Solar Power Saga Is Really a Tale of 2 States : In California the ecologically sound energy alternative is popular and use is growing. In Arkansas, it’s a different matter.
Depending where you live, solar electricity--the kind generated by a local company, Siemans, which produces photovoltaic panels that look like sapphire roofing--is either a wonderful or a terrible idea.
If you live in Ventura County and like the idea of a stable, clean industry that brings jobs to the area, solar is a good idea. If you live in a Sacramento or Boston suburb and want bargain electricity rates from a source that doesn’t pollute, it’s a good idea. If you live in our service area and want electricity at your remote mountain cabin but don’t want to shell out a fortune to Southern California Edison to have a power line installed, it’s a good idea.
But if you live in Arkansas, well, maybe you shouldn’t get involved with solar energy. As reported on TV recently, it can get you in trouble.
Last year, the Benson family of Fordyce, Ark., bought four photovoltaic panels from Real Goods of Ukiah, Calif., which in turn had recycled the Camarillo-made panels from a decade-old demonstration project.
The Bensons found the electrical output from the panels was sufficient, and decided to have the local utility company disconnect the family home from the power grid. There ensued a protracted argument with the utility, Arkansas Power & Light.
According to paterfamilias Tom Benson, “We’ve been told so many times by so many of their people that solar power doesn’t work, can’t work, will never work, that it’s just a pipe dream.”
Benson went ahead anyway. Since the panels had been around for so long, Benson didn’t expect them to be real peppy, but they were. So, by downsizing his fridge and TV set and otherwise moderating his power appetite, he was able to run his household off the four panels.
He was so pleased with his new setup that he put a sign in his front yard declaring the place to be “The First Solar Powered Home in Dallas County.”
According to broadcast reports, local hooligans tried to tear down his sign and had to be chased off at gunpoint by Denton. And the power company, suspecting him of getting power via an extension cord running to the house next door, removed the neighbor’s electric supply and the street light in front of both their houses.
The neighbor, a pioneer-spirited octogenarian named Richard Denton, straightaway acquired his own set of solar panels, according to Real Goods, and erected a sign declaring his place “The Second Solar Electric House in Dallas County.” The Ukiah firm shipped the neighbors a solar powered street light--for free.
Gerald Garrison, spokesman for Arkansas Power & Light, talked to me over the phone. The utility, he said, was initially concerned that the neighbors might have been violating Arkansas Public Service Commission rules covering illegal usage of extension cords. That is now a moot issue since the neighbors are no longer customers of Arkansas Power & Light.
Regarding the general matter of Arkansans who might take up the practice of producing their own homemade electricity, in effect making moonshine from sunshine, Garrison: “Arkansas Power & Light has generating capacity till (the year) 2000.”
Sixty months of juice may be good enough for them, but representatives of the utilities in this state think we need to plan farther ahead.
When I called around California I found that our local utility, Southern California Edison, is promoting the idea of installing solar rigs--brand new Camarillo-made stuff by the way--for customers at remote locations. Edison supplies the rig and customers pay for it in installments.
In Sacramento, people right in the middle of town have been ordering solar rigs--also Camarillo made--installed by their local utility, Sacramento Municipal Utilities District. These rooftop installations are powerful enough--producing many times the kilowatts and many times the cost of the Denton family rig--to run a home, and they have enough juice left over to sell some of it back to SMUD.
It’s part of a scheme to get SMUD to a point where it gets half its juice from renewable, non-polluting sources such as solar, wind and geothermal by a deadline about sixty months from now. In another words, the year 2000.
The utility serving this county plans to be using 15% to 20% renewable energy sources by the year 2000. The rest they will purchase on the open electrical power market.
Details
* FYI: For information on photovoltaic solar installations on remote homes in our county call Southern California Edison at (800) 302-2508
