Photo: Alan Stankevitz
January 2006
Banking On Solar Electricity
If you think the only way to enjoy some sunshine this time of year is to head south, you’re only partially correct. Midwest winters are great for making electricity from solar panels, which can provide welcome relief from all those high utility bills, as they do in this Wisconsin home owned by Alan Stankevitz
By Robbie Harris
Solar power in the winter? Alan Stankevitz says he laughs every time he hears the misconception that the Midwest does not get enough sunshine to make solar electricity production here worthwhile, especially in the colder months of the year.
That’s because solar electric panels rely on light, not heat, to create electricity. Extreme heat can cause the photovoltaic cell to perform less efficiently. But they love cold, clear days. That’s why Chicago, at certain times of year, has the potential to generate more solar electricity than Phoenix, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA).
Stankevitz, who was born and raised Chicago, has built an energy-efficient house in La Crescent, Wisc., about 15 miles southwest of La Crosse. He installed his solar array in May 2004.
“The best solar days are in the winter. On cold, sunny days I get even more power than (the panels’) ratings say they’ll produce,” he says.
And as the days now grow almost imperceptibly longer, so does the amount of light available to generate solar electricity.
Stankevitz has 4.2 kilowatts of solar capacity from his Kyocera 158s, an older model that is no longer made. He designed and built the system himself. “I have not had one day when I have not produced any power — even on a rainy day, there’s still some light out there.”
Stankevitz keeps meticulous track of exactly how much power his solar panels are producing at all times. Web visitors can check in, in real time, to see the actual temperature inside and outside the house at any given moment at Daycreek.com. Now a web designer who lectures at renewable energy conferences and workshops around the country, Stankevitz’s own web site has become something of a delightful obsession. There are engaging details about building cordwood houses, updates and information, and a journal in which he explores his relationship to his environment and to the energy he produces and uses every day.
At times when the house needs more electricity than his solar panels are producing — such as evenings, when it is dark outside — he simply gets his electricity in the conventional way. Because the house is connected to the grid, he has the same wall sockets and electric wires most houses do. But instead of the typical one-way sale, where customers pay the utility for the electricity they use, the energy selling now goes in two directions. And so does the house’s electricity meter.
Net Metering
It’s an arrangement known as “net metering,” now available in at least 40 states. Specific programs vary around the country, but they all involve an arrangement where utilities credit individual electricity producers for the energy they send to the electric grid.
Renewable energy buffs will tell you that watching their electric meters run backward gives them a giddy feeling. Al Stankevitz says net metering allows him to not worry so much about the weather.
“Yes, there are times of the year that are more cloudy and you’re not going to produce much (electricity), but with net metering, it makes it definitely viable because when you have a lot of sunshine, you’re using the grid as your (backup) battery. “
Last year, Stankevitz sold more energy to his utility than he bought from it. If it hadn’t been for the monthly line fee of roughly $30 the company charges for grid connection, he would have cleared $163 — and paid no electricity bill.
Chicago’s ComEd charges nothing to its net metering customers for that grid hook-up. Customers are asked to fill out a one and a half page application. There is no special equipment or extra liability insurance required.
How It Works
Under the program, ComEd will install free of charge a new meter, the kind that spins forward and backward depending on how energy is being bought and sold. Using automatic calculating technology via telephone lines, ComEd tallies up the electricity it buys from each small producer throughout the year. It then issues a check for the amount of electricity the home or business owner feeds to the grid. The most energy-efficient buildings can see their energy bills disappear and even realize a cash bonus at the end of the year. Customer Relations Manager Maryl Freestone, who runs ComEd’s net metering program, said she gets a few calls a month from people inquiring about the plan, but so far, only 56 customers have signed up since 2001. That’s out of a customer base of 3.7 million in northeastern Illinois.
The federal law that set the stage for net metering was enacted more than 30 years ago under President Jimmy Carter. The Public Utilities Regulation Act of 1978, known as PURPA, required utilities to purchase electricity from qualified providers. Advocates hoped it would lead to a system of “distributed power” producers that would add security and support to the nation’s electric grid. But PURPA did little to regulate the process or set pricing, something many blame for the fact that, despite it’s recent growth spurt, so few people participate in the programs.
Until recently, early adopters say they faced red tape and roadblocks. In desperation, some of them to staged what they called a clandestine yet benevolent “revolt,” known as the “Guerrilla Solar Movement,” dumping their unauthorized excess power onto the grid. Although things have changed since the heyday of the Guerrilla Solar movement, difficulties and confusion remain. Colin Murchie of SEIA calls the patchwork of different net metering from state to state “needlessly difficult.” He says the industry would benefit if a universal standard were adopted by the states to make net metering simpler.
Incentives
This past summer, the state of Illinois did away with some solar financial incentives. But it’s not all bad news. Murchie calls the Federal Energy Bill, passed in August 2005, the best solar energy statute in the last 30 years because of its 30 percent tax credit for renewable energy installations. This helps further defray the cost of putting up an array of solar panels. Home producers’ tax credit is capped at $2,000. Commercial energy production sites have no cap.
Murchie says the $1 billion solar energy industry in the U.S. has been growing at more than 30 percent a year. He predicts that with the new energy statute, it will catch up to the $10 billion global solar energy industry.
The new federal tax credits, coupled with already available state tax incentives, will no doubt bring down the cost of producing solar electricity in the U.S., said Murchie. The relatively high price for solar electric panels will continue to drop now that a shortage of silicon is beginning to ease, coinciding with increased global demand for the panels, he added. “Prices will come down 5 percent a year from here on,” he predicted.
“And conventional energy is not going to get 5 percent cheaper every year. With solar energy, you pay up front but you know what your electricity will cost in 2030. With conventional energy, you never know.”
Robbie Harris is a local journalist who specializes in environmental and renewable energy issues.
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