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Home & Real Estate Cover Story:
Catching Some Rays
Homeowners, Utility Companies Are Showing A Renewed Interest In The Sun As A Source Of Electrical Power

THE HARTFORD COURANT
By TOM SKEVlN

June 25, 2000

When the power goes out in John Rountree's Westport neighborhood, the architect doesn't worry.

Eight batteries in his basement store enough power generated from 12 solar panels that were installed on his roof in August to run major appliances, such as the refrigerator and furnace, for up to three days.
For Rountree, who works part time developing solar products and applications, tapping the sun's energy has cut his electricity bill by about $25 a month. But trimming his light bill wasn't the main reason he invested $18,000 in a solar system.

"I honestly believe we have to start weaning ourselves off of fossil fuels," he said, "and I think solar will be a big part of that." Increasing environmental awareness, the soaring costs of heating oil, and last summer's record-high temperatures are making utilities and consumers again look to the sun for power. Although the solar panels first installed on the rooftops of homes to heat water in the late '70s and early '80s remain effective, technological advances have made it possible to convert the sun's rays into household electricity.

"It has mutated and come back," says Peter Kastl, director of housing and building technology at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. "It's not at the stage where people can go down to Home Depot and buy some, but it's coming."

Experts advise anyone considering the newest solar technology— known as photovoltaics — to look at it as a supplemental energy source because it cannot yet compete economically with electricity and gas utilities. As a primary energy source, solar power is used mostly in rural areas not served by power grids, where it is cheaper than having utility companies extend power lines.

Public Service Electric and Gas Co., New Jersey's largest utility, is testing a 3-kilowatt system in the Essex County town of Maplewood.
"This is pretty indicative of the state-of-the-art system they could install today," says Harry Roman, a PSE&G veteran of 30 years, adding that all New Jersey utilities are under a state mandate to introduce forms of renewable energy, such as solar energy, into their systems.

Breaking Even PSE&G is not the only energy company in the New York metropolitan area with a solar power initiative. The Long Island Power Authority chose 30 homes from a lottery pool of 5,000 for its Solar Pioneers pilot program. Two 3-by-5-foot panels attached to each home generate 500 to 600 watts of electricity daily— enough to run a small to medium-size refrigerator, authority spokesman Michael Lowndes says. "We anticipate that these installations should yield enough electricity to defray a customer's annual electrical bill $100," he says.

Lowndes estimates that each installation, which the power authority covered, would cost homeowners $4,000 to $5,000. However, a $100 annual savings and an initial cost of at least $4,000 means Long Island customers' break-even point would be 20 years, after factoring in tax breaks and rebates.

Such a lengthy break-even period begs the question of whether such installations are worth it. "If it's important to you in terms of clean energy, then yeah," Lowndes says. "We're very optimistic. You've got to start somewhere." However, one Morris County contractor says he is not ready to jump onto the latest solar-powered bandwagon.

"Over the years, the market has shifted to where I would now say 95 percent of our work is pool heating, and the remaining 5 percent is domestic hot water," says Rich Bonte of Solar Living in Netcong. "Twenty years ago, it was the opposite. People didn't care what the installation cost was. They realized we were conserving energy. The country was in that mode."

Bonte, formerly of River Edge, installs systems in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. He says the turning point came in 1985, when government tax credits dried up.

Today, he says, "People are looking for comfort. They're not looking for conservation... and I'm still very pro-conservation. Potential customers say, 'We have hot water already; how does this help us?' "

Systems that heat water for domestic use pay off more quickly than photovoltaic systems. Bonte, who has been in the business since 1977, estimates that installing a system to heat water costs $3,500 to $4,000. Replacing a gas-fired heater can produce an annual savings of $300, he says; replacing an electric heating system can generate a $700-a-year savings.

"If it's gas, you're talking 12 to 13 years" to recover the initial cost, Bonte says. "If it's electric, maybe six years."

Paul Brozena of Kinnelon had panels installed in 1978, when energy costs were a major concern and he, his wife, Marion, and two children were living at home.

"I took advantage of the grant monies the state was offering. And it turned out to be an economical way of getting hot water for the house," he says. "When children get into a shower they lose track of time. Twenty-minute showers are quite common."

Brozena says his system requires very little maintenance, and has reduced his oil deliveries from about six a year to two. However, he says, his children have now left home, and he uses hot water generated by his furnace during the colder months and burns wood for some of his heat.

Longtime Bergen County resident Hugh Stier also went with solar power, having panels installed at his expanded Cape Cod home in Oradell in 1979. The house was heated by gas, and the idea was to cut down on it. "I was going along with the general concern in the 1970s about energy," says Stier, 69, who now lives in Wallington.

"I'm sure I probably saved some money." The installation of three panels to the roof above the garage cost about $2,800. When the panels were removed 10 years later at a roofing contractor's insistence, Stier recalls, "the whole concern about energy was gone." Turning On To Solar Experts agree it will take time for photovoltaics to take hold in the marketplace and pay off economically.

"In the early 1970s solar power cost $70 a watt" for materials and installation, says Roman, a technology, development and transfer consultant for PSE&G. "It's now down in the $6 to $8 range per watt, and it will reduce to the $3-per-watt range in the next decade or so" — equal to $3,000 a kilowatt. "Right now, at $6,000 to $8,000 a kilowatt, it's pretty dam expensive," Roman says. The cost compares with less than $1,000 a kilowatt for electricity from a utility, says Roman, whose actual cost depends on the method of generation, time of year, and type of plant.

The Long Island Power Authority's Lowndes says that environmental awareness is a factor to some. For others, it's a financial concern. He points to a Suffolk County man who had an array of panels installed, generating enough energy for his home and a surplus that he sells back to the utility.

Experts say that solar energy is like any other emerging technology: Improvements will increase efficiency and reduce costs. "This sort of thing has been bandied about in the past by other utilities. We've gotten to a point now where it's really become cost-efficient," Lowndes says. "If you have enough people pulling together, then everyone benefits."

Despite solar power's sunny outlook, don't expect to see Work crews taking down power lines anytime soon.

"This is simply one of the innovative alternative energies that we are beginning to experiment with on a widespread basis that may have a feasible future," says the New Jersey In¬ stitute of Technology's Kastl. "I don't see that we're going to do away with the power grid, in general, for a very long time."