Meter Readings for Last Month (or So)

I haven't posted any numbers for a while, so here goes. I don't track everything on a daily basis anymore. It was too much work, and I ended up losing my data when my computer crashed anyway.

Now I just look at the electric meter once in a while. To me this is the most important number because it summarizes the balance between power generated and power used.

[These are all a.m. meter readings.]

April 12: 17,510
April 13: 17,475
April 14: 17,493
April 15: 17,454
April 19: 17,353
April 21: 17,300
April 25: 17,213
April 28: 17,251
May 5: 17,294
May 17: 17,118
May 24: 17,140

A decrease from the previous reading means that a surplus has been generated and exported to the power grid. An increase means the opposite.

The reasons for fluctuations is obvious -- on cloudy days we don't generate as much power. On hot days we use more power (A.C.)

Camping Out for the Solar Rebate

Interesting little blurb in the Courier Post (Cherry Hill, NJ) today. 1100 people submitted applications for the state solar rebate on the same day last week -- some of them camped out waiting in line to do so (I guess there must have been some kind of deadline).


The State Board of Public Utilities has stopped accepting applications until September. I can't imagine there's enough money to cover even the 1100 recent applicants.

Money is tight here in New Jersey right now and the new governor is cutting a lot of programs to try to balance the budget. Programs like this will probably be the first to go.

Here's the article.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20100512/NEWS01/5120340/Solar-rebate-program-put-on-hold-by-state

Bummer, Only two SRECs

I was hoping for three, as I already posted, but we only had two April SRECs to sell in the SRECTrade auction on Friday. Oh well, we only netted $1330 (selling price was $665). That ought to pay a few future electric bills...

Auction Friday

The auction for April SRECs is on Friday. I'm still pretty new at this but I can't imagine that I haven't generated at least two. We got shut out in March but I'll bet we generated .9999999 SRECs in that month. Add that to the two+ I'm estimating for April and it looks pretty good. Is three too many to expect?

That would be about $1900 -- we're chipping away at the initial cost. Cool...

1040 Good Buddy

By the way, I forgot to mention that I filed my state and federal tax returns last week without declaring my SREC revenue as taxable income. We've had several posts about that here, and I won't rehash, but my accountant agreed that at least for this year, SREC income is not taxable.

Solar Fred

I have a permanent link to Solar Fred's site over to the right but I think he should have a big fat plug right here. This man is spreading the word and he's funny too!

http://solarpowerrocks.com/

One particular fact that I saw on that page is the "payback" periods for various states. I've often said that my system (9.12 kwh) will pay for itself in 4 years. Many folks think I'm lying or just clueless. I was glad to see that Fred projects the payback period to be 3.4 years in New Jersey. I may be clueless but I wasn't lying. After 4 years I'll be generating 80% of my own electricity using a paid off system that is under warranty for decades.

It all adds up for me.

By the way, the electric meter is down to 17,353 as of this morning. So we've generated about 600 kwh of power more than we used in the past four weeks -- all which went out onto the power grid for credit.

Transform Orchards to a Solar Field?

Here's an interesting article about converting agricultural land to solar power production. The area in question is a beautiful rural area in South Jersey, about twenty miles south of Philadelphia. A farmer wants to take 512 acres of orchard land and built the biggest solar power farm in New Jersey.

From the fields that Ed Stella Jr. owns in Upper Pittsgrove, Salem County, "miles and miles and miles of farmland" stretch in every direction. Stella wants to take 512 acres out of production to erect 80 megawatts of solar panels. The change, he said, would be "like a grain of pepper in the saltshaker."

The debate raises questions about how to balance two goals: to preserve New Jersey's agricultural economy, and to increase its role as a leader in solar energy.

I tend to be against replacing arable land with a power plant. Aesthetics aside, it reminds of me of what happened when midwestern farmers were encouraged to sell crops to be used for bio-fuels rather than food production -- it had an adverse effect on food supply. I'd prefer that non-arable land be used to set up a solar farm.

On the other hand, farmland in our area is disappearing at an alarming rate -- as development and sprawl radiates outward from the city. That includes my house, which was built in 1993 on land that had been used for agriculture (so yeah, I'm being hypocritical).

If the plan is approved, Stella has said he would put a deed restriction on the property so that, if the panels were removed, the land would go back to farming.

If not, the company has said, the alternative could be 150 houses, 627 miles of roads, and 188 children in the school system.

"I'd rather see this [solar project] than housing developments front and back," Doug Nichols, 60, whose home on Route 77 is sandwiched by Stella's property, said at an informational meeting this month.

If this farmland is going to be developed anyway, I wouldn't object to projects like solar farms being mixed in.

Read the entire Article Here