Homeowners, businesses, city of Madison embracing renewable energy systems

Anita Weier  —  11/05/2008 12:37 am

Demand for solar power is hot in Madison.

"There are more than two times as many solar electric systems being installed by MGE customers than in other large utilities around the state," said Niels Wolter, solar electric program manager for Focus on Energy.

The city of Madison has done more than other cities in the state to advance solar power, added Wolter.

"There is quite a partnership here, with the city and MGE," he said. "We blow other Wisconsin cities out of the water."

Sherrie Gruder, a sustainable design specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension, agrees: "There is disproportionately more solar in Madison than other cities in Wisconsin."

Since 2002, 70 solar electric systems in Madison have been co-funded or approved for co-funding by Focus on Energy, a statewide public-private partnership administered by the Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp. and overseen by the state Public Service Commission.

Forty-nine of those systems were for private homes, six are owned by the city of Madison, two by other government entities, six by nonprofits and seven by businesses. Additionally, Focus on Energy in Madison has co-funded hot water systems for 52 homes and 16 nonprofit organizations.

Another sign that demand is high for solar power in Madison: About 270 people have requested free solar power consultations for their homes or businesses since the city hired consultant Larry Walker in early June. Walker advises property owners on whether it would be to their advantage to install solar panels to provide electricity or hot water.

The financial incentives for installing solar panels got a recent boost when a provision to continue providing federal tax credits for solar installations was quietly tucked into Congress' $700 billion federal financial bailout bill.

The tax credit, which otherwise would have expired at the end of year, will now be available for another eight years. And while it remains capped at 30 percent of the cost of the installation, it will no longer be limited to $2,000. Businesses can also depreciate the equipment at an accelerated rate.

Moreover, the state Focus on Energy program provides rebates for solar equipment purchases based on how much energy is generated by a solar system. Utilities in Wisconsin also offer buyback payments for excess power produced.

Solar projects are visible around Madison. MGE owns, operates, monitors or helps maintain systems at, among other places, the Goodman Pool, the Lussier Family Heritage Center, the Society of Friends Meeting House, an Arboretum visitor center addition and the MATC Truax campus.

Area schools have also gotten into the act. The Madison Gas & Electric Foundation has paid for solar demonstration projects at 10 area high schools where students can view real-time, web-based monitoring systems that record energy output and weather information.

Jim Jensen, community education manager for MGE, said rising energy costs make such educational opportunities particularly relevant: "This is the perfect time for teaching about alternatives as well as energy conservation."

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is a strong believer in solar power and has pledged to double the use of solar electric and hot water power in the city by 2011.

It is likely the city will succeed.

Madison is among 25 cities nationally chosen to participate in a federal Solar America Initiative. Madison's part of the initiative -- MadiSUN -- received a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy plus technical assistance, and the project is supplemented by funding from Focus on Energy, MGE and the city.

Walker was hired by the city as a consultant as part of MadiSUN.

"The response has been overwhelming," said Walker, who responds to calls that come in on the city's solar hotline (243-0586).

"People are waiting to get their quick look," he said. "We prescreen with the city's Geographic Information System and Google StreetView photos, to see if there are a lot of trees around the house. We make site visits if the property qualifies."

Much of the success of solar panels depends on whether the business or home has a south-facing roof and whether shading from trees prevents the sun from shining through.

Walker has visited and assessed about 70 sites. So far one large commercial system has been installed and several

homeowners are in the process of getting quotes from contractors, he said.

The cost of solar systems varies with the size of the building, and systems that provide electricity are about twice as expensive as hot water systems, Walker noted. A 2-kilowatt electrical system costs about $18,000, but state and federal rebates would reduce the tab to about $8,800. That cost, he added, would be recouped over 18 years in savings from reduced utility bills. The cost of a typical solar hot water system is about $9,600, or $4,690 after rebates. It would take about 12 years in utility bill savings to recoup that cost.

The city of Madison owns 15 solar systems -- hot water systems at 11 fire stations as well as electric power systems at an engineering services building, the Alicia Ashman Library, and two abandoned landfills, said Kay Schindel, an engineer with the Madison Department of Public Works.

A solar power system also is being installed by H&H Solar Energy Services on a new rental car canopy at the Dane County Regional Airport, said Chris Collins, marketing director for the company.

Fifty panels will be installed, said Collins, and "staggered like a sawtooth pattern, so the first row doesn't shade the second. It will be pretty dramatic."

H&H also installed the first commercial installation through MadiSUN at Bobby Hind's Lifeline USA company.

"This year alone, our company has installed 50 or 60 systems, about 80 percent residential and 20 percent commercial, mostly for electric power," Collins said.

H&H Group Inc. also added solar power to its own headquarters on Syene Road. An advanced solar tracking system attached to the building follows the sun across the horizon.

"It also tilts to track the sun, which is higher in summer than in winter," Collins said. "The more time that solar panels are perpendicular to the sun, the more electricity they produce.

MGE does not sell solar equipment to customers or install it, but the utility does offer options that increase the use of renewable energy in the state.

The Green Power Tomorrow program, for instance, allows residential customers to pay about $6 a month on top of regular bills in order to help the utility acquire power from such alternative sources as wind farms. About 11,700 residents and 160 businesses in Dane County have signed up for the program.

MGE also will buy back energy from customers who have solar installations and want to sell power. Customers can sell all the electricity their system makes back to MGE or use it all themselves to reduce bills.

"One of our customers -- a single person who was very energy conscientious and had a small house -- was able to make just about all their own electricity for a year, but most people will not achieve that. A large family with a big house and some shade on the roof could make perhaps 10 percent of their energy," said Dave Toso of MGE.

MGE's Clean Power Partners program buys electricity from residences and businesses that install solar equipment and want to participate. Thirty residential customers and 15 businesses have signed up since the program started in January. The utility pays 25 cents per kilowatt hour. Such customers have two meters, one measuring electrical use and the other how much energy is taken out of their system.

"The purpose of this program is to encourage new solar systems," said Jeff Ford, an analyst for MGE.

Jeff Riggert, 38, said the solar electrical system installed in his three-bedroom, one-story home in east Madison in 2006 has worked extremely well. The solar panels on his south-facing roof now produce 100 percent of his electricity.

Because he uses less energy than he produces, 40 kilowatt hours per month goes back to the electrical grid for others to use. A separate solar water system supplies 90 percent of his domestic hot water needs. Riggert, an energy efficiency consultant who works out of his home, saves more than the average customer who is away all day.

"Everything was as I expected," Riggert said. "The Focus on Energy rebates and tax credits are great incentives. The technology is fine and there is a 25-year warranty on the equipment."

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Wisconsin's long gray winters should not stop anyone from installing solar panels to provide electricity or hot water.

Clouds do limit power, but snow can help boost it when the sun shines.

"There is an interesting phenomenon when snow is on the ground," said Dave Toso, a senior engineer at Madison Gas & Electric. Ground-mounted solar arrays, typically mounted on poles and closer to the ground than roof-mounted solar panels, can benefit from sunlight bouncing off snow, he said.

Moreover, electrical equipment is more efficient when it is cooler, because hot weather produces higher resistance in electrical circuits, Toso and other experts said.

Larry Walker, the solar energy consultant for the city of Madison, said solar electric output drops in the winter because the days are shorter and the sun is weaker.

"The intensity of sunlight is about half in winter, but it can reflect on the yard and bounce up," he said. "People do say they get a boost from snow reflecting up to the house."

He doubts that the snow-powered sun bounce could work on a two-story house, however.

Jim Winkle, a Madison homeowner who had solar panels installed in April 2007, said that excessive snow can be problematic if the solar panels remain partially covered over long periods of time.

Last winter when Madison got 100 inches, Winkle said, "We had six weeks with not one iota of electricity."

Though some people scale their roof to clear panels, Winkle, who has a steep roof, will not.

Chris Collins, marketing director for H&H Solar Energy Services, said automated solar tracking systems that adjust to the sun's movement also can be manipulated manually to clear away snow.

Sherrie Gruder, a sustainable design specialist for the University of Wisconsin-Extension, said Wisconsin's northern latitude does not prevent the state from using sun power to great advantage.

"Arizona can do more and different things because that state has sun all year," she said. "For us, on-site distributed energy on rooftops makes sense. It does work."

Anita Weier  —  11/05/2008 12:37 am