this bill passes, we can take this as a positive sign that we are seeing increased activity regarding renewable energy technology on the legislative front. We must keep up the pressure and let our state leadership know that we take the health of our state’s environment seriously and that we understand that our security and future prosperity of our state depend on our commitment to responsible energy management. Take a minute and write your representatives to let them know that clean energy development is important to you.
Renewable Energy initiatives at NC’s most prominent schools
Posted in Community, Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric - 21 October 2010Appalachian State University has the reputation of being one of North Carolina’s greenest schools. Nestled in the mountains near Asheville, NC, ASU is a perfect testing ground for what can be accomplished by a community determined to make a positive change. (more…)
Reduce, Reduce, Reduce, Solar Hot Water, Photovoltaics – The Five Rules To Installing Solar Panels
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Solar Hot Water / Solar Electric - 13 July 2010Unless you are an executive at a utility, coal mining or oil company, you probably agree that solar panels are pretty cool. Beyond the science of converting sunlight into electricity or hot water there is an underlying promise of hope for the future. While wind and solar still have some rather large problems to solve before they can replace fossil fuels entirely, the technology is solid and now within reach of homeowners.
That said, there are some important things to consider before investing in a solar system. (more…)
