Solar Power Shines Amid Energy Crisis
Solar power, believed by many to have gone out of style with tie-dyed shirts and love-ins, is back in fashion, thanks largely to the state’s energy crisis.
Throughout the state, dealers and manufacturers of solar panel systems are reporting an increase in sales of 10% to 100%. State and local grant programs for residents and business owners who install such systems have been inundated with applications.
“We can’t get them in fast enough,” said Steve Radenbaugh, owner of Los Angeles-based Bilt-Well Roofing and Solar, who recently hired extra workers to handle a doubling of orders for solar electricity systems in the past month.
The biggest drawback to rooftop solar energy systems has always been the high cost, with typical residential setups costing $15,000 to $80,000. At such prices, it can take 15 years or more to pay off the investment in energy savings.
But with new rebate programs and the threat of higher energy rates, such an investment has become more attractive.
The renewed interest in solar is reflected in a 500% increase in grant applications to the state’s $56-million solar rebate program, which received 250 applications in January, according to officials at the California Energy Commission.
In fact, the increased interest has forced Gov. Gray Davis to pledge another $50 million to keep the program from running out of funds.
Only 100 Los Angeles residents have received rebates from the Department of Water and Power’s $80-million solar rebate program, which was launched last year. But in recent months, the number of people who have requested applications has doubled to nearly 1,000 per month.
“The people at our call-in center are getting angry,” said Angelina Galiteva, the DWP’s solar program manager, explaining that the number of calls to the program has jumped from five to 150 a day.
“All this brouhaha about the energy crisis has made people aware of what their alternatives are,” she added.
The refunds for the state and city rebate programs are based on the watts produced by solar energy systems. Both programs pay $3 per watt, but the DWP program pays $5 per watt if the system is manufactured in Los Angeles. On Feb. 6, Siemens Solar Industries opened the city’s first solar panel factory in Chatsworth to take advantage of the program.
Solar energy generates a fraction of the 262,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity that Californians use each year. Still, the power supplied by solar energy has increased gradually, from 810 gigawatt-hours in 1997 to 954 in 1999, according to state figures.
A typical 2,000-watt solar energy system can supply a 1,500-square-foot home with up to 60% of its power, according to experts. The amount of electricity generated by a solar system depends on the amount of sunshine.
Still, a 2,000-watt system can cost $15,000. A typical state rebate can cut that cost to $9,000. Los Angeles residents can cut that expense even more--to $5,000--if they qualify for a DWP rebate and buy from a city-based manufacturer like Siemens.
But even then, it can take 15 years or more of utility bill savings for a solar system owner to break even on the investment, according to solar panel dealers.
The payback period could be slashed dramatically if electricity rates rise--a possibility that is on the minds of many recent solar converts.
That was the case with Mark Irwin, a contractor from Agoura Hills, who described his family of four as “energy hogs.” They had regularly racked up electricity bills of $160 per month, he said.
Like others who have recently purchased solar systems, Irwin had long considered making such an investment, but he hesitated until the energy crisis struck.
“I firmly believe our rates are going to go up,” he said.
In January, Irwin bought a $36,000 solar system that can generate a peak output of 4.4 kilowatts--enough, he said, to slash the energy bills at his 2,400-square-foot home by more than half. With the state rebate, he paid $24,000 for the system.
But Irwin said the purchase was intended to help save the environment as well as to save money. Others who recently purchased solar systems agree.
“I’ve always been interested in anything that conserves our natural resources,” said Mark Harris, a video producer from Newbury Park who recently ordered a $24,000 system with 24 solar panels to go along with the solar water heaters on his roof.
Harris, who has also considered investing in a wind turbine to generate electricity, already has small solar panels powering a string of decorative lights in his garden.
“I was always interested in it,” he said. “The energy crisis made me get up and do it.”
The same is true for Glenna and Richard Citron, who recently ordered a $20,000 solar energy system as part of a remodeling project on their Culver City home.
The couple already owns an electric car, and Glenna is on the board of directors of a nonprofit group that promotes the increased use of renewable energy.
As part of the remodeling project, they plan to install natural linoleum, bamboo flooring and insulated floors to conserve energy.
The solar panels on the roof were simply the next logical step.
“It’s been on my agenda for a long time,” Glenna Citron said. “We were doing the remodeling when the energy thing started, so we decided to go for it.”
Solar panels, also known as solar photovoltaic systems, use silicon cells installed in rooftop panels to convert sunlight into electricity. For that reason, experts recommend that solar systems be mounted on homes with at least 300 square feet of unobstructed roof area facing south or west.
Most solar electric systems are wired into a home’s meter. If the panels generate more electricity than is being used, such as when no one is home during the day, the solar energy is diverted into the local power grid. When that happens, the home’s electric meter runs backward, creating free energy credits that the homeowner can use later.
However, if a home solar system generates more energy than that household uses over the course of a year, local utility companies are not obligated by law to buy that excess power from the homeowner. So, it doesn’t make sense for most homes to have systems with more capacity than 5 kilowatts.
For an extra $2,000 or so, solar system dealers offer a set of solar-powered batteries to keep the electricity flowing in case of blackouts or a disaster-related outage.
The energy crisis has even boosted the sales of wind-powered electric systems, even though such structures are often prohibited by zoning laws in urban areas.
Oklahoma-based Bergey Windpower Co., which makes residential wind turbines, sold 40 home units in California in January, compared with just six in the Golden State in all of 2000 and 12 in 1999.
“Sales are exploding,” said company President Michael Bergey. “We see this as perhaps the launch of a new age of affordable personal power generation.”
The California Energy Commission also offers rebates for wind-powered systems. The DWP program does not.
For many solar energy system dealers, the number of inquiries from potential buyers has been far greater than the actual orders, which they attribute to the high cost of the system.
Still, solar system merchants say their orders are rising and are expected to continue to grow as long as the energy crisis remains unresolved.
“The flood of calls are just phenomenal,” said Robin Silke, a spokeswoman for PowerLight Corp., a solar system dealer in Berkeley.
Silke said she couldn’t estimate the increase in orders, but she said the installation department is booked solid through March and has been scrambling to find more solar panels to meet the flood of orders.
At Real Goods Trading Corp., a solar system dealership in Ukiah, sales have tripled, said Doug Livingston, an engineer at the Northern California firm.
“For the past two months our phones have been ringing off the hook,” he said.
In fact, business is so good, Livingston said, that his company is having trouble finding qualified people to meet the increased demand.
“I’m afraid we’ve exhausted the stock of people in Mendocino County who are familiar with these solar components,” he said.
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Solar Energy Incentive Programs Solar photovoltaic rooftop systems are sold by the amount of electricity they produce, or watts. A 2,000-watt (2-kilowatt) system will supply a typical Los Angeles home with about 50% of its power needs.
* The California Energy Commission will reimburse $3 per watt or 50% of the system’s cost (whichever is less) for residential, commercial, agricultural and industrial building owners.
The rebate can also be used for energy systems powered by small wind turbines, fuel cells and solar thermal systems that use solar heat to generate electricity.
* The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power pays $3 per watt for solar energy systems manufactured outside the city of Los Angeles and $5 per watt for those manufactured within city limits. The maximum incentive payment is $50,000 for a residence and $1,000,000 for a commercial site.
