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Letting The SUN Shine In

Solar power cuts electric bills and helps the environmet. The question is: Why don't more of us have it?

House Doctor | Gary Dymski

February 27, 2003

Dave Hensen is reading off some of his electric bills from the past year or so.

"We had some hefty ones," says Hensen, a Miller Place veterinarian, who has a home and horse barn on slightly less than three acres. His highest bill over a 14-month span ending in the fall of 2002 was $553.15, the lowest $137.41.

He's paying a lot less now.

His November electricity bill, for example, was $5.45. In September, Hensen actually received a credit - that means LIPA purchased electricity from him - for $8.86.

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What changed?

Hensen is now getting his electricity from the sun. Hensen and his wife, Deirdre, had solar electric panels installed on the roofs of their home and horse barn last year. The photovoltaic system turns the golden rays of the sun into residential electricity.

"I've cut my monthly electric bill about 80 to 90 percent," Hensen says.

The Hensens initially laid out $72,000 for the system, but quickly recouped all but $16,000 of that investment. As part of LIPA's Solar Pioneer Program, the Hensens were eligible for cash rebates, state tax write-offs and other incentives to homeowners and businesspeople who purchase a solar electric system. It will take them about 10 years of electric bill savings to recoup the remaining $16,000, experts predict.

Reduced electric bills and gargantuan rebates are the norm for the relatively small number of Long Islanders who bask in the glow of LIPA's Solar Pioneer Program, now in its fifth year. So far, the program has paid $5.4 million in rebates to 211 Long Island homeowners, says LIPA spokesman Michael Lowndes. LIPA's goal is to have 10,000 solar roofs by 2010. At the present installation rate, it will fall about 9,000 roofs short.

Aside from the rebates and reduced electric bills, those who purchase solar electric systems also benefit from reducing the nation's dependency on fossil-fuel- burning power plants, which emit toxic waste.

For LIPA, the program is good public relations. It also reduces daily peak demand for power. That demand can tax the power company's resources; if a reasonable number of its customers reduce peak demand for energy by going solar, the utility will save money because it won't have to build another power plant.

"The benefit is that you are doing something good for the environment, as well as producing electricity for your own needs," says Gordian Raacke, executive director of the Citizen Advisory Panel, a nonprofit Long Island energy watchdog.

So with all the benefits and Long Islanders paying some of the highest utility rates in the United States, why aren't more of us lining up to buy solar?

"Frankly, I find it amazing more people don't do it," says George McGough, a proponent of solar- and wind-generated energy since building his new Orient Point home in 1998 and then adding a photovoltaic system.

More people don't follow the lead of Hensen and McGough because of up-front cost and lack of knowledge, says Gary Minnick, owner of Go Solar, a Riverhead installation and design company. Minnick says most potential PV customers cringe when they hear their system is going to cost between $40,000 and $50,000 - before rebates and tax incentives. "It's not easy for the average person to just get that kind of financing," Minnick says. "And a lot of people don't know about the solar program. You just don't hear a lot about it."

LIPA's Solar Pioneer Program is a result of the Solar Choice Act, signed in the fall of 1998 by Gov. George Pataki. The bill requires investor-owned utilities in New York State to allow residential customers to connect solar photovoltaic systems to the company's distribution system (also called the grid).

The technology of photovoltaics allows rooftop solar panels to turn sunlight into electricity. The panels operate at peak efficiency - nearly 90 percent - during the day, when the sun shines its brightest. During daylight hours, some systems are large enough to furnish an average home with all of its electrical needs. At night, when the sun goes down, these grid-connected systems, most of which do not store solar electricity in batteries, automatically switch power sources, so customers use electricity supplied by LIPA. During summer months, when days are longer and the sun shines brighter, solar electric panels offer homeowners their highest savings, proponents say.

By connecting their PV systems to the grid, these customers also are "net-metered," which means that in addition to generating their own electricity, any excess electricity produced is sold back to the utility. In these cases - such as the $8.86 credit the Hensens received - the customer's utility meter actually spins backward.

"When a PV customer sees the meter spin backward, they really get a kick out of that," Minnick says.

Many PV customers - Hensen and McGough, for example - say LIPA's solar program should be an easier buy. Because no state or federal financing is available, most customers use home-equity loans to finance their systems. Although rebates are issued quickly - about a month after LIPA approves the operation of the system - customers say applying for and having a system installed can be a long process. "People are interested, really gung-ho," Minnick says, "then they hear the initial cost and they just back off."