Solar Garden | Harvard Picked To Help ‘Solarize Mass.’
The town of Harvard, designated as a Green Community by the state’s Division of Energy Resources, was selected as one of four Massachusetts towns to participate in Solarize Massachusetts, a pilot program to promote installation of photovoltaic solar energy cells through bulk purchasing and community-based marketing.
On June 23, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and New England Breeze, Harvard’s chosen integrator for the program, held a public forum in Volunteers Hall to review plans, pricing and the program’s participation process.
MassCEC Executive Director Patrick Cloney told the crowd of over 100 residents that Gov. Deval Patrick had tasked the state Legislature with rebuilding the renewable-energy industry.
With supportive policies and innovative programs like the Commonwealth Solar Rebate Program and Solarize Massachusetts spurring growth in the solar sector, Cloney said, “the governor hopes to make clean energy a marquee industry in Massachusetts.”
“We are making great strides,” said Cloney. “The turnout in the four communities has been way beyond our greatest expectations.” The other three towns selected through an application and lottery process to participate in the program are Hatfield, Scituate and Winchester.
According to the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the number of solar companies in the commonwealth has swelled from about 30 in 2007 to approximately 200; employment in the state’s solar sector has more than
As a result of the MassCEC’s Commonwealth Solar rebate programs launched in 2008 and ARRA funding for solar on water-treatment facilities and other public buildings, Massachusetts saw a 20-fold increase in solar PV installations between 2007 and 2010.
The commonwealth is continuing that momentum with the help of the Department of Energy Resources’ Solar Renewable Energy Credit program launched last year, and Solarize Massachusetts, the pilot program announced by MassCEC and DOER last April to reduce costs and boost installation of solar power through education, grassroots marketing and group purchasing to accelerate the adoption of solar PV.
Solar 201
Cloney said the previous public forum, Solar 101, was set up to educate people on what solar is about, and that the purpose of this forum, billed as Solar 201, was to take a look at the financial package for solar investors.
Andy Brydges, director of MassCEC’s Renewable Energy Generation Program, said the goals of Solar 201 are to learn about specific packages for Solarize Mass customers, to get people to sign up for a site assessment, and to make everyone in the room advocates for Solarize Massachusetts.
“We want to make everyone an advocate for solar — all 5,000 residents of Harvard,” he said. “There has never been a better time to go solar in Massachusetts.”
Massachusetts has high electricity prices, enough sunlight to make it work, declining installation prices, available state and federal tax incentives, MassCEC rebates, solar hot-water rebates available through a separate program, and other available incentives, said Brydges.
The bottom line, he said, is that “high electricity prices plus numerous incentives equals economic solar projects.”
How it works
Project manager Kristen Ferguson of New England Breeze said the average installed price in the solar-rebate program as of May 2011 was $6 per watt.
New England Breeze’s Tier 1 purchase price, with fewer than 20 people participating, would result in an 8 percent savings, she said. The Tier 4 purchase price, with over 60 participating households, would result in a 33 percent savings.
Ferguson said the average New England home of 2,500 square-feet uses 7,500 kWh of electricity per year. At a cost of 15 cents per kWh, that comes to $1,100 annually.
A 5-kWh solar PV system would produce about 6,000 kWh — or 6 megawatt-hours — per year, which is nearly 80 percent of a household’s total annual usage. Homeowners getting four-fifths of their electricity from an installed solar PV system, and only buying one-fifth of their electricity from a utility company, would save $887 per year.
Furthermore, Massachusetts regulations require utility companies selling “regular” electricity to purchase a certain number of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates per year, including from their customers, if their customers have a solar PV system installed. SRECs are virtual certificates that can be sold by solar-energy producers on an open market. SRECs are bought by the megawatt-hour; so, a typical home installation producing 5 kWh per year, at a cost of $285 per SREC, would net $1,685 per year, paid by the utility company to the homeowner.
At $6 per watt, a 5-kWh system would cost $30,000 to install; when tax credits are included, that figure is reduced to $17,375. With an annual SREC income of $1,685, a Tier 1 solar installation would pay for itself in six to seven years.
The more installations that are done in the community, however, the lower the costs and the faster the system pays for itself. For example, if 60 or more systems were to be installed, the cost per watt would be about $4 and the after-tax-credit cost of the average system $10,375. At that price, the system could pay for itself in as little as three-and-a-half years.
How to sign up
Ferguson suggested the first step in assessing if solar is for you is to get a handle on your energy usage.
“Look at kilowatt-hour usage on your electric bill and what measures you’ve done to reduce that energy,” she said.
The next step is to schedule a home-energy assessment, by contacting MassSave at www.MassSave.com or 866-527-7283. The assessment is free; users pay for it through their utility bills as part of the commonwealth solar-rebate program. It generally takes six-to-eight weeks to get an
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