Powerhouse - Homeowners with solar panels sell electricity to NIPSCO
Article by Marshall King, from The Elkhart Truth, 4/14/06
GOSHEN -- Peter and Patricia Oakley don't watch much television. They're having more fun watching their electric meters.
They have two now -- one that shows what they use from the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. and the other to show what they sell back to the utility.
"Here's the geeky things we're always doing -- coming and looking at the meters," said Peter.
The Goshen couple, whose home is on South 11th Street, has a 1.3 kilowatt solar electric system that provides power to their home and, when they don't need it, puts it on the electrical grid. A state law passed in 2004 allows the Oakleys to enter a "net metering" agreement with the utility, which must give credit for the trickle of power the Oakleys provide.
Leon Bontrager of Home Energy, a company based in Middlebury and east of Goshen, has set up solar electric systems for six years, but this is the first tied into NIPSCO's electrical grid. His business supplies mobile and renewable energy systems, from battery power in Nevada mines to solar systems for Amish needing electricity but not wanting to connect to the grid. He subcontracted the wiring work.
Eight photovoltaic panels are mounted on a 161/2-foot pole in their backyard. When the sun comes up in the morning, the panel is pointed northeast. As the sun moves across the sky, the panels rotate until they're facing west by evening.
Even on cloudy days, sunlight is turned into direct electrical current by the 170-watt panels. The electricity flows to a few batteries that could power computers and servers for Peter's Web business. If the batteries are charged, an inverter turns it into alternating current that they can use or can flow back onto the grid. A thermostat in their kitchen indicates whether they're "selling" electricity. "NIPSCO would not put it that way. They would say we're accumulating credit," said Peter.
During the summer, they'll produce more energy than in the winter, but on average they expect to produce 3 kilowatt hours per day. When they moved here from Washington state eight years ago, they used about 18 kilowatt hours per day.
They replaced light bulbs with energy-efficient fluorescents. They purchased a more efficient Sunfrost refrigerator and more efficient washer. They line-dry most of their clothes and don't use a dishwasher. They keep their thermostat at 60 degrees most of the time.
In the process of selecting a solar system and paying almost $20,000 to have it installed, they started conserving even more power. They thought the system would provide about a third of their power, but they've cut their electrical usage to about 6.5 kilowatt hours per day, they said.
They track how much they use and produce. "It's sort of a game," said Patricia.
The system could pay for itself in 15 to 20 years, but their reasons for installing it aren't only economic. "I always say it's not to save money, it's to save the world," said Patricia. "I want to live in better harmony with the environment."
Peter added, "The whole world cannot live the way Americans do. There's not enough oil in the ground. There's not enough power on the planet."
In addition to using power from this planet's sun, the Oakleys power their own transportation a lot of the time. They bike or walk many places and share one vehicle. Two years ago, they mostly succeeded in giving up driving a vehicle during Lent.
They are the only NIPSCO customers who have entered a net metering agreement with the company.
The Oakleys have a little pride in breaking new ground. "We didn't know we were going to be the first. It is kind of cool. We're pioneers," said Peter.
Bontrager said he's selling every photovoltaic cell he can get because of demand, but a fraction of the U.S. energy supply comes from the sun. In 2004, 6 percent of the nation's energy supply came from renewable sources. One percent of that was solar, according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. government.
Interest is growing, but not as fast as in Germany or other parts of Europe, where larger incentives help fund systems (The U.S. government offers tax credit of up to $2,000 for photovoltaic systems like the Oakleys'). California leads the U.S. in solar energy, but it's still a niche market nationally, said John Cymbalsky, operations research analyst for the Energy Information Administration. "It's pretty small right now nationally. Our expectation is that it won't grow too much in the next few years," he said.
