Solar heat helps budget, Earth

Rik Nelson  /  Correspondent

Tina Flint installed a solar panel on her home's roof to provide energy that goes back into the Avista grid system. Flint says she saves more than $8 a year on her utilities bill. Flint plans to install more solar panels and even wind turbines to provide more power. (Kathryn Stevens/The Spokesman-Review) For information •For more about solar energy incentives, and for interconnection guidelines and agreement, contact the Avista Call Center at 1-800-227-9817. Or go online to: • www.solarWashington.org • www.northwestsolarcenter.org • www.nrel.gov/solar • www.eere.energy.gov/solar

With 1.6 billion inhabitants, Earth has a huge need for consumable energy. Yet, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory calculates that on any given day, so much solar energy falls to Earth it would take 27 years to consume. How to effectively tap that energy is the question.

South Hill resident Tina Flint has taken the first step. She's installed a 112-watt photovoltaic (PV) device on the roof of her garage. A PV device, or solar panel, uses semiconductor material to convert sunlight into electricity. The postage-stamp sized PV cells are connected to form modules, which can be combined into an array of sizes and power output. The modules make up most of a PV system, which can also include electrical connections, mounting hardware, power-conditioning equipment and storage batteries.

But batteries aren't necessary with Flint's system because generated electricity is fed into Avista Utilities' grid. Through an arrangement called "net metering," what Flint's system generates is deducted from her monthly bill. If her production exceeds usage, she gets a credit.

"Avista estimates my current system generates 140 kilowatt hours per year for an approximate savings of $8.40," Flint says. The cost of her system in 2002, including installation and labor, was $1,480.44.

According to The National Renewable Energy Laboratory that differential is the norm, because though solar technologies have made huge technological and cost improvements, they remain more expensive than traditional energy sources.

Flint says she first looked into renewable energy options not for financial gain but in an effort to be more environmentally responsible.

"When I bought my home," she says, "I became more attuned to the wetlands in the neighborhood, to air quality, water quality, and the adverse long-term effects of devastating our natural environments. Solar was a way I could begin to respond responsibly."

Lawmakers, too, are responding. With wide bipartisan support, the state's legislators this spring passed two renewable energy-related bills. The first, SB 5101, provides a renewable energy feed-in production incentive to homeowners and businesses. Those who purchase and install PV systems, earn a credit of 15 cents-per kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity generated by their systems up to $2,000 annually.

In addition, if the system's components are manufactured in Washington, owners can increase their 15 cents-per kWh credit up to as much as 54 cents. The aim of the bill is to increase market demand for renewable energy systems.

A second bill, SB 5111, aims to stimulate the renewable energy system supply sector. SB 5111 provides tax breaks for renewable energy businesses that locate themselves in economically depressed and low population counties in the state. The aim here is to spur manufacturing and create jobs.

According to SB 5101, the legislation will take effect "When light and power businesses serving 80 percent of the total customer load in the state adopt uniform standards of connection to the electrical distribution system ...." Tony Usibelli, director of the Energy Policy Division of the state's Department of Community, Trade & Economic Development, says the standards adoption process is underway and targeted to be completed by the end of this year.

Avista's net metering program is part of the initiative. Also, Avista will offer first-year generation incentives to new solar energy producers.

Because of those incentives, Flint says next year she'll add to her solar array.

"People can't be naive anymore," she says. "We all need to take responsibility and do something ourselves. If we'd be more self-sufficient, we'd reduce the demand on oil and gas and be more environmentally responsible."

Sun, sun, sun. Here it comes.