All over California, rolling blackouts and rising electric bills are driving many utility customers to once again look at alternative energy sources to power their homes.
Several years ago, solar power grew in popularity as an alternative but most people did not opt to install solar panels in their homes because of the investment cost and a plentiful supply of cheap gas and coal-generated electricity.
But Southern California is a prime location for alternative types of electric generation; Because we have sunshine for most of the year experts say, it would quickly return the investment of purchasing solar panels.
“I would like to look into requiring solar panels as a part of our permit process,” said Sharon Barovsky, Malibu City Council member, of this power option. “In the end, it might be cheaper for the homeowner than paying the increased electric costs.”
Terry Tamminen, executive director of Environment Now, an environment foundation that supports environmental causes, lives in Studio City and uses solar power to power his entire home.
He said Actor Ed Begley, Jr. is a prime example of how a person can live a comfortable lifestyle and use alternative sources for power.
Begley charges batteries during the day, using solar panels, and draws from them when he needs power at night. He uses a solar-powered oven in his back yard. The oven condenses rays from the sun and manages to get up to 400 degrees.
“They are very inexpensive and you can bake and use it for all regular oven-cooking uses,” said Tamminen.
The power crisis, however, will impact the most those who can do the least about it, said Tamminen. “It’s sad that it will impact unfairly on the lower economic totem pole.”
However, everyone can save on the use of regular electric power through conservation measures.
“Saving a gallon of water also saves electricity because it takes electricity to pump the water into homes,” said Tamminen.
This is especially true for homes that are on wells, as is the case for many living in the Malibu hills.
“It’s not futuristic technology at all,” he said.
Architectural Energy Analyst, James Davis, who works with Astro Power / Bilt-Well, a joint venture that sells and installs solar panels, said photovoltaic panels (another name for solar panels) can help homeowners financially because they generate power that can be resold to the grid at retail prices.
Power in electric lines goes two ways. When solar panels generate extra electricity during the day, a home’s electric meter turns backwards, providing net metering. Because the solar user is sending electricity back into the grid, they are, in effect, giving power to the ISO. They can use this credit to draw power from the grid at night. Although a home may have solar panels, at night, homeowners may still need to draw power from the ISO grid, unless they use batteries.
Another benefit of using solar power is that when a system is installed, the cost is partially subsidized by the state. While the cost of installing solar panels is not inexpensive, it can be amortized over the years because homes do not need to draw on the grid so much, nor at all at times, and because of the net-metering feature.
On the high end, you can easily spend $30,000, said Davis, while the cheaper systems, which do not generate as much power, can cost $6,500. Typically, for a moderate-sized, single-family home, the cost is in the middle, about $21,000, down to $16,000 after the state’s subsidy.
It’s best to incorporate a system when a house is built or remodeled because the cost can be included in a tax-deductible mortgage, said Davis. The amount of time it takes for the system to pay for itself because of the savings was 10 to 12 years in the past, but with the rate increases expected in the coming years, it could be 4 to 5 years instead.
Another benefit about the solar approach is that a solar system does not require a lot of maintenance since there are no moving parts.
Solar panels can last up to 40 years, but they begin to fall off in efficiency in about 25 to 30 years.
Other renewable power options include geothermal power and tidal action power.
But the most efficient one is the sun. “It’s even effective on cloudy days,” said Tamminen.
For heating water, solar water heaters — which look like rectangular, rubber doormats where water circulates through the mat and is warmed up by the sun — can be used.
Additional useful information about renewable energy can be found at California’s Energy Commission Web site: www.energy.ca.gov. The Energy Commission is also making a cost-estimating program of photovoltaic and small wind generating systems available on a trial basis for use by retailers and potential residential customers at www.energy.ca.gov/cleanpower.