When Bill Babb and his wife Barbara retired from their jobs as school teachers, controlling monthly costs was an important way to maintain the good life. Investing in financial markets looked shaky, and they wanted to see something positive result from their efforts. After seeing a presentation by a former student, Hans Albee, they started looking seriously at a solar energy investment – and they liked what they saw.

“For years, the upfront cost was an issue with solar,” Bill says, “But when we looked at it recently we were pleasantly surprised – the cost of solar panels had dropped considerably, and with state and federal incentives, we found we could purchase a system that would be a better investment for us than the stock market. Barbara and I both agreed that the cost of energy will only rise, and rise faster than it has in the past.”

As a pragmatic environmentalist (and climate change skeptic), Bill was attracted to solar’s minimal impact on the natural landscape. He likes that his clean power doesn’t add turbines to untouched landscape, block up or contaminate waterways, or contribute to air pollution. He also likes the impact solar has had on his monthly bill.

“We were expecting the system to produce around $50 a month of power, but so far it’s produced closer to $60-70,” Bill says. “We’re happy to be banking some power for the winter months, and seeing our electric bill dramatically reduced. The system has done everything I wanted it to do from day one.”

Solar Hot Takes it Farther

Bill and Barbara’s positive experience with solar electricity lead them to adding a solar hot water system, which further reduces their home’s fossil fuel needs by allowing their boiler to go dormant for 5-6 months of the year. We caught up with Bill just a few weeks after the system was installed, and he reports that so far, it had stayed well above the 110 degree mark that would trigger his boiler to turn on.

“The furnace has been turned off for weeks and we have had plenty of hot water, even without changing our lifestyle” Bill says, “On days that are a cloudy mix with little direct sun, we’re surprised at how much heat the system produces. We like it!”

A 2kw ground mount photovoltaic system installed in Wells, Maine

ReVision Energy, in tandem with trade group MABEP and other partners in Maine’s renewable energy industry, is working hard for enactment of LD 761, An Act To Provide Rebates for the Purchase of Certain Solar and Wind Power Equipment.

The bill would extend Maine’s solar rebate program, which was inadvertently scheduled for termination in legislation passed last year due to a clerical error. But even though the termination was due to an error, our industry has to argue the merits of the solar energy program all over again.

If you’re a Maine resident, please contact your State representative and senator TODAY to request that they support LD 761, “An Act To Provide Rebates for the Purchase of Certain Solar and Wind Power Equipment.” You can click here to look up your legislators and their contact information. You can also see the specific legislators on Maine’s Energy, Utilities and Technology committee.

Action on this bill is expected as early as Thursday 3/24, so time is of the essence!

Here are some of the key talking points about the efficacy of the solar rebate program:

• Support for energy independence and small scale renewable renewable rebates has been unanimous and bipartisan in the past.
• The solar industry creates stable, good paying jobs in Maine.  A reliable rebate program is essential to creating a business-friendly climate. Businesses suffer when legislative snafus cause programs to end abruptly.
• The solar rebate program has distributed $600,000 in rebates, spurring $6,000,000 in private investments in solar energy systems. This 10:1 private/public funding ratio is good for all Mainers because it reduces statewide fossil fuel dependence and keeps money in the local economy.
• 40% of the cost of electricity is to pay for power lines used for transmission/distribution. Distributed generation options – i.e. grid-tied PV – are an important way to reduce the need to invest in expensive line upgrades over time.

One of the things we treasure about Maine is that politics are still local, and a few voices of support on this issue will make a tremendous difference when Maine’s legislature convenes to discuss the future of a state rebate program in Maine.

Please act today, and thank you!

One of the most popular questions at ReVision Energy lately has been “What state rebates are available in New Hampshire?” And no wonder – the residential photovoltaic rebate has come and gone, the solar hot water rebate is on a sliding scale, and the commercial rebates require some modeling to calculate.

Here’s a short guide to the rebates currently available and how they affect the economics of a solar energy installation.

Residential Solar Hot Water

Late last year the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission announced an expansion of the solar hot water rebate thanks to the receipt of some additional federal funds.

The rebate comes in two parts – a state portion of the rebate that ranges from $600-900 and a federal portion which was raised from $750 to $2,000. To be eligible for the full rebate, a solar hot water installation must be a retrofit on a primary residence. For new construction, only the state portion of the rebate is available – $600, $750, or $900.

The range is based on the performance of the system, as modeled in MMBTU / year. Here’s a chart expressing the varying levels of the rebate at different levels of performance:

For a typical residential project (2 flat plate collectors which produce ~18.25MMBTU/yr) installed at a cost of around $10,500, the incentives amount to $5,750, well over half the cost of the system.

In a typical home that heats water with oil, a solar hot water system will save around 300 gallons of oil a year. Assuming oil costs are around $3.28/gallon, that results in a simple payback of under 5 years!

What Happened to Residential Photovoltaic Rebates?

Due to overwhelming demand, the New Hampshire photovoltaic rebate program ran out of money last year. The program is funded through the Renewable Energy Fund (REF), a fund supported by compliance payments made by electrical service providers who cannot meet renewable portfolio standard (RPS) obligations through the purchase of reneable energy credits.

The amount of these compliance payments varies widely year-to-year, and the PUC cautions that “There is no guarantee that sufficient funds will be available [when the program is next funded] to fund even those applications presently in the queue.” The earliest that any funding might again be available is July 2011. See: http://www.puc.nh.gov/Sustainable%20Energy/RenewableEnergyRebates-SREG.html

The good news – even without a state rebate program photovoltaic is appealing to homeowners. The costs of solar electric equipment has dropped by 40% in the past few years, and the uncapped 30% federal tax credit remains in place through 2016.

Rebates Arrive for Business

The much anticipated commercial solar hot water and solar electric rebate has gotten off to a great start in New Hampshire – so far ReVision Energy has already commissioned a PV system for Black Dog Car Wash that qualified for the rebate. Several more commercial projects are in the queue.

New Hampshire’s program makes $1,000,000 available to solar thermal and solar electric projects for businesses, schools, municipalities, apartment buildings – basically any structure not eligible under the residential program.

The rebate structure is more straightforward than the residential program:

• Photovoltaic (Solar Electric): $1/Watt up to $50,000 (or 25% of the project cost, whatever is less)
• Solar Thermal rebate: $0.07 per kBTU/year up to $50,000 (or 25% of the project cost, whatever is less)

Like the residential solar hot water program, a RETScreen modeling analysis is used to calculate the kBTU/year performance of the solar hot water systems. Solar electric is fixed based on the nominal wattage.

Between the state rebate and current federal solar incentives, 2011 is an extremely appealing year to go solar if you’re a business.

Let’s take, for example, a medium scale solar thermal project for a business that uses a lot of hot water – a hotel or retirement home, perhaps – that is currently heating water with oil.

We’ll propose a system of 20 flat plate hot water collectors and several super-insulated tanks that will produce over 182,500,000 BTUs/year of clean thermal energy. We’ll imagine that the system will save 2,300 gallons of #2 oil per year, a result of both reduced oil use and greatly reducing standby losses of the oil boiler in the summertime.

Assuming this hot water system costs around $100,000 gross to install, the fuel savings alone will pay for the cost of the system within its first decade of operation.

However, now there is an exciting suite of rebates to apply:

$100,000 gross installed cost
($30,000) federal tax credit
($28,900) accelerated depreciation – avoided taxes over 5 years thanks to lowered net income, assumes 34% marginal tax bracket
($12,775) state rebate – $0.07/modeled kBtu/year
$28,325 net investment – less than a third of the total cost of the project!

Within this new context, that same solar hot water system will pay for itself within two years thanks to the fuel savings.

The wasteful boiler imagined in this formula is not unique – over 750,000 buildings in New Hampshire and Maine use oil for heating, and over $2 billion is shipped out of the local economy to pay for the millions of gallons of liquid fuels used annually. With cost projections for oil, propane, and electricity set to rise, and a strong suite of renewable energy rebates here today, the time has never been better to invest in solar.

Contact ReVision Energy for more information about both the commercial and residential solar rebates or visit our website to schedule a free site evaluation.

Seacoastonline.com posted a recent interview between reporter Kelly Hearn and Kate Epsen, an analyst for the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission.

In the interview, Ms. Epsen recaps the new incentives available for businesses in New Hampshire, as well as other financing models and talking generally about the advantages of distributed electrical generation.

In response to the question, “Can you help us understand distributed form of electrical generations as opposed to the fossil-fueled power plant model?”

KE: Traditionally our model of getting electricity involves a central power plant that creates electricity by combusting coal or natural gas. Of course there are large hydroelectric facilities, but there are fewer of those. The electricity gets transported through transmission lines into a distribution grid that then comes to our home or business.

Distributed generated includes solar electric, small wind turbines, or perhaps a co-generation plant that involves a turbine that is fired by natural gas. These are usually located at the source of the electrical load. So power gets generated and used at the same point, which alleviates the need to transmit the energy, which in turns means less load loss. Generating energy at the point of use also allows the user or owner of the system to protect himself or herself against future price increases in energy if the fuel source is a renewable one, such as wind or solar.

Ms. Epsen closes by stating that “the system design and installation phase of the solar industry is the strongest segment right now in New Hampshire,” noting the “dozens of entities, designing, planning, selling at retail and installing systems across the state.”

You read the full interview here. Or visit our page for a recap of the available New Hampshire solar incentives!

New Hampshire is becoming a renewable energy leader in the Northeast thanks to increasingly progressive energy policies and generous incentives for solar installations.

Homeowners have been able to enjoy a $3/watt system rebate up to $6,000, which takes a big bite out of the cost of a solar electric system and brings the ‘simple’ return on the system to under 7 years in many cases (see more on solar electric ROI).

However, in a recent order of notice (DE10-194 – full details here (PDF)), New Hampshire’s Public Utilities Commission has proposed reducing the rebate from $3/watt, $6,000 max to $1.5/watt, $3,000 max.

Here’s an explanation:

The incentive payments are funded through the Renewable Energy Fund (REF), which is supported by alternative compliance payments (ACPs) made by electric service providers who cannot meet their Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) obligations through the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) …

the REF [has] an uncommitted balance of approximately $1.5 million. Given that the small residential renewable incentive program experiences an average of 20 incentive applications per month, totaling an average of $12,800 per month in incentive payments, or, $1.5 million annually, and assuming this rate of participation will continue at that level, the fund could be exhausted by this program before the end of fiscal year 2011 and would likely exceed the portion of funding that should go to residential programs …

Based on these factors, the Commission proposes to halve the incentive payment to $1.50 per watt and the per-system maximum to $3,000 for small residential electrical renewable energy facilities. Lowering the incentive payment and per-facility maximum amount will allow for the same number of systems that are currently processed for rebates to be eligible for incentives, thus providing continued business for installers of small residential renewable generation systems.

In other words, the program has been a victim of its own success!

UPDATE: According to the PUC at a September 1 public hearing, in the 13 months that the program has been in place, they’ve received 443 applications, of which 296 have been successfully completed and 147 are pending.  While they average 20 approved application per month, recently they received 27 new applications on as single day!

The upside of the drop in the residential rebate is that New Hampshire plans to introduce a business rebate very soon.

Commercial Rebates on the Way

The great news for business owners and anyone interested in cleaner New Hampshire air is that there will soon be commercial, nonprofit and municipal cash incentives for both solar electricity and solar hot water.

We attended a technical session on August 19 to review the PUC’s renewable energy rebate design considerations. There is an additional opportunity for public comment on August 30 at 10AM and opportunity for written comment until Sept 3.

There may still be changes yet, but the suggestions under consideration:

• the… incentive payment for PV systems will begin at $1.25 per Watt for the first 20 kW and would decline to $1.00 per Watt for the next 35 kW and to $0.75/Watt from 55 kW up to 100 kW. In addition, the C&I rebate for a PV system would be capped at 25% of the cost of the facility, or $50,000, whichever is less. The $50,000 cap would be reached at a system size of45 kW under these incentive levels.

• The [solar hot water] base rebate would be $0.07 per rated or modeled kBtu/year, capped at 25% of the cost of the facility or $50,000, whichever is less, as a one-time incentive payment.

Details in the full order of notice (PDF).

We’ll be attending this session and will write up the results and likely changes as soon as we have more details!