Solar Solutions

If there’s anything that the city of Lancaster, California, is known for, it’s sunlight. The community located in the high desert north of Los Angeles county gets approximately 300 days of sun per year, which makes it the perfect location for widespread integration of solar power. Mayor R. Rex Parris has made it a goal for the city to be completely energy independent, or “net zero” as it’s known, within the next three years.

Among the various policies that have been adopted to make this happen is a law the requires new homes to be built with solar panels. The city has also made it clear that they will accommodate developments and commercial projects that promise to rely on renewable energy for power production.

“We would be the deepest well if you were to imagine that [sunlight] was oil,” Parris told CBS News. “And what’s oil but power? And what’s solar but power?”

Currently, the city derives about half of its electrical needs for solar power, and leads the state in terms of solar power produced per capita. Over six thousand panels have been installed on the city’s buildings, including its baseball stadium, schools and local malls. The increased reliance on photovoltaics has also helped the municipal budget situation. Deputy City Manager Jason Caudle states that Lancaster pays about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour for its solar power, a major improvement over the 18 cents it was charged by utility companies.

And contrary to popular belief that such aggressive renewable energy goals can be a hindrance to economic development, Mayor Parris reports that the city’s residents and businesses have been extremely supportive of the idea, as California solar energy has helped them make their companies more cost-effective. Here’s to the citizens of Lancaster and hoping that many cities follow their example.

California is continuing its march toward a renewable energy future. New statistics show how the growth of the solar industry has accelerated and shows little sign of slowing down for the rest of the year.

Utility Solar Propels California at the Top

The Golden State added a record-breaking 521 megawatts (MW) of solar generating capacity from April to June of this year. This was an all-time high for any state over a three month period, and made up 53 percent of the total amount added by the nation during the same time frame.

The growth in California was fueled, in part, by the completion of large-scale projects such as the California Valley Solar Ranch near San Luis Obispo. The other 41 percent came from residential and commercial solar arrays on rooftops and private property.

Pro-Solar Policies Spur Growth in Other States

After California, the next four states to add the most solar energy installations were North Carolina, New Jersey, Arizona and Texas. Many solar experts speculate that the increase in solar expansion is related to favorable state policies and more progressive energy policies.

California, in particular, has made aggressive efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuel sources such as coal and natural gas. Other regions of the country, such as Arizona and New Jersey, have fostered growth of solar in their states with similar laws and incentive programs.

Importance of Legislature Moving Forward

It’s paramount for the solar industry and its customers to continue pursuing legislative efforts at the state and federal level. Programs like Net Energy Metering, rebates for California solar panels, and the Federal Renewable Energy Tax Credit need to be extended and renewed until solar costs become competitive with conventional power in the absence of subsidies.

Unfortunately, utility companies have stepped up their efforts to prevent solar incentive programs from being extended. Mainly because they’re concerned that their profits will decrease and they’ll lose control of the way residents generate and use electricity.

Hopefully, the state legislature can recognize that it is in the best interest of Californians everywhere, whether they have solar energy at home or not, to spur more growth in renewable energy sources. Then, perhaps, California can look forward to leading the nation in megawatts of solar energy installed not just in Q2 of 2013, but for many years to come.

Now that you have gone solar and have a Net Energy Metering (NEM) contract with Edison, you will be receiving a monthly Edison bill that is different from what you are accustomed to seeing. We think it’s important that you understand what these bills are telling you, and hopefully this explanation will help you quickly assess your charges or credits.

On the first page of your new Edison bill, there is an item that has created a great deal of confusion. It is the item called “Net Generation.” This is the amount of electricity your solar system has generated that has exceeded your consumption; it is NOT the amount of energy that your system has produced in that billing period. The LCD display on your solar inverter will tell you how much electricity your solar system is producing right now and also how much it has produced since the first day it was turned on.

Edison has their Smart Meter in place only to measure how much electricity they send to your home, or how much electricity you may send back to them. This Smart Meter actually has no idea what your solar system is generating. It simply measures the amount of electricity that you take from Edison (when you are using more than the solar system is producing), or the amount of electricity that you send back to them (when you are using less than the solar system is producing).

Typically, during the daytime your solar system is producing more electricity than your house is using and you are sending the excess back to Edison for a credit. When the sun goes down and the lights in the house go on, the solar system turns stops producing energy and you are now taking electricity from Edison. Some months have more sunshine than others and in some months you use more electricity than in others. So, at the end of the month you may have either a credit or a charge on your Edison bill.

The summary of net charges and credits is usually displayed on either the 3rd or 4th page of your Edison bill and is highlighted in a square box on the upper right hand section of the page. Within the box a sentence states:

Additional information regarding your Net Consumption/Generation

• This information will show your cumulative charge or a credit as of the previous month
• Your current month energy charge total;
• Your accumulated energy charge Year-to-Date;
• Your accumulated kilo-Watt hour (kWh) consumption Year-to-Date.

This is important information and will inform you as to the status of your financial position with Edison’s billing.

At the end of the billing year (starting from when your solar system was first turned on) you will receive a bill which tallies all of the credits and charges from each month. If you used more electricity than your system has produced in that year, then you must then pay this total. If your solar system has generated more electricity than you have used over the year, Edison will actually pay you. It is important to pay attention to the information on your monthly Edison bills so that you are NOT surprised if you still owe Edison a substantial amount of money at the end of the billing year.

If you have any questions with regard to Edison billing practices, you may contact one of the Edison representatives who understand NEM at (866) 701-7868.

Rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems that deliver California solar energy to homes and small businesses are a great way lower or even eliminate utility bills, but each panel array represents only a small part of the overall energy infrastructure.

This has led many electrical companies, developers, investors and governments to press for the construction of utility-scale solar farms that can add hundreds of megawatts of generating capacity to the state’s renewable energy portfolio.

Projects like the Ivanpah Solar Generating Station in the Mojave Desert and the California Valley Solar Ranch (CVSR) in San Luis Obispo, California, promise to expand solar power in the Golden State, but these plants are difficult to get off the ground for a number of reasons.

The Ivanpah facility ran into delays because of those concerned with the native desert tortoise population. The CVSR and other plants often face heated opposition from local residents who fear the stations will create “visual pollution” that could lower property values.

On the other hand, rooftop solar installations on homes and small businesses face none of these problems. Though smaller in size, they can be constructed quicker and when adopted on a wide scale, could end up contributing to the electric grid as much as utility-scale projects.

If the number small-scale solar installation projects continue to grow, it will be good news for the economy and environment. Solar power provides a clean, renewable and steady source of energy unaffected by the price instability that plagues fossil fuels, and could help mitigate the effects of air pollution and anthropogenic climate change.