RK ARCHIVE - Solar Panel Incentives

My wife and I watched a special last night on WETA about solar panels. I'll get straight to the point. Many states have started incentive programs to encourage homeowners to install solar panels to provide electricity to the home, and also feed power back into the power grid when more power is available from the panels than the home requires. Is Virginia going to institute any such incentives?

My wife is an architect, and we have been remodeling our home over the past several years. We talked about adding the panels, but costs and logistics stopped us at this time. If there were an incentive offered by the state, I'm sure we would jump at the opportunity to do it.

Please consider an incentive program for homeowners and businesses to install solar panels.

ADDED: Actually, the show was technically about global warming, but in the context of the letter to the Governor, I just mentioned solar panels because that's what my question was about.

This is the link to the Frontline website, and also a link to the show schedule on WETA.

Comments

I second that question (Eric - 4/25/2007 10:34:39 AM)

To me, government incentives for businesses and individuals to invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements are critical. There are too many hurdles within the current system that discourage mass adoption of such technology. The government must get involved.

BTW - do you have any links to the show?

Here's the link.... (Pain - 4/25/2007 10:44:54 AM)

I also misspoke, sort of. I think the show was called "the politics of global warming". It talked a lot about the past several administrations and the mistakes they all made. None were ammune to bad behavior, but of course the present administration seems to have the biggest negative impact, surprise surprise.

http://www.pbs.org/w...

http://www.weta.org/...

The best way for America to rapidly conserve energy (relawson - 4/25/2007 9:45:38 PM)

1) switch to compact florescent. So easy - no reason not to.
2) Install a timer on your hot water heater. If you aren't taking a bath at 2:00pm or at work at the house is vacant - the water heater should be off! Timers cost $35 and an electrician can install it for $50. I did it myself.
3) Install a timer on your AC. If nobody is at home, the air (or heat if you aren't from Florida) can be adjusted. Very easy install - most people can do themselves. Cost: $49

If you do these three things, I can guarantee that after 3 months you will have your money back. The investment is so low there is no reason not to do this.

Other tips include installing solar panels (PV). I did this in Hawaii to get through college. Yes - I was once an electrician and specialized in photovoltaics (PV). Not sure if Virginia has net metering, but push for fair laws. In short - you should be able to sell your extra electricity for the same cost that it is purchased at. Also, tax incentives should be demanded so that people can afford to install them. Systems run a minimum of $5k - $10k is typical. I'm no longer in the shape I was in during college, but I could probably get on the roof and do that myself.

Check, Check, and no can do :) (Pain - 4/26/2007 8:26:08 AM)

I've already changed as many bulbs to CF as possible, but I agree everyone should do that in their most used fixtures and lamps. I will also change all the dimmable fixtures to CF as they burn out. Dimmable CF bulbs aren't cheap, and most of the dimmable fixtures we rarely use anyway so the cost and energy savings is hard to justify. Dimmable CF's will hopefully begin to come down in price as more people use them too, so ...

I've switched to a tankless water heater. And we've installed a metal roof, which I think gets us a tax break too, along with the tankless heater.

As for timing our AC, we turn it back in the daytime, but my wife works at home and so we can't turn it off completely. She is a lizard though, so she doesn't care if the temp reaches 82 inside ;) We have however zoned the house into 4 AC zones, which sounds like we have a huge house, but we don't. We just were able to zone it that way with how we remodeled it, and with the idea that as we age we won't need to cool the whole house if we only live in one section, so it was best to zone it properly now when we can afford it.

I received a letter from... (Pain - 5/18/2007 2:02:34 PM)

...the director of the Mines, Minerals and Energy department. Unfortunately, it was damaged in the mail and I can't read most of it. [500 pounds of junk mail a year and of the few important pieces, this one gets borked up.]I'm writing back to request another copy, but of the parts I can read, there are a few websites:

http://www.dsireusa....

http://www.energytax...

I'll post back if I receive another copy of the letter.