This 3.2kw solar electric system will offset roughly 6,603 lbs of C02 annually. That’s the equivalent of planting 33 trees or reducing 12,000 miles of car travel.

For Maureen Quinn, energy efficiency and conservation is a key part of owning a home.

She had been thinking about solar for years, but the generous state and federal incentives made it easy for her to get started. “Now seemed to be the ideal time for me to make it happen,” she says.

Quinn met ReVision’s Will Kessler at an open house, where she had the opportunity to see the systems up close and get a feeling for how the process went. After a complimentary site visit, Will designed a 3.2kw grid-tied solar electric system to be installed on her south-facing roof. The project specification, according to Quinn, “compared favorably with the competition, particularly in regards to experience and price.”

Saving Green by Being Green

Quinn reports that ReVision’s installation team “exceeded my expectations completely” and had the system running in only two half days. Now she’s enjoying keeping tabs on how much energy she’s sending back to the grid!

“I love saving money every month by using the power of the sun instead of fossil based fuel to power my home,” she says. “It is great to keep some green for being green!”

Maureen’s system will produce roughly 4,402 kilowatt hours of clean, renewable electricity annually, offsetting 6,603 lbs. of CO2 emissions. The 3.2kw system will generate roughly 65% of her home’s total electricity.

This 3.2kw solar electric system just installed in New Hampshire will generate over 4,000 kWh of electricity each year.

We’ll often say that the only limiting factors of a grid-tied solar electric system’s size are available roof space and budget.

If you have a huge roof with great southern exposure, you can install enough solar to produce more electricity than you’ll ever need.

Most homeowners, however, choose to offset a portion (say 30-50%) of their overall use.

Here are a few steps on how we calculate what you use and how to size a system accordingly:

Find Out What You Use

One of the first things to do is look at your electric bills, which will give you can get a good handle on what your energy needs are each month.

You’re billed based on how many kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity you use. A kilowatt hour is simply a measurement of energy – 1kWh = 1,000 watts * 1 hour.

Every appliance in your home has a wattage rating which, multiplied by the number of hours you use it per day, will give you an idea of how much it contributes to your electric bill.

Conveniently, most electric bills include several months of data so you can get a rough average of what you use over a longer period of time. It’s also helpful to compare winter vs. summer data as your needs might vary widely – for instance, if you use electric space heat your use might spike in the winter; on the other hand, if you use air conditioning your use might spike in the summer.

Once you have a basic handle on how much you consume, you can see how much impact a solar electric system will have on your bill.

How Grid Tied Solar Cuts Down Your Electric Bill

The beauty of a grid-tied solar electric system is that we use the electric grid as a battery.

When you produce more electricity than you consume, that energy goes out to the grid and is credited to your account. When you are using more electricity than you are producing, you simply use grid power as normal, and deduct accumulated credits off of your bill.

This means two things:

• You can produce more than you use in the summer and benefit from that overproduction during the dark winter months.
• You can install a system that provides less than 100% of your needs and still benefit from all of the electricity it generates.

A 1 kW solar electric system will produce 1,000 watts of electricity when in full sun. If you get an hour of full sun on that system, you’ll have generated 1 kWh.

In New England, we’ve found that each kilowatt of installed solar will generate roughly 1,300 kWh of electricity each year, varying a bit depending on where you are in Maine or New Hampshire.

By taking the amount of kWh you consume, and dividing them by 1,300, you can get a ballpark estimate of how many kilowatts of solar you would need to completely offset your electric usage.

Solar Energy at Work

Let’s look at an example based on the typical American home. The US Energy Information Agency estimates that the average home uses about 10,656kWh each year (Source: End-Use Consumption of Electricity 2001).

That means the average American home would require a 7.6kw solar electric system to completely offset their electric needs  (10,656/1,400 = 8.2).

Realistically, most homeowners opt for a 3-5kw system to offset a portion, but not 100%, of their electric needs, and either work towards a second solar system sometime in the future or work towards reducing their load to match their solar production as closely as possible.

We’ve covered the economics of solar electricity before – by purchasing solar you’re basically locking in your electric cost at below market rates for the next 40-50 years. A great buy in an increasingly uncertain energy climate!

Last week several of ReVision’s participated in the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce‘s annual gulf tournament, held at Val Halla Golf Course in Cumberland.

It was a beautiful day with ample sun – a perfect opportunity for us to make solar-powered lemonade thanks to a photovoltaic system we installed off the 13th fairway:

While we don’t want to go into the gory details of our golfing performance (suffice to say it was more fun than awe-inspiring) there were plenty of memorable moments including par-saving putts by Tim Jilek and this photogenic shot of John Capron with one of our solar systems in the background:

The Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce has been running the tournament for over 20 years, which today attracts more than 175 participants. ReVision is pleased to join those ranks!

The Granite State has already been a solar leader in New England with their generous $6,000 cash rebate for residential solar electric systems up to 5kw as well as an average $1,500 rebate for solar hot water.

Now New Hampshire has taken the next step – mandating utilities to pay the customer for excess electric generation!

Yes, New Hampshire now requires utilities to pay customers when their solar electric system generates more electricity than they use.

The legislation, House Bill (HB) 1353 states that:

the customer-generator may elect to be paid or credited by the electric distribution utility for its excess generation at rates that are equal to the utility’s avoided costs for energy and capacity to provide default service as determined by the commission consistent with the requirements of the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act of 1978 (PURPA)

Emphasis Added

Wow!

How Much Will I Be Reimbursed?

In Germany, getting paid for solar electric generation is well-known, the special rate that you receive for excess solar electric generation is called a feed-in tariff.

New Hampshire’s program is a bit different, in that customers will get reimbursed closer to market rates for electricity, rather than a special “feed in” rate (which, in Germany, generates a roughly 8% return on investment for owners of solar systems).

The legislation puts it this way:

Each net energy metering tariff shall be identical, with respect to rates, rate structure, and charges, to the tariff under which a customer-generator would otherwise take default generation supply service from the distribution utility.

While the legislation is still in the process, should the full distribution cost of electricity be included in the reimbursement, that would result in a rate of close to .15c/kwh. We will post a follow-up once we better understand the details of the program!

When Can I Get Started?

The legislation is marked to be effective August 13, 2010.

In the meantime, solar electricity continues to spin your meter backwards and reduce your electric bill to zero so there’s no reason to wait!

Contact us to keep updated as we discover more details about this exciting new program (which hopefully shall inspire neighboring states to follow suit).

There’s a common misconception that solar electric is unaffordable and expensive compared to traditional, fossil-fuel based electricity. That’s not true!

To fully appreciate the real affordability of grid-tied solar, we need to throw out the notion that solar should be evaluated like other household appliances, and not for the worry-free 40 year investments that they are.

PV prices have dropped by 40% or more in the last few years and are warranteed for 25 years (there is ample evidence that they perform for 40+ years). So as a reasonable comparison, the cost of a PV installation should be compared to the cost of pre-buying electricity over a minimum 25 year period.

Let’s look at an example of 5kw array for a homeowner:

Even taking the conservative estimate of 25 years of system performance, for someone who can take advantage of the existing incentives, the average price per delivered kw/hr from a solar system is roughly half of what a kw/hr costs from the grid today!

In an uncertain economy, clean energy may just be the most reliable investment available – contact us to learn how you can lock in your energy rate for decades and reduce your carbon footprint in the process.

CMP, a subsidiary of Spanish-owned Iberdrola USA, raised electric rates by 2.5% this month to pay for a $1.4 billion grid upgrade project

Three things in life are now certain: death, taxes, and increased costs for energy.

In mid-May, the Maine Public Utilities Commission approved CMP’s proposal for a $1.4 billion improvement project on the electric grid.

Called the Maine Power Reliability Program (MPRP), the project will “build a new 345,000-volt transmission line from Orrington to Eliot, doubling the capacity of the grid’s backbone. CMP contends the improvements, the first major upgrade since 1971, are needed to keep the power grid stable beyond 2012.” (Source: Bangor Daily News).

Just about a month later, on June 24, CMP announced their first rate hike, a 2.5% increase that raises the average rate of electricity from 6.39 cents per kilowatt hour to 6.54 cents per kilowatt hour.

According to PUC Chair Sharon Reishus, “Transmission rates will likely increase as we upgrade and build new transmission infrastructure to meet the region’s demand for reliable electricity.” (Source: PUC Statement)

How Far will Maine’s Rates Go Up?

Maine is part of a group called ISO New England, which means that Mainers are responsible for 8% of the price tag of the massive project (and consequently, we are also responsible for 8% of the cost of projects developed in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut). That leaves $120,000,000 to be picked up by Maine residents, or roughly $100 per person, for a project which smart-grid advocates had argued was unnecessary.

Indeed, even during this year’s hot, traveler-packed Fourth of July weekend, Maine’s peak energy use was no higher than it was four years ago.

An Alternative Vision

GridSolar envisions a Maine that looks more like Germany – where solar panels are a common sight on homes, businesses, and open fields.

On the – ahem – sunny side, the MPRP includes several stipulations, one of which is to build two pilot utility-scale solar projects – one in Portland and another in Midcoast Maine. This effort will be lead by GridSolar.

GridSolar is a strong advocate of the smart grid and plans to demonstrate how small-scale solar generating plants can offset the need for massive transmission lines.

These pilot plants will be performing at their peak when extra electricity is most needed – during the hot, sunny days of the summer.

And since the power will be produced locally, it can be transmitted to energy consumers without the massive transmission lines needed by out of state, fossil-fuel burning facilities.

If you are irritated about rising energy costs but think that solar is still too expensive, read our follow-up post that demonstrates that solar is cheaper than grid electric, even at today’s prices!

On Friday, June 25 the Maine Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council will be hosting a tour of the Bright Built Barn, a net-zero building which has received numerous accolades including LEED Platinum and a 2009 LEED for Homes Innovative Project Award.

Here is a summary of the event:

Join us for a tour of this award-winning, practical, affordable, beautiful structure that is one of the only buildings in the world to be designed to be truly carbon neutral: by making more clean energy than it consumes, over its lifespan, BrightBuilt Barn will actually offset all the atmospheric greenhouse gases produced by its construction.

This in-depth tour will be led by Keith Collins, BrightBuilt’s owner, and Phil Kaplan of Kaplan Thompson Architects, the project’s architect.

ReVision Energy will be there to answer any questions about the renewable energy systems on the building. Please RSVP by Wednesday, June 23 to attend – the event is $10 for members of the Maine Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, and $12 for non-members.

Click here for more information and for registration.

As they prepared for a move into a new home in Exeter, Eric and Cammie Savage considered a lifetime of energy costs associated with a home in New Hampshire’s climate.

A typical oil boiler needs 200 – 300 gallons of heating oil just to make hot water all summer.

As a result, it sends about 6,200 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere, and between $600 to $1000 out the window. Typical electrical bills account for another $1500 and 10,000 pounds of CO2 annually.

The Savages asked ReVision Energy to collaborate with their construction team, including local green builder Chinburg Builders to integrate both solar hot water (SHW) and solar photovoltaic (PV) systems into the project. The closed-loop solar hot water heater is actually backed up by an electric element, which benefits from the energy generated by the solar electric. In the summer months, the 3.0 kilowatt PV array will produce enough electricity to send a surplus back into the utility grid for a net metering credit.

State and federal incentives for renewable energy contributed roughly 49% of the costs of the systems.

“The bottom line is, even without incentives, the solar hot water and PV systems cost less in the long-run (about 15 years) than using fossil-based energy” says NH Branch manager and technician Will Kessler, “It’s a pretty simple and environmentally sound decision.”

ReVision Energy wishes the Savages well in their new home!