Rooftop solar adds 522 Megawatts to the grid

By Idelle, September 8, 2009

Photo from: Gogreenelectricinc.com

Between 2006-2008, according to the Interstate Renewable Energy Council’s 2006-08 count, consumers added 522 megawatts to the grid. Utility companies, however, added added just 96 megawatts. This is quite a change of direction of where new power is coming from. Instead of utility driven megaprojects (acres of land covered in thousands of solar panels sending energy to the grid), solar rooftops are becoming the wave of the future. This is a good trend – instead of using up precious free space and wild places, we are looking to our existing structures for the space for solar energy. With the costs of solar panels continuing to drop, more and more homeowners and businesses may turn to solar systems to supplement their energy needs.

There is a downside to this increase: utility companies are starting to grumble about the new energy that is being produced from consumers, as they are concerned for their profits and the long term changes of consumer-fed energy. Utilities are now voicing concerns regarding the cost of distributing power and maintaining the electric grid. According to Xcel spokesman Tom Henley, many solar-powered customers don’t have a monthly bill, so they don’t pay embedded costs for things such as power plants, transmission lines, or equipment upgrades at power plants. Utilities also argue that they have to maintain the grid’s power day and night, rain or shine, and so they feel that solar powered users should have to pay a fee for their "back-up" energy they use when the sun isn’t shining.

Photo from: Solsourceinc.com

Utilities are now proposing "net-meter" tariffs to be applied solar consumers. Net metering occurs when a customer’s solar panels send extra electricity onto the grid. That energy is ‘netted’ against electricity a customer uses at night or on cloudy days, when the sun isn’t shining. Customers sending more power to the grid than they use roll the net month-to-month and get a check for the balance at the end of the year.

These utility company concerns came to the spotlight in Colorado, when Xcel Energy proposed a “net-meter” tariff to solar customers. The proposal to institute a minimum monthly fee for customers who get most or all of their electricity from solar power panels on their homes or businesses installed after April 2010. The public response was negative. Colorado Solar Industries Association (CoSEIA), along with the Governor’s Energy Office, and other renewable energy supporters mounted a grass-roots campaign to educate consumers, solar supporters and the public about the proposal. In response to the negative public reaction, Xcel Energy dropped its proposed “net-meter” tariff to solar customers. Of course, this is just the beginning of the consumer-generrated power issue. As more homeowners add solar energy to their homes, utility companies and consumers will have to find a solution to managing the costs of maintaining the grid.

Photo from: Aspensolar.com

As CoSEIA’s Beth Hart says, “Consumers are becoming more energy efficient and going down the road more and more to be renewable and to put solar systems on their home,” Hart said. “Any time these things happen, Xcel is losing money because their bills drop.

“We want the utility as backup power. That makes the most sense as an Xcel rate payer, as a Coloradoan, and as a nation. We want our utilities to stay viable. The question is how can we do that," Hart said.

"I truly believe this conservation is not rocket science,” she said. “Let’s talk about some flat fees, not convoluted calculations that don’t work.”

We will soon see how utility companies will work with homeowners and businesses to come to an agreement on how to handle the new influx of consumer-generated energy.

Sources: The Denver Business Journal, Pagosadailypost.com, Coloradoenergynews.com, CoSEIA

To find solar rooftop installers in Colorado, go to www.coseia.org