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Austin Energy to Pay Customers to Generate Their Own Power
City Council approves rebate of $5,000 per kilowatt for solar array
installations for their residential and commercial customers.
by Sterling
D. Allan
Copyright © 2004
Pure Energy Systems News
AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA
The Austin City Council today approved a rebate of up to $15,000 to residential
and commercial power customers who install photo voltaic solar panels in their
homes and businesses.
The rebate will pay $5,000 per kilowatt of generation capability, which is
expected to cover 70%-80% of the cost of solar installations.
"This is one of the most aggressive of solar
incentive programs that we have in the country," Fred Yebra with Austin
Energy said.
According to their website, Austin Energy has set a goal
to install 100 megawatts (MW) of solar power capacity by 2020. This would
represent sufficient energy to power 7,500 homes year round.
Austin Energy hopes to hook up solar power to more than 100 Austin homes
and a dozen or so businesses in the next year.
"Rather than ultimately building a new power plant, which costs
hundreds of millions of dollars, we're going to build a new power plant a little
bit at a time, one rooftop at a time," Gavin Moore with Meridian Energy
Systems said.
"You're effectively buying electricity 30 years in advance," Fred
Yebra with Austin Energy said, "We are reducing the long-term costs of
electric facilities. We're also improving our environment through reduced air
pollution and we're contributing to the local economy."
The typical solar system can provide about half of a home's usual power needs.
When the sun energy is greater than the energy needed by the home, the meter
runs backward. The 'net metering' tabulates the overall energy consumption
at the end of the month and subtracts the energy generated by the solar system
from that used from grid.
"In those cases where the net usage for a month is negative, the
customer's account will be credited at a rate of 1/3 retail cost of
electricity," said Mark Kapner, Senior Strategy Planner with Austin
Energy. Utilities billing is combined in Austin, so credits on electricity
can be applied to the costs of sewer, water, garbage collection and drainage.
In the application process, Austin Energy will be asking for model and make of
proposed solar array, and they will be doing on-site inspections to check for
shading and optimal angle considerations, according to Kapner.
One of the first applicants for the rebates is an
Austin investment advisor, but for him it's about more than money," rebate
applicant Larry Najver said, "Yes, this is a good investment. This is a
guaranteed rate of return here. My son was in Iraq. I think if we don't use as
much oil, you know, anything we can do to reduce that need for foreign
oil."
Power outages effect fewer people when more people have independent generation
capabilities. Backfeed into de-energized lines is not a problem because
the inverters built into the solar systems have built-in detection to keep from
feeding power into a line that is down. "We are confident that the
equipment standards and test methods established by the Underwriter Laboratories
and IEEE are very well thought out, and that our linemen will not be in
danger," said Kapner.
The regulations regarding backfeed are held to strict distributed generation
standards.
The stance of Austin Electric wasn't always as friendly toward their Solar
energy customers. "At first, my colleagues were going to charge a fee
to solar customers to recover fixed costs involved in the infrastructure they
are using to send power back to the grid," said Kapner.
The solar advocates made a strong public outcry at Austin Electric's proposal
for a fee. Because the board of directors is the city council, the public
sentiment prevailed. New York Power charges such a fee now, and has lost
customers because they opt to go completely independent rather than pay such a
fee. "We believe it is in our best interest to do it the way we are
doing it now," said Kapner.
REFERENCES:
Austin
Energy Solar Rebate Program
http://www.austinenergy.com/Energy
Efficiency/Programs/Rebates/Solar Rebates/index.htm
or try: http://tinyurl.com/2vbng
Adapted from KXAN TV, Austin 36, May 25, 2004
http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=1892337&nav=0s3dNNsw
See also
Posted by SDA
5/26/04
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