Solar Cells Info

By AARON NATHANS, The News Journal/ January 7, 2007
Source: Delawareonline
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070107/NEWS/701070366

SEABROOK, N.J. — A refrigerator repairman with a modest home backing onto a spinach farm, Bob May doesn’t appear to be the kind of fellow who can afford to go solar. Renewable-energy advocates love solar energy, but acknowledge it hasn’t caught on more because it’s expensive. It takes between $50,000 and $80,000 to buy the equipment to power a single-family home. But last winter, May and his father installed 60 solar panels, largely paid for by the state, in the yard of his southern New Jersey residence. These days, the electric meter in front of his house is running backward, as he generates so much solar power he’s selling what he doesn’t use back to the electric company. “To some people it’s an eyesore,” said May. “This isn’t anything new. It’s been around for a while. It’s just become more affordable.”

One of the biggest pushes for solar energy is coming not from the sweltering Southwest, but in the cooler coastal state to Delaware’s north and east. Solar is part of this high-pollution state’s plan to reduce price volatility, improve public health and reduce greenhouse gases, which threaten the state’s shoreline with a rise in sea levels from global warming.

New Jersey is banking on solar despite more than 160 cloudy days per year recorded in Atlantic City, more than twice the 73 cloudy days in Las Vegas, according to the National Weather Service. Even trees blocking the sun around Franco’s Place convenience store in Seabrook didn’t stop owner Sebastiano Arcara, who installed solar panels on the building’s roof. He said solar is cutting his electric bill by $300 to $500 per month, and he expects to make back his investment in six or seven years.  “You’re making clean energy. I’m concerned for the environment. This global warming, if we don’t watch what we do, my kids, my grandkids won’t have nothing to look forward to,” Arcara said.

The state of New Jersey began offering 70 percent rebates on solar equipment in 2001. Five years later, 2,000 homes and businesses have taken advantage of the program, and the waiting list is long. The state gave away $75.4 million in solar energy rebates in 2006, through Oct. 15.

In Delaware, meanwhile, the state approved about $1 million in solar rebates last year, with just 60 homes and businesses taking advantage of the incentives. Renewable-energy advocates in Delaware, noting a spike in electricity costs last year, are increasingly looking to New Jersey for ideas.

“They have deeper pockets. There’s a lot more money for them to spread around,” said Charlie Smisson, Delaware state energy coordinator. “There’s always some professional jealousy. We’d like to have the dollars they have.” New Jersey has more money for rebates because of a larger surcharge on users’ utility bills than in Delaware. Because of the heavy demand for solar equipment, and the advent of federal rebates, New Jersey has decreased its rebates to roughly 50 percent.

Other incentives

Demand, however, remains high, in part because those who produce solar electricity get certificates that utilities are required to purchase to meet state-imposed clean-energy goals. Homeowners can make as much as $2,400 per year by selling those certificates, which are traded on the open market, to the utilities, according to New Jersey. The utilities are required to buy them because last year, the New Jersey passed legislation requiring 20 percent of its energy supply to come from renewable sources, including solar, by 2020. That’s twice as ambitious as Delaware’s goal, set by the Legislature in July 2005, for 10 percent of its energy supply to come from renewable sources by 2019.

A bill last year in the Delaware Senate to match New Jersey’s 20 percent narrowly failed. “Solar cannot compete, in most cases, with conventional electrical power production straight up. So it needs some help,” said Sen. Harris McDowell III, D-Wilmington. He is co-chairman of a blue-ribbon commission looking at sustainable energy in Delaware. The commission has heard presentations on New Jersey’s solar-energy program.

Like New Jersey, Delaware’s clean-energy program provides a 50 percent rebate for the cost of solar panels. But the program has limited resources, including a cap of $25,000 for residences and $250,000 for businesses who are customers of Delmarva Power. New Jersey’s caps are higher (see box). Delaware also offers certificates for producing renewable energy. But because the utilities in Delaware are not required to buy solar power, the certificates are worth far less.

A certificate represents clean energy produced instead of traditional, polluting energy. The state issues the certificate once a solar facility has generated 1,000 kilowatt hours. The certificates can be sold or traded. Adam Browning, executive director of the San Francisco-based advocacy group Vote Solar, said Arizona’s public-service commission approved ambitious goals for solar last year after advocates goaded them about New Jersey being so far ahead. “Here’s sunny Arizona, being overshadowed by New Jersey’s solar leadership,” Browning said.

New Jersey is No. 2

New Jersey officials anticipate reaching the state’s goal of installing 90 megawatts of solar capacity by 2008, and 1,500 megawatts by 2020. Today, the state claims it has 15 percent to 20 percent of the nation’s solar market, making it the second highest among states, behind California. A megawatt is a unit of electricity equal to 1 million watts. One megawatt is enough electricity to power 1,000 homes for one hour. Delaware’s program, meanwhile, has helped install 850 kilowatts of solar electricity generation capacity, with another 200 kilowatts being built, Smisson said.

In New Jersey, about 80 percent of the applications for rebates have been from residences, said Michael Winka, director of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities’ Clean Energy Division. Businesses, which tend to require more power, make up 40 percent of the solar generation in the state, he said. ,About 60 solar-panel installation companies have opened in New Jersey since the rebate program started, said Dave Chandler, chief engineer for Garden State Solar in Middletown, N.J.

Suzanne Leta, an energy advocate for the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, said in a written statement that the new standard will remove 15.3 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the environment, the equivalent of taking 1.3 million cars off the road. As solar becomes more popular, officials in New Jersey hope to someday phase out the rebates entirely.

And with solar gradually gaining mainstream acceptance, people are rethinking their concept of how electricity flows, Winka said. “When you decentralize the power plant, you’re putting power where you’re losing it. You’re making it more efficient, more reliable,” Winka said.

GOVERNMENT HELP FOR GOING SOLAR

New Jersey

* The state offered rebates of up to 70 percent until last year. Starting in 2006, rebates were about 50 percent for home or small-business projects up to 10 kilowatts, which would amount to a rebate of up to $43,500. For larger projects, mainly businesses, the rebates are paid at progressively lower percentages, up to a maximum rebate of $2.5 million for a single site, or $5 million for multiple sites.

* State residents are eligible for renewable energy certificates, worth about $200 for each 1,000 kilowatt hours of solar electricity produced. For a home system producing 6,000 kilowatt hours per year, that would equal $1,200.

Delaware

* Delmarva Power customers are eligible for rebates of up to 50 percent, with a maximum of $22,500, for residential customers. Commercial customers are eligible for rebates of up to 50 percent, with a maximum rebate of $250,000.

* Delaware Electric Cooperative members are eligible for a rebate of up to 50 percent, with a maximum rebate of $15,000. Commercial customers are eligible for rebates of up to 50 percent, with a maximum rebate of $30,000.

* Municipalities have their own rebate levels. For instance, in Newark residents get rebates similar to Delmarva customers; in Smyrna, Middletown and Seaford, the levels are similar to the cooperative’s.

* State residents are eligible for renewable energy certificates, $75 per 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity produced. For a home producing 6,000 kilowatt hours per year, that would equal $450.

Federal

* The federal government offers a maximum solar tax credit of $2,000.