Illlustration: Joseph Farris
Illlustration: Joseph Farris
Imagine you’ve had a bumper crop of apples your family can’t possibly consume. You hate to see all those apples go to waste, so you decide to bake apple pies. Since the apples are free and you have so many pies stacked up, you decide to just give them away. But you can’t seem to get anyone to accept your free, hot-from-the-oven pies.
Now, imagine you are generating electricity on your property from solar panels, a wind generator and/or hydropower. You paid for the equipment, but the energy source, much like the apples, is free. On some days, when conditions are optimal, you make more electricity than you can use and you offer to give it away. “No, thank you,” is the reply.
Having excess power can happen more often then you might think. On the best solar-energy days, you can charge your backup batteries to capacity, run the dryer and, depending on the size of your system, still have excess electricity that literally has to be “dumped.” The same goes for wind and hydropower when those resources are at a surfeit.
Wasting all that extra electricity just didn’t seem right to some people who had gone to the trouble of setting up their own renewable energy systems. But when they approached their utilities, offering their extra electricity, all they encountered was a lot of red tape and run-arounds.
So a loose aggregation of souls from across the country hatched a plan. They formed a secret organization and adopted a manifesto.
The Solar Guerrilla Manifesto
The manifesto appeared in Home Power magazine, where it was attributed to an anonymous source. It reads:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all energy is freely and democratically provided by Nature, that utilities both public and private have no monopoly on the production and distribution of energy, that this century’s monopolization of energy by utilities threatens the health of our environment and the very life of our planet.
“We, the Solar Guerrillas of this planet, therefore resolve to place energy made from sunshine, wind, and falling water on this planet’s utility grids with or without permission from utilities or governments.
“We resolve to share this energy with our neighbors without regard for financial compensation. We further resolve that our renewable energy systems will be safe and will not harm utility workers, our neighbors, or our environment. Signed, Solar Guerrillas of Planet Earth”
The movement eventually spread nationwide through word-of-mouth in the renewable energy community, although the exact number of Solar Guerrillas is hard to determine and their founders remain anonymous.
Jim Hartzel, of Mancelona, Mich., said he first heard about the Solar Guerrillas at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair, which bills itself as the largest such conference in the world. Hartzel has been attending the three-day event since the first one in 1990.
At last summer’s three-day fair in Custer, Wis., he explained how he first read about the Solar Guerrilla’s escapades in “Home Power” magazine, which carried an account of their covert activities in every issue. CEO and Technical Editor Joe Schwartz characterized the guerrilla name as “tongue in cheek” and points out that no one was ever killed or injured when a renewable energy guerrilla dumped excess power onto the grid.
Hartzel said he grew sympathetic to the movement after he tried to work with his utility to get permission to send his excess renewable energy to the grid, but only found frustration when faced with reams of paperwork and red tape after attending a utility company meeting.
“I went officially to ask about net metering,” said Hartzel, who has a rack of Uni-solar 54 solar panels and a Bergey XL.1 wind generator. “And I got the usual run-around. Bottom line, they would sell (electricity) to me for 8.7 cents a watt and buy it back for 2 cents.”
“Net metering” refers to customers who generate more energy than what they would normally use in a billing period, which causes their meter to turn backwards, reflecting their net excess generation.
Buying Back Electricity
In 1978, the federal Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act, was passed, requiring all utility companies in the U.S. to purchase the excess power created by qualified home electricity producers. But the act did not stipulate the exact costs utilities had to pay independent producers for their electricity. Most utilities chose to pay what are called “avoided costs,” or the amount of money they save by not producing the power themselves.
After that meeting five years ago, Hartzell said he went home and flipped the switch and “became what you call a guerrilla … putting electricity onto the grid without authorization. I’d been creating renewable energy at my place and this just evolved. I had no intention of trying to make money, just keep the meter at zero.”
His plan worked: “I’d produce during the day and the meter goes one way, then the fridge comes on at night and the meter goes the other way, but I have no payment to make.”
Utilities may not have been fond of this system because it takes “money out of their pockets,” said John Hippensteel, president of Lake Michigan Wind and Sun, Ltd., of Sturgeon Bay, Wisc., who gave a talk entitled “How to Connect a Small Renewable Energy System to the Utility Grid” at last summer’s renewable energy fair.
Thirty years ago, said Hippensteel, it was unheard of for individuals to produce electricity to send to the electric grid. Early Solar Guerrillas found many utilities weren’t familiar with the process, but when their engineers were introduced to the concept, many found it fascinating, even if it was against company policies. Others said their utilities were downright hostile to the idea, contending that the “utes” (as they call the utilities) went out of their way to put up road blocks.
Guerrillas Come Out In the Sun
But that was then. “The paper work is much easier today,” Hippensteel said, showing a “speedy process” handout and a one-page diagram of a grid inter-tied renewable energy system.
Chris LaForge, the founder of Great Northern Solar based in Port Wing, Wis., which sells solar energy systems, has observed the Solar Guerrilla movement for years and has opposed it, although he admits to understanding the frustration that spawned it.
“You’re trying to promote something wonderful and important. An element of national security is a strong grid with a lot of renewable energy on it,” LaForge said. “So … when certain utilities just stonewall people, they get irate.”
But LaForge asks: Why be irate, when being nice will serve you so much better?
“I have an incredible amount of success working with the utilities to allow the appropriate work with renewables within their utility grids,” he said.
And besides, more and more of the major utilities today have renewable energy experts as a point person when someone calls up about net metering. But it wasn’t always that way.
Renewable energy activists working across the country over the last three decades have helped bring some form of net metering to 40 states. In some states, the legislature had to step in. In others, the utilities took the initiative themselves without being compelled by state law.
“The utilities were playing ball. So going guerrilla all of a sudden didn’t make a much sense,” said Schwartz. And that’s why Home Power magazine no longer prints bi-monthly accounts of Guerrilla projects. The movement’s time has passed.
In April 2005, Hartzel’s utility adopted a program of true net metering. Hartzel is now doing the paperwork.
He said he won’t miss the old days.