PLANT CITY, February 26, 2006
Jon Butts knows the array of solar panels on the roof of his barn won't pay for itself anytime soon. He's content knowing the less power he buys from Tampa Electric Co. the more greenhouse gases can be kept out of the atmosphere.
Even so, the power of the sun will help energize Butts' bank account.
In January, he became the first Tampa Electric customer to connect his home's solar electric system into the utility's power system that serves Hillsborough County and parts of Pinellas, Pasco and Polk counties.
Butts estimates he'll save 40 percent on his monthly energy bill. The utility also will give him a credit equivalent to the cost of fuel Tampa Electric won't have to burn to generate electricity because of Butts' solar use.
It will take a long time for him to recoup the $16,000 he spent on the solar panels and other equipment that help power his home at 4451 Needle Palm Road in Plant City.
"Obviously, I wasn't looking at it for a monetary payback," Butts said. "In Tampa, we have cheaper power than in most places because we're using cheap, dirty coal" to generate electricity.
"I've read articles on people who have analyzed the whole thing of doing a system," he said. "The payback is 16 years. Maybe, in the future, it might be a really good investment on my part."
Tampa Electric's program to tie customers into the grid has existed for six years, but no one, until now, had taken advantage of the program, said Alan Denham, program manager for renewable energy at Tampa Electric. The utility has just one other customer scheduled to be connected to its power system.
That slow pace to adopt solar power can be seen throughout Florida. In the Sunshine State, where one would think solar use would sizzle, consumers have been cool to invest in either of the two types of solar power: solar photovoltaic or electric, where the sun's energy is converted to power for the home, and solar thermal, where the sun's rays are used to heat water and pools.
Subsequently, in terms of installed solar systems and manufacturing of solar equipment, Florida lags behind other states that have a great deal of sunny days year-round: California, Arizona and New Mexico. But the Sunshine State also trails a northeast and northwest contingent of states, such as New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Washington and Oregon. Those states have high electric rates and offer significant incentives, making it reasonable for consumers to install solar systems, experts said.
The Sunshine State is behind because of the high cost of installing a solar electric system ($20,000 to $24,000), relatively low electric rates and very few financial incentive programs from the state.
Even at Progress Energy Florida Inc., the second-largest utility in the state with 1.5 million customers, just 11 residential customers and 26 commercial customers have had their solar systems tied into that company's electric grid.
Looking At Other States
Noah Kaye, a spokesman for the Solar Energy Industries Association in Washington, said growth in solar installations, businesses and jobs involved in the industry indicates locations that provide the most financial incentives.
California and New Jersey are leaders in solar installations in the United States because they have programs that help reduce their residents' costs significantly.
The cost to produce solar power on average is six times the 5-cents-per-kilowatt-hour average of electricity generated by burning natural gas. Although it can vary depending on the size of the system, the average cost of a kilowatt-hour of electricity from solar power is about 30 cents, according to Solarbuzz Inc., an international solar research and consulting firm based in San Francisco.
The cost of solar power competes directly with retail electric rates, Kaye said.
Solar systems in the Northeast may not generate as much power as those in the South, but because of higher electric rates, the impact on the bills is the same.
Changes On Horizon
But experts expect Florida's role in solar power to change this year.
Last year, President Bush signed an energy law that allows consumers to take a tax credit of 30 percent, up to $2,000, for solar systems installed from Jan. 1, 2006, to Dec. 31, 2007. Florida legislators also have filed several bills that would encourage consumers and businesses, beyond the current break on sales taxes and a program for new home builders, to invest in solar technologies.
A bill filed by state Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Daytona Beach Shores, calls for the creation of the Florida Solar Incentive Program by July 1. House Bill 713 also would establish a $1.2 million fund each year for five years to provide rebates for owners of solar photovoltaic systems that tie into the state's electric grid. The maximum rebate for residential systems would be $20,000, according to the proposed bill.
Another bill, HB 767, would create the Energy Efficiency Incentive Program by July 1. Under the program, consumers could seek a matching grant to pay for solar water heaters or low-interest loans to purchase solar panels to generate electricity.
The average cost of a solar water-heating system is about $4,000.
Companion bills in the state House and Senate call for the creation of the Alternative Energy Technology Center that would promote research, conservation, distributed generation, advanced transmission, pollution and renewable energies, including solar power. Still other bills seek to encourage contractors to install energy-efficient and renewable-energy systems when building.
"I think the tax credit will increase interest" in solar energy, said Kevin Lynn, a senior research engineer at the Florida Solar Energy Center at the University of Central Florida in Cocoa. "Prices are coming down. But no one is kidding anybody. Right now, it's not competitive with utilities. You're not going to save money off your utility bill."
Lynn said many Floridians are considering solar power systems as backup power for their homes after finding themselves in the dark for days or weeks the past two hurricane seasons.
But experts suggest putting in orders early if consumers want to get solar equipment in the near future.
Worldwide demand for solar photovoltaic and solar thermal equipment is far outstripping supply, creating a shortage of the polysilicon that makes up the solar panels and buoying prices.
Since 2001, the solar industry has grown 35 percent each year, said Kaye, the spokesman from the Solar Energy Industries Association. From 2003 to 2005, the manufacture of solar equipment doubled, he said.
Solar power is a $15 billion industry worldwide.
Not surprisingly, the top two countries using solar power, Germany and Japan, offer the most grandiose financial incentives, experts said.
Kaye said Germany went from having 18 percent of the world's solar installations to just less than 50 percent of the market last year.
"They sucked up 50 percent of the panels," he said. "The German government rewards owners of photovoltaic systems by paying them a fixed rate guaranteed for 20 years. It allows owners of the system to treat it as an investment."
Although such a sweeping program is unlikely in the United States and Florida, John Gambill, who runs Tarpon Springs-based Hotwire Enterprises with his wife, Libbie Ellis, thinks the time for Florida residents to begin investing in solar has arrived.
He designed the 16-panel, 2.8-kilowatt system Butts installed on his barn, and Gambill is working on five more systems.
With all the new homes going up in Florida, he said, he doesn't understand why homeowners and builders aren't taking advantage of SunBuilt, a state program that helps reduce a builder's cost for a solar water-heating system.
"It's just making sense, especially if you're building a new house right now and you live where there is a lot of sunshine," Gambill said. "You can incorporate the cost of the solar into the house. It's not going to cost as much as if you were to retrofit it onto the house.
"Put it in the mortgage."
Here are some federal and state incentive programs and policies on solar power. For details on these and other programs, go to www.dsireusa.org.
Federal:
Florida:
Source: Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy
People interested in installing a solar photovoltaic, or solar electric, system on their home and tying it into the Tampa Electric Co. power system can call Alan Denham, program manager for renewable energy, through the utility's customer service center at (813) 223-0800.
Tampa Tribune
