We always wanted to use green technology but had always assumed that it was still unaffordable. The system is very expensive, but, in our case, about two thirds of the cost will be given back to us via state and federal tax credits. AND, we've just learned that there is a market for the Renewable Energy Certificate that we will earn with the investment. We will sell our "REC" to an organization who will in turn sell the REC to a "dirty" power generation company.
The dirty power generation company will avoid being penalized for generating dirty (like coal fired....) power for having spent money for our REC. The money that they pay will be paid to us (and other REC sellers) in the form of a cents-per-kWh rebate.
Our rebate will be about $.20 per kWh! Plus, our local utility will pay us $.048 per kWh for putting all of our generated electricity on their grid (to be sold to others).
We will agree to continue to buy all of our electricity from our electric utility. And we agree to sell all of the electricity we generate to our local utility. Such an arrangement is called Buy All, Sell All. It is the only option in our area. Other arrangements exist in other areas. While we can get the $.20 rebate, it is a great arrangement.
Attached is a picture of our southern facing roof. We will install
24 Sharp brand 235 Watt panels. We will generate up to 5.4 kW of power. With the available sun in our latitude, we expect to generate 7300 kWh per year to sell to the local electric company. At the $.248 per kWh rebate amount, this will cover the entire cost of electricity for our home for the year.
Our home is about 3200 square feet on one floor . We operate two heating/cooling systems. One system's a/c has a rating of SEER 15 and is the one that handles most of our real living area. Another system takes care of a wing of our home that we do not use much. In fact, this wing of the house is a shelter for blind cats. The website that describes this shelter is http://www.themagooroom.org/
Tomorrow our installer, Southern Energy Management of Morrisville, NC will begin the installation. We intend to post news as it happens.
Pretty neat stuff. I see you have anticipated one of my questions. The other is, what if you just put everything on the north side? Wouldn't that keep it cool? You know, like out of the sun. And you realize that it's not creating much power at night right?
ReplyDeleteJim W.