Mulling Solar PV Array: need advice

[Katrien Vander Straeten]

Hi everyone,

 

we are entertaining the possibility of putting a solar PV system on our roof. 

 

Does anyone have any advice, tips, website, references of good companies, etc?

 

Thanks,

 

Katrien

[Alex]

Tips: I've heard that solar hot water has a faster payback (but this might not be relevant depending on what you're doing)

ALSO: energy efficiency is *always* cheaper than energy generation - so I'd recommend you minimize your energy needs (if you haven't yet) before sizing up a system

Companies: Coop Power http://www.cooppower.coop/index.php/clean-energy-products-and-services

I don't have too much personal experience with them except working on a solar hot water installation

Advice: Go with the barn-raising model, i.e. involving lots of people. This ends up costing you less and teaches folks useful skills.

[michael sandberg]

If you live in Massachusetts you are in good luck. Because the state gives a rebate on the installation, it makes it financially feasible to lease the panels instead of buying. There are three options. Buying costs about $20,000. Even after the federal and state tax credits the price is only reduced to $14,000 and if anything breaks, you have to pay to repair.

There are two leasing options. For $1000 total, SunRun of California will lease you the panels for 18 years. On this option, you continue to pay for all of your electricity at today's rates. They promise your rate will never rise in the next 18 years, and they will fix anything that goes wrong.

 

The other lease option, which I did, costs a total of $8000 for 18 years. On this one, you only pay for the electricity that was not provided by the solar panels. The solar panels have saved me about 75-80% of the electricity I would have used. My payback for this lease option is about 7 or 8 years at current electric rates. On this option they make any needed repairs. What can go wrong is the PV converter box that converts the electricity from DC to AC.

 

The local company that partners with SunRun and installs the system is called Alteris Renewables. Both SunRun and Alteris have great web sites. They were a pleasure to deal with.

 

Michael Sandberg,

Newburyport

 

[Jen Hartley]

Hi Katrien,

Our community had a good experience with installing a PV array with this company:

http://www.northeastsolar.biz/

(They were called Village Power Design when we worked with them, and have since changed name to NorthEast Solar.)

I think they would be worth talking to as you compare options.  Our main contact was Jeff Clearwater who is a great guy.

Jen

[Glenn Saunders]

I'm not thrilled with the lease option.  There have been lots of debates about whether doing that is a scam or not.  I mean, you're locked into a payment and your hope is that over time that this will be cheaper than utility power.  I can see the logic of it, but in the end it just feels like another form of debt to me.

 

The main problem with solar PV in this area is diffuse light.  There's a lot of research going on right now on how to get solar panels to produce more light on cloudy days. This area is also characterized by a LOT of shade cover from trees, and existing housing stock with rooflines not oriented towards the sun, with dormers on them which generate shade.  It's a really bad combination of factors.  My opinion is that payback in this climate really needs a new sort of PV technology that can do a better job of harvesting light on cloudy days or non-optimal angles.

 

For instance, Konarka, a Massachusetts company, is working on dye-based solar cells.  These DO generate more light on cloudy days or off-angle than silicon PV.  The problem with that technology is that a) it has a limited lifespan, and b) is currently using a rare element ruthenium.   It's got a lot of promise, and I've been following it closely, but it's just not ready for prime-time.

 

What all this means is that, stricly from a matter of dollars and cents, solar PV just doesn't add up in this area.  If it's something you really want to do, like you feel it's now or never, then go ahead, but I'm still holding out for some sort of next gen panels that will work better.  It's a gamble because I know there is likely to be a crossover point where things will just be getting more expensive, tax breaks go away and technological progress will stall out.

 

Solar hot water is a different story.

 

[michael sandberg]

First of all, there are no lease payments. The whole payment is made one time only at the beginning. Second, it doesn't make financial sense to buy, but leasing is very cost effective. Especially in the summer months, when the sun is bright and the days are long, it completely paid for the air conditioning we had to use on those humid days.

 

I also did solar hot water. That one I bought. Including a tankless water heater and a new stainless steel holding tank, it cost $13000. After the federal and state tax credits it cost $8000. I was given a 7 year loan at 0% interest for the whole $13000(also a Massachusetts benefit). I got back $5000 in taxes the first year. While I am  slowly paying off the loan, I am saving money on hot water every month. That was also done through Alteris.

 

If we do what we can to reduce generating greenhouse gases, and we do it cost-effectively, it's a win-win situation.

 

Michael Sandberg

[Katrien Vander Straeten]

We are now a 350 KWH / month family - we've been doing Sharon Astyk's the Riot for Austerity for two years now. You should've seen the consultant's face when he saw our electricity bill.

In any case, this would mean that we can pay back our system even faster than the oft-quoted 5 years, or we can install a smaller system. I'll call the other companies suggested here and set up interviews with them as well.

We definitely have a lot of studying to do these coming months!

[michael sandberg]

Our system makes 3.1 kw of electricity. We average four hours of sunlight per day year round. That's 12.4 kwh per day,

360 kwh per month. This system would meet your current needs for current.

 

Michael Sandberg

 

 

[Katrien Vander Straeten]

Thanks Michael, 

 

What kind of system do you have? What is the square footage? We have a medium sized roof...

 

Katrien

 

michael sandberg said:

Our system makes 3.1 kw of electricity. We average four hours of sunlight per day year round. That's 12.4 kwh per day,

360 kwh per month. This system would meet your current needs for current.

 

Michael Sandberg

 

 

[michael sandberg]

I don't know the answer to those questions. But if you call SunRun in California, they look at your house on google earth, and tell you if your house, roof, and exposure to sunlight will work, while you are on the phone with them.

 

Michael

[Judith Haran]

Hi Katrien!

 

We used New England Breeze from Hudson to install a ground mount PV array. They were great. I'm still in touch with them regularly about lots of things, and they remain great. Also, the lead people in this small company "get" what is happening with oil, climate change, etc - they are not part of Business As Usual. I very highly recommend that you talk to them. Ask for Mark Durrenburger. I also interviewed Alteris and another company, and I found that while Alteris was great at explaining the lease thing, they completely failed to understand what we wanted to do, and could not explain the basics of how a system worked. They were salespeople who were definitely pushing one particular model.

[Katrien Vander Straeten]

thank you Judith, I'll give them a call as well. So far I have four companies lined up already.

Katrien

Judith Haran said:

Hi Katrien!

 

We used New England Breeze from Hudson to install a ground mount PV array. They were great. I'm still in touch with them regularly about lots of things, and they remain great. Also, the lead people in this small company "get" what is happening with oil, climate change, etc - they are not part of Business As Usual. I very highly recommend that you talk to them. Ask for Mark Durrenburger. I also interviewed Alteris and another company, and I found that while Alteris was great at explaining the lease thing, they completely failed to understand what we wanted to do, and could not explain the basics of how a system worked. They were salespeople who were definitely pushing one particular model.