Living With Solar--PG&E Owes Me Money

It's been a couple of months since I last blogged. Summer is here and so are peak time power rates. This means that PG&E pays three times as much for the power generated on our roof. May's electric bill was -$33.00, June, -$44.00! Yes, that's minus 33 and 44 dollars and this will continue throughout the summer!

We had estimated that at the end of our first year "true up" period with PG&E, we would owe about $600.00, based upon using 1000Kwh per month. However, after changing to CFL bulbs and being more aware of conserving electricity due to going solar, we have reduced our power consumption to 700Kwh hours per month. Bottom line is we expect to pay around $200 or less to PG&E for the whole year's electric bill! $200 is a whole lot better than the $2664.00 we used to pay annually to rent our electricity instead of own it. Multiply that savings over 30 or more years that our solar system will be generating clean power, even if utility rates stayed the same, and this adds up to serious savings!

Natural gas prices have climbed from $1.10 to $1.61 per therm from January to June, this is where most people's electricity comes from, so PG&E will be raising electric rates in October. We've already seen natural gas bills rise, just like gasoline keeps doing almost daily.

Electric rate hikes will have very little impact on our bill for the next 30+ years. When we buy our first electric car in a couple of years, charged by our solar system, we won't have to worry about ridiculous gas prices as much either. (Our solar system already recharges our Duffy electric boat.)

Meanwhile, in my neighborhood, besides one neighbor who went solar during our community program, I keep seeing people put in expensive paver driveways, new grass, fancy front doors and copper rain gutters, all of which look great, but these are often the same folks whose first question about solar power is, "what is the ROI?" I think I can safely say a lot better than that new driveway!

Solar For Free!!

SolarCity, our solar community program partner, has just announced a No Money Down lease program right on the heals of their new lease program that required a $2000 down payment. Now there is no upfront cost and the lease payment could be covered by the savings on your electricity from the clean solar power generated on your roof.

So, let's review, no money down, your lease payment is covered by your electric bill savings from day one. All maintenance is covered. Oh yeah, there are still two weeks left in the Foster City Solar Community Program to get in on the community discount. The only question left is, why wouldn't you go solar? By the way, my March electric bill was only $25--a long way down from the $222 I used to pay before going solar!

Click here for a San Jose Mercury News story about the no money down lease program.

Big News! Community Program Extended Due to New Lease Program!! Now Everybody Can Afford to Go Solar!!!

The Foster City Solar Community Program has been extended until April 30, due to a new solar lease program being announced today by SolarCity! The lease program offers Foster City residents the opportunity to go solar without the high up front costs of purchasing the equipment.

Now it is possible to go solar for a small down payment of $2000 and low monthly lease payment with the option to buy the equipment at the end of the lease, transfer it to the new owners of your home if you were to move, or just give back the equipment at the end of the lease.

The savings on your PG&E electric bill could pay for the lease payment, making your solar system cash flow neutral. Any maintenance is covered for the duration of the lease.

Please click on this link, SolarCity Lease Program, for more details.

Going solar in the month of April means taking advantage of the community program discount and being able to lease your solar system--energy independence is easier than ever before!

Only 10 Days Left, 5 Families Going Solar!

We're in the last days of the Foster City Solar Community Program, after March 31st it will cost more to go solar. I'm happy to say that 5 families have signed up to make a difference towards energy sustainability--that's more than half of all the people who went solar in Foster City in all of last year!

If you've been thinking about owning your electric power instead of renting it your whole life, if you want to do something that helps our future starting today, if you want to help protect yourself from rising energy costs, be ready when plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars arrive, and enhance the value of your home, this is the time to Go Solar!

Solar power is the only major home improvement item that makes money every day, it helps give you control of your own energy self-sufficiency and it just plain makes you feel good! Be part of the solution, Go Solar!!

Last Month for Solar Discounts!

We are less than a month away from the end of the Foster City Solar Community Program, the state rebate is going down soon and the solar purchase discount program will be over on March 31 for our city.

We just received our PG&E electric statement, the fourth month of going solar at our house. November through February electric charges have averaged $85 per month, that's down from an average of $222 per month prior to going solar. So, we have saved $137 per month in the worst winter months for sun! I'm really looking forward to the spring and summer months of sun, where we expect to save well over $150 per month, or a total of $2000 a year.....that's every year for the next 40 years or more, and only if electric rates stay the same as today--which of course won't happen. The reality is, we're going to save more and more money every year, this decade, the next decade and the next decade and beyond, because solar panels keep going and going and going, just like the Energizer Bunny makes power!

If you're spending $150 or more per month on electricity, you owe it to yourself, and your family to attend one of the last two free solar seminars, Wednesday, March 5 and Thursday, March 20. What have you got to lose, except our planet?

Only 45 Days Left!

Today's date means that there are only six weeks left for the Foster City solar purchase program discount. Furthermore, the state rebate is expected to be lowered sometime in March and this is the last year of the federal 30% ITC, which is why businesses are jumping on the solar bandwagon in 2008. I was just checking out the eBay campus--rooftop after rooftop of solar panels have just been installed there.

To date, only two FC homes have signed up to go solar, which isn't much, but to put it into perspective, there were only nine solar permits issued in Foster City in all of 2007. I've been monitoring other Bay Area solar community programs going on right now and am happy to say that they are doing very well with sign ups.

There are two dozen site evaluations scheduled in Foster City, many have already been completed, so I am hopeful of a more positive result for our city in the weeks ahead.

There are a couple of things we should all keep in mind--first, the time is past to be worried about aesthetics, our planet needs our help and solar panels look a lot better than wind turbines on our roofs. Second, comparing the cost of solar power to today's dirty energy rates from PG&E has little to do with the energy rate levels in the next three to five years and beyond. Power goes up every year, especially the higher tiers, which is a huge profit center for PG&E. The PUC seems to let them get away with charging whatever they want as a way to punish higher electric energy home users.

The cost for solar amortized by lifetime kWh generated is around 20 cents per. This compares favorably to the higher tiers that PG&E charges, which is more like 30 cents per kWh. The latter number will only be going up and historically, much faster than inflation. Solar power rates are locked in for 30 or more years, perfect for those expecting to be on a fixed income at retirement age.

If solar power didn't make longterm economic sense, it wouldn't be used in new, low income housing developments in cities such as Oakland. Or at the Oakland Zoo. Or at more and more schools and government buildings and factories.

I do not want to look a child in the eyes and tell them that I didn't give much thought to their time on our planet after I'm gone. Please consider solar power for their future.

Dirty Houses!

When people think about causes of pollution, usually the first thing that comes to mind is emissions from our cars. We know that burning gasoline is a big source of C02, but what about our homes?

Well, it turns out that our homes account for about half of our carbon footprint. Our electricity needs account for a large part of the C02 emissions in the air. 70% of U.S. electricity produced is derived from the burning of fossil fuels. Only 12% of the energy we get from PG&E comes from clean, renewable sources that don't impact the environment severely. Every time we turn on the coffee maker, flick on the light switch, watch the big plasma TV or run the microwave, we are using dirty power.

Solar power can make a big difference. We know that we need electricity, but why not harvest it right from our roofs? It's clean, local, low maintenance and even costs less per kilowatt hour than PG&E power when we are spending $150 per month or more on our power.

Many speak of energy sources such as coal and other fossil fuels as being inexpensive and plentiful. That sort of statement doesn't take into account the health costs of dirty air, the resources expended to mine and drill, refine, burn, generate and deliver these nonrenewable, polluting energy sources.

Our home's solar power system(see picture above) is expected to generate 8,300 kWh of electric power and provide a reduction of 6,700 lbs. of C02 emissions every year. That's just one house, one family. Imagine how much we could do if we all went solar!