Beginning in March, 2010, the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) will offer rebates to Colorado residents who install energy efficiency and renewable energy measures. Please note that the GEO rebates will not be retroactive. This means that measures purchased or installed before the GEO launches the program will be ineligible for rebates.
For Colorado Residents and Businesses:click here if you are a homeowner, landlord or business owner interested in receiving a rebate.
For Contractors:click here if you provide customers with energy efficiency or renewable energy services and want to know how this program affects you.
For Program Partners:click here if you are a local government or utility interested in partnering with the GEO to offer rebates in your territory.
The rebates will be offered statewide on a first-come, first-serve basis through 2012 or until funds are exhausted, whichever occurs first. All energy efficiency and renewable energy rebates are designed to complement existing local incentives and create partnership opportunities when possible. The GEO has developed this program based on stringent criteria from the U.S. Department of Energy and the needs of Coloradans. For general appliance and technology categories offered in March of 2010, please follow the link to “Colorado consumer residents” above. Funding for these rebates is provided by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
XCEL Energy lowered the rate they are paying for residential solar energy (systems under 10 KW in size), since they are exceeding the amount of renewable energy mandated by the government. Nth Degree Solar Energy keeps abreast of these issues so you don’t have to.
All customers get $2.00 per DC watt to offset cost of equipment. Commercial solar installations over 10 KW in size generate production electricity and get paid 11.5 cents per KW hour thye generate.
The rebate rate of $1.50 for residential customers is being lowered in step fashion as more solar PV arrays are installed. Check here for the current rate.
Nth Degree Energy uses the Acme camera kit and PV Watts to do a custom designed solution that fits the customers needs. Here is what an array shot looks like to determine the amount of sun hours a day:
Solar Analysis Chart
The solar array was installed on an empty field across a ditch from the house:
Grid-tied Solar PV electric system installation site
Here is a picture of the completed solar installation:
Description of location:
1: Latitude: 37.653 N Longitude: 106.660 W Elevation: 7750’
2: Declination: 9.8 deg E
3: Lowest Temperature -34deg F: Highest ambient Temperature 78 deg F
4: Total Electricity used/Year: 44,863 KHW Total Cost/Year $ 4,640.17
5: Panel Pitch: 35 Deg
6: Hours of Solar Radiation: 6.33 Hours /day fixed for summer
Picture of sunlight hours for House site: The site has 98% of sunlight hours. Sunlight 6.33Hrs / Available 6.20 Hrs
Calculate amount of solar needed to meet Electrical needs:
1: Average solar per Month: 44,863 KHW/12 =3,738.6 KWH/Mth
2. Average solar per day 3,738.6Kwh/30 = 124.612 KWH
3: Amount solar per hour: 124.612 / KWH/6.20hrs*1000watts/1KWH= 20,099 Watts/Hr
4. Inverter efficiency: (20,099 watts/hr)/.96 = 20,936 Watts/Hr
5: # of Sharp 235W panels: 20,936W/235W= 89.089 or 90 panels
6. # Inverters: 3 Sunny Boy 7000US (240V) Inverters
7. System Size 21.15 KW
8. Actual Size: 15.51 kW
I get asked a lot about net metering, and how it works, so here are some things to think about around net metering and solar power generation.
When you use electricity, it spins your power meter forward. You pay on this meter based on how many kilowatt hours you use during a measured period (usually a month).
If you install a grid-tied solar photovoltaic PV system, it will generate electricity. When this electricity flow through the system, it runs the meter backwards, or unwinds the usage that spins it forward.
During sunny days when nobody is home and electrical use is minimal, the meter flys backwards. Then you come home, after dark and start using the electricity and the meter goes forward again.
The key concept to grasp here is that you are essentially using the power companies grid (the lines that brings electricity to your home) as your storage mechanism, instead of having to have batteris to store the power you generate during the day to use at night.
From the utility company perspective:
Net metering is an agreement between the utility company and the system owner allowing for ‘banking’ excess power produced by a solar system in the electric grid and ‘drawing’ from [...] Continue Reading…
This article written by Nth Degree Solar Energy, a solar electric design and installation company.
For commercial enterprises in XCEL or Black Hill territory in the West, there has never been a better time to invest in grid-tied solar PV electricity systems. When you combine the dropping costs of solar installations, with the rebates from the electric power utility company and the federal tax rebates (convertible to a 60 day payable Grant option), and we are seeing final out of pocket prices less than $3 per kilowatt of module power generation.
But the lower initial cost is just the start of the advantages to business. If your solar system size is greater that 10 kilowatts, then it quilifies as an Electricity Production System, which means you get paid for the electricity you produce, in addition to the net metering that happens as you consume the electricity you generate.
The beauty of the production part of the electric generation is that the meter to measure you production is placed AHEAD of your usage meter. This means you get paid for ALL the electricity you produce, and get to use as much of it as you can for free. We call this the double [...] Continue Reading…
As a designer and installer of solar PV grid-tied systems, I am often asked about going off-grid with battery backup. Seems the economy has people wondering about long term survival on their own terms.
When you buy a modern grid-tied solar PV energy system, you are tied directly to the grid, which both provides your power as well as consumes the power your solar system makes. What you DO NOT have in a gird-tied system is continuous power from your solar arrays if the grid goes down.
If you want to maintain power when the electric company has lost power, then you need to have some form of storage system, such as batteries, to carry the load when the grid goes off line.
A grid tied solar electric system is pretty simple; modules connected via a converter to the meter, and onto the grid. Want battery backup? Now you need to have batteries and a charge controller, so that the system can switch between charin the batteries and draining the batteries, without your ocmputer crashing in the house when the grid goes down.
If you own a cell phone, an ipod or any other electronic device that depends on a battery, you know [...] Continue Reading…
A Residential Solar System is many thing to many people. If it is installed on a house in your neighborhood, is it residential? The electric utility companies generally define residential grid tied solar photovoltaic PV systems as anything less than 10 kilowatts of power generation capacity, anything larger is considered a commercial solar production system for electricity.
From the end user point of view, residential generally implies net metering, another confusing term to be defined on more detail later. At the end of the year, when youare net metered, you either pay to, or get paid by, the electric company based on your usage for the year less your generation for the year. Most utility companies limit your generation to 120% of your usage.
The good news: the electric power company generally pays you more up front to offset the cost of your solar system; the bad news is that in the long run, since all you can ever do is balance the meter, you cannot make solar a revenue producing income stream.
So how does the savvy homeowner get around this problem? Assuming this homeowner is affluent, there is a good chance they may be consuming enough of the electic juice [...] Continue Reading…
