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Rick Bogart, a Palo Alto resident, installed solar panels in 2006 not only because they are environmentally friendly but financially friendly as well.
Today he’s part of a growing minority that enjoys watching the electricity meter whirl the other direction.
Bogart and his wife live in a 2,200-square-foot, one-story house. Their electrical usage, an average of 800 kilowatt hours (kwh) a month, comes from an amalgamation of energy-efficient appliances, computers and an occasionally used spa.
An average residential home consumes about 700 kwh a month, according to Lindsay Joye, marketing engineer for the City of Palo Alto Utilities. Bogart may have above-average electrical usage, but with his solar panels operating he only has to purchase 75 kwh a month from the utilities.
Solar or photovoltaic (PV) systems consist of silicon panels attached to a roof, wired to an inverter box and electricity drawn into the house. The simple design enables PV systems to be quickly installed and easily maintained by the owner — by simply washing the dirt off.
Bogart and others are drawn to solar power because it produces energy sans pollution. A PV system will reclaim the energy used to produce it within three years, according to Kurt Newick, chair of the global warming committee at Sierra Club’s Loma Prieta chapter.
Conditions that limit solar panels are the direction of the roof (ideally south-facing), usable roof space, how much weight the roof can support and amount of shade. These assessments are done free by installers, according to Tom McCalmont, founder of REgrid Power located in Campbell.
Installers such as REgrid Power warranty solar panels for 25 years and inverters for 10. He expects panels to last 30 years and the inverter likely to be replaced once in that period.
Bogart’s 3.2 kw system produces enough electricity to cover 90 percent of his home’s usage. During summer months, when the system produces more electricity than he consumes, the CPAU automatically deducts charges from other parts of his utility bill.
Today a system like his would cost around $28,800 without rebates.
Palo Alto residents are eligible for rebates through the PV Partners Program, which provides $2 for each watt of the PV system’s power. A second rebate is a pre-existing federal income-tax credit updated for 2009 — a $2,000 cap was removed from the 30 percent credit for PV installations. The tax credit applies to the cost of a system after the rebate is deducted.
If Bogart were to buy his system today, the CPAU would rebate him $6,400 for his 3,200 watt or 3.2 kw system; additionally he would receive a tax credit for $6,720. The total rebated cost for his system would be under $16,000 — about 45 percent lower.
He expects to earn back his return on investment within 25 years and estimates he is earning 50 percent more than if he put his money in a certificate of deposit at the bank.
While still the cost of a car, Joye reasons that investing in solar, “you’re paying for the electricity that system will make all at once.” And when a rebated solar panel’s price is calculated over the amount of energy it will produce in its perceived 30-year lifetime, the price is actually equivalent or less than today’s utility rates — or at “grid parity.”
Grid parity means solar is a viable energy alternative, and as the industry develops, prices will fall further, Newick said. This is counter to rising electric rates (that rise about 4 percent a year) while the “price of solar panels have gone down 15 percent in the last six months” (partly due to the recession and supply catching up with demand), he said.
To date, the PV Partners program has rebated 320 commercial and residential installations, 78 in 2008 alone. However, less then 1 percent of all energy produced is from solar, Newick said.
Solar permit process casts a shadow
“Palo Alto is one of the toughest cities in California for (solar panel) permitting, if not the toughest,” according to Jonathan Bass, spokesman for Foster City based SolarCity. The company has 48 customers in Palo Alto and operates in California, Oregon and Arizona.
“The city’s requirements are above and beyond what building code dictates. Their approach to approving electrical plans is so extensive that it can cost the installer or end customer thousands more in some cases,” he wrote in an e-mail.
As a result, some solar installers will not take work in Palo Alto, according to Tom McCalmont, founder of REgrid Power in Campbell. The company has 100 installations in Palo Alto.
Solar permit requirements in Palo Alto are set higher because “in addition to the property owner, we’re also accountable to the utilities department and all the rate payers,” Larry Perlin, chief building official, said.
The permit process is designed to facilitate the installation of reliable systems and not intended to be onerous, he said.
Palo Alto is not the only city with difficult solar permits. “Every city has a different check process … some are way worse than others, and Palo Alto used to be good and it’s not anymore,” David Coale, an industry professional, said.
While disagreements exist, Palo Alto has received recognition for its solar adoption. In a 2007 national “Top Ten Utility Solar Integration Rankings” report by the Solar Electric Power Association, Palo Alto appears in top-10 lists for solar capacity per customer, Perlin said.
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