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a0128958
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Posts:470
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| 08/31/2009 8:56 AM |
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In Texas, here, I'm only aware of two retail providers that will pay you for your excess generated electricity at current retail prices.
The most favorable is Green Mountain Energy. They do have a 'cap' at 500 KWH each month.
There's no 'free lunch' though. GM charges on average about 1.5 cents more per KWH than most others. This makes sense. Obtaining and paying for electricity from individual homes will be GM's most expensive source of electricity.
Kinetic Energy also pays for your excess generated electricity at current retail pricing. Their 'cap' is simply that the bill can't go negative. I.e., they'll credit to you whatever you generate up to a zero bill.
Best regards,
Bill
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Real time energy monitoring system at:
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flyingfish
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Posts:7
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| 08/31/2009 9:33 AM |
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There's no 'free lunch' though. GM charges on average about 1.5 cents more per KWH than most others. This makes sense. Obtaining and paying for electricity from individual homes will be GM's most expensive source of electricity.
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Not necessarily that this is their most expensive electric. If the solar generation is happening during their peak hours. When you have to have high dollar turbines etc sitting around 95% of the time unused, that is very expensive electric. |
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ecobuilder
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Posts:86
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| 08/31/2009 9:40 AM |
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The process of net metering is not that simple here in MA. All of the public utilities are mandated to provide net metering and exchange watt for watt. In other words what ever you produce in excess is credited to your account for later use. They never pay you for your excess energy. However 30% of the states utilities are municipal and they are not subject to the same mandate. Most don't even provide net metering services making it impossible to justify producing more energy than you comsume at any time. The municipalities that do offer net metering can set their own rate of exchange. Some only credit you for excess energy at the wholesale rate they buy it for, then charge you the demand and delivery charge when you need it later.
It seems that not only does the regulations vary from state to state but electrical supplier to supplier. A good national policy would simplify the process and help to make sense of the tangled web of different regulations. I am not a proponent of government regulations but this is one area that they could make some serious strides to converting our energy future into a renewable one.
Tom Pittsley
ecobuilder@aol.com
www.eebt.org
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"Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is." Jackson Brown |
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toddm
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Basic Member
Posts:170
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| 08/31/2009 11:36 AM |
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Sorry, I missed the fact that you want to sell power as opposed to reduce your power bill. I am not sure I'd want to put my fate in the hands of the state legislature even if I had a utility that would pay retail today.
BTW, NJ has the most generous incentives I've seen. In addition to net metering, NJ utilities pay PV customers annually for helping them meet the state's renewable energy requirements based on what the utilities would have paid for that generation -- checks in the thousands of dollars. But again, unlike GNMA bonds, the NJ legislature can change the rules tomorrow. |
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a0128958
Registered Users
Basic Member
Posts:470
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| 08/31/2009 11:43 AM |
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Posted By ecobuilder on 08/31/2009 9:40 AM
... All of the public utilities are mandated to provide net metering and exchange watt for watt. In other words what ever you produce in excess is credited to your account for later use. They never pay you for your excess energy.
However 30% of the states utilities are municipal and they are not subject to the same mandate. Most don't even provide net metering services making it impossible to justify producing more energy than you comsume at any time.
... It seems that not only does the regulations vary from state to state but electrical supplier to supplier.
This is good illustration of how regulations vary from state to state. For example, in TX, there's no such mandate for public utilities to provide net metering and exchange it on a watt for watt basis.
Still, some do, such as Kinetic. I'm only aware of one, though (Green Mountain) that pays (at retail no less) for excess energy (up to 500 KWH per month)
I'm increasingly concluding that least risk consumer payback occurs with smaller systems, where you almost always consume every solar produced KWH (the system I'm going to put in, at 3.5 KW (DC), will be at or below my actual consumption 85% of the time). Still though, the payback is in double digit years.
In TX too business practice varies from supplier to supplier. For example, my supplier, TXU, doesn't currently do any net metering.
Best regards,
Bill
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Real time energy monitoring system at:
http://welserver.com/WEL0043/ |
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flyingfish
Registered Users
New Member
Posts:7
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| 08/31/2009 11:51 AM |
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| Here in Fla, FPL trades us watt for watt until end of year. If you have excess they do pay you, they paid me last year a couple of bucks :>) |
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ecobuilder
Registered Users
New Member
Posts:86
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| 09/03/2009 9:37 PM |
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I just heard that FPL also want to increase cost of power by 30%. Will thay also increase how much they pay to the consumer for excess power? Does Florida have any regulations regarding net metering or is this at the utilities discretion?
Tom Pittsley
ecobuilder@aol.com
www.eebt.org |
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"Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is." Jackson Brown |
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new2geo
Registered Users
New Member
Posts:17
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| 09/04/2009 10:59 AM |
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I just got a $70,000 quote for a 10 K system, which I was told would cover 100% of what I would need most of the time after my new addition is added. Here on Long Island, NY., we pay .215 for our elec., so we're among the highest rate payers in the country. However, I'm not sure my needs are as high as the guy estimates.
Rebates would drop the actual cost to $35,000, but the catch is our power company is about to stop them as of Sept 15th. So, if I want the rebates, I have to file a an application by then. I feel so crowded by the short time. There's no time for me to look into this. Apparently, the solar rebate program has worked so well that the power comany has decided to end it.
Just got a call back from the installer who says that the manufacturer dropped the price a bit so my system would be $67,500. It also turns out that my utility may not eliminate the rebates, but will probably lower what they will pay back. I found that out on my own. Apparently, local solar installers are leaving that bit out of their sales pitch.
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