Solar power starts to shine in New Orleans, Lousiana
By Pam Radtke Russell / March 11, 2007
source: nola.com
http://www.nola.com/business/t-p/index.ssf?/base/money-1/117359952326600.xml&coll=1
For some people living in the Lower 9th Ward, sustainable building and renewable power are more than just utopian concepts. Nine homes and the Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association office in the Lower 9th took a big step toward becoming self-sufficient last month. They were fitted with donated solar systems that are capable of producing 20 percent to 30 percent of their electricity.
If homes in the neighborhood had been equipped with solar power before Hurricane Katrina, the community wouldn’t have had to wait so long for power to be restored, said Patricia Jones, director of the NENA, a recovery center in the Lower 9th Ward.
“If we had adopted more green building before, we wouldn’t be the last ones back in,” Jones said. The solar panels will benefit homeowners through lower power bills. But the installations may be more notable for what they might herald for the city’s future for solar and renewable power: the homes will be used as models for energy efficiency and will be the first in the city to use a concept called “net metering.”
“Solar is only one piece of this puzzle,” said Micah Walkin Parker, program director for the Alliance for Affordable Energy
The Alliance brought together Sharp Solar — which was looking for homes in New Orleans to donate and install the systems — with the Holy Cross/Lower 9th area. Residents of the Lower 9th have been striving to create a “climate neutral” community as they rebuild, said Pam Dashiell, president of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association.
Most immediately, the solar panels give other local homeowners repairing their homes the first local glimpse at what solar panels look like and how they function, Parker said. “We’ve had a lot of people interested in solar since the storm, but we’ve had no examples to point to,” Parker said. “This gives them an idea of how it works and how it looks.”
The Alliance plans to use two of the homes on a clean-energy tour on April 22. The homes will be featured in quarterly tours for the next three years, she said. In addition to the solar panels, Parker is working to have the sites retrofitted with other energy-saving measures before the tours begin. The Clinton Climate Initiative, for example, has offered to help buy energy-saving appliances for the homes. The initiative also plans to install a kiosk at the community center to highlight the energy savings and carbon reductions at the sites.
With net metering, when the homes’ solar panels are producing energy that isn’t needed, the electricity flows back into Entergy’s grid, and the homeowners get a credit for the energy their system produced. This week, the New Orleans City Council Utilities Committee will consider rules that will standardize the practice of net metering and obligate Entergy to pay homeowners for any surplus power from the homes.
Parker, who has been pushing for net metering for almost six years on the state and local levels, said net metering gives people an economic incentive to install the solar systems. The Sharp 1.5 kilowatt systems that were installed cost about $12,000 each.
Ron Kenedi, vice president of Sharp Solar, said that he plans to return to New Orleans within two months and will be pushing for government incentives that would help people to pay for the cost of solar systems. He also wants to encourage a “fast-track” permitting process for installation of solar. The homes aren’t the first use of solar in the city. Entergy, for example, donated a large system to the Dryades YMCA last year. That system will power the building in the event of an emergency.
Parker said solar is an ideal backup for emergency situations, and her organization is working to get panels on government buildings and hospitals to let them function without backup generators. Kenedi said the company chose to have its customer meeting in New Orleans and asked its installers to donate their time to install 10 donated systems. “We wanted to set an example as to how the rebuilding effort should go,” he said.
Sharp apparently found a good partner in the Holy Cross and Lower 9th Ward. After Katrina, “It was apparent that we needed to be as resourceful and resilient and sustain ourselves as best as possible,” said Dashiell of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association.
Kenedi said he discovered the people in the area have great motivation to be self-sufficient. “One of the guys said it was good to use nature instead of being abused by it.”