Update: 28 April 2010:

My system is up and running and the PV system meter is over 2,200 as of now.

I turned in my Federal tax returns around 17 March, still waiting on refund.
Virginia DMME finally put the rebate form up on Thursday 22 April and I turned in my rebate on Monday 26 April (or at least I mailed it on Monday, as of Weds, it still apparently had not made it the 90 minutes to Richmond.

And as of today, I got the notice that my system was certified for SRECs, so with luck should start collecting money from those starting in early May.

Also my Dominion Electric bill was ZERO (actually had a $10.26 credit). Woo! Hoo!

Impressions so far:
I am liking it, It seems to be producing more power then I had estimated it would. I visibly saw a peak of 7203 watts from the inverters at one point in mid-March, which is more then the 7000 that was expected. Also my energy use is apparently lower then I had figured as well, because I seem to have far more excess then calculated (but then I calculated from data before I started switching out incandescent for CFL light bulbs). I could probably reduce my energy use even further, and will over time - no need to hurry.

I am happy that Virginia DMME finally put the rebate form up, but not so much how long it took.

I have loans that have to be paid off as soon as the federal tax credit and state rebates come in, which are costing me interest in the meantime. About a month later system payoff for each month delay on each, so would like them now.

For misc info,
Total System cost: $55,000 - $16,000 Federal tax credit - $14,000 State Rebate = sub-total of $25,000 - Whatever the SREC*s generate + Interest on Loan.
Based on 2009 Energy usage (not counting SRECs or inflation) payoff expected ~ Early 2026
With anticipated SREC's over 10 year life at $200 each (currently $240-$300), still not counting inflation: ~ Late 2020
With current expectation on SREC value over 10 years and likely inflation values ~ mid-2017

The panels should work to an acceptable level until 2050 (guaranteed through 2035)

WHY: Well because I could. As I keep telling people, I am a big believer in residential solar power. We could seriously offset fossil fuels significantly if every home/apartment/office building had solar panels on the roof instead of just roofing material. It won't replace it by itself, but in conjunction with Nuclear (and Wind with Hydro storage), we could probably achieve 95% reduction in fossil fuel use and for that remaining 5% could use bio fuels. I am not seriously concerned about global warming, but I am seriously concerned about the environment as a whole and the security of the United States from a reliance on fossil fuels. I also believe that history shows that the country with the most available energy wins any conflict. I believe that eventually energy will be the standard by which countries are judged powerful. Currently we use fossil fuels for energy (which includes production and transportation), those will run out some day and not needing them will be our best option. If we can establish electricity as the medium for energy and use renewable sources to generate that energy, we will be a stronger nation in the long run because of it.

The best way to achieve that goal is to make solar and wind affordable, the best way to make it affordable is spend enough money through investment to fully develop the technology. If we as a country invested as much on Solar and wind as we did on just oil, The prices of solar PV systems would drop incredibly fast over a multi-year period. My panels are apparently around the 17-18% efficiency range. there are currently lab tests going with 40% and a few with the equivalent of 80% (namely because they gather more spectrum of light at the same time), these need to be developed. meanwhile with all high-tech things, prices come down with volume and experience, so panels with the same efficiency as mine should be 1/2 the price in about 5 years, faster if there is more investment, slower if there is less). combine the two and in another 10-15 years we could have panels that produce 3x the power for 1/4 of the price of mine, now that is affordable. But only if enough funding to get the ball rolling is started.

The second part of course is that the Electric companies need to change from producers of electricity as their primary function to grid maintenance companies. Their primary responsibility becomes distribution and stability of electricity produced and used in multiple locations instead of a single location producing for multiple locations.

* note: Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SREC) are currently trading at between $240 and $300 each (as of Mar/Apr 2010). They are the equivalent to 1 megawatt of produced power. And are used to represent the cost of producing that 1Mw of power, not the power itself. Certain States have mandated that their energy companies produce a certain percentage of power from renewable power. The SRECs count against their totals and provide an incentive at the same time. As long as the rules remain the same and there are not huge increase in the number of residential producers such as myself the prices should remain fairly stable through 2020, after that all bets are off as some of the state requirements run out after that point. Of course the rules may change in which case I get $0 or they could change in the opposite direction and I get in excess of the $300 per SREC. Given $200 over ten years with my system expected to produce about 10 a year, I should get at least $20,000 from the SRECs over the ten year period. More is bonus. But even without the SRECs the system will pay for itself by 2026 (baring damage to the system) and will likely continue producing electricity through 2050, or 25 years of free electricity. I can deal with that.

This page last updated by Longwatcher at 1959 EST 28 Apr 2010
All images on this site © 2003-2010 Longwatcher
All Images on this page © 2009 and 2010 Longwatcher