PSE customers make solar power shine in cloudy economy

BELLEVUE, USA: A year of cloudy economic news proved to have a bright spot: the rapid growth of Puget Sound Energy customers connecting their home or small business solar systems to the utility grid.

In 2009, nearly 200 PSE customers installed solar systems, making it the fastest-growing year ever for local renewable energy from the sun. The growth raises the total number of grid-connected solar systems to 516 –- up from only 100 solar power systems that were online with PSE in early 2007.

The generating capacity of the customer solar systems also increased dramatically, rising to 2 megawatts (MW). The combined network of PSE customer solar arrays is the largest producer of renewable energy from the sun in Washington.

“Two things made this amazing increase possible: our customer’s great enthusiasm and commitment to renewable energy and our elected official’s leadership in boosting the federal and state incentives for solar power,” said Cal Shirley, vice president of Energy Efficiency Services for PSE. “Solar works in Washington, and our customers are proving that each time a new array goes online.”

Shirley cites two key examples of the positive impact of targeted incentives for renewable energy. In October 2008, Congress, led by Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Jay Inslee of Washington, removed a previous cap of $2000 on federal tax credits for home solar installations, with homeowners now being eligible to receive a full 30 percent credit for their investment in solar power.

This change means that a resident installing a $25,000 solar array (which would meet from 25 to 50 percent of the energy needs of the average home) is now eligible for a credit of approximately $8,300 – rather than a maximum $2,000 credit under the previous limit.

A second key incentive is the State of Washington production payment program, which is administered by PSE. The state’s program pays residential customers for the solar power they produce, with payments based on a sliding scale that rewards customers for buying Washington-made solar modules (also known as solar panels) and power inverters (which convert the DC power from the solar panel to AC power for use in the home).

The scale ranges from a base rate of $.15 per kilowatt-hour to $.54 per kilowatt hour for systems incorporating made-in-Washington solar modules and inverters. In August, PSE served as launch customer for the first locally manufactured solar modules, produced by Silicon Energy of Arlington, Wash., installing the modules at the utility’s Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility in Kittitas County.

The impact of the state incentives was seen in the cash payments distributed by PSE, with payments reaching $170,000 this year, a substantial gain from the $86,000 distributed in 2008, when PSE customers had approximately 325 home and small business solar systems.

In addition to the state incentive payments administered by the utility, PSE provided customers with more than $37,000 in rebates to offset the cost of the two-way electric meter that enables customers to receive credit from the utility for the energy they produce.

PSE’s incentive -- “net metering,” is separate from the cash payments administered on behalf of the state, and most customers take advantage of both incentives. Net-metering, or what is sometimes called “making the meter spin backwards,” allows customers to be credited for any electricity they are producing that is in excess of the electricity they are consuming.

When electricity usage exceeds solar energy production, such as during the winter months, the customer can draw on those credits to help offset the normal per kilowatt hour cost of electricity. In addition to solar power systems, another 33 PSE customers have home wind or micro-hydro renewable energy systems connected to the utility grid.

The surge in interest in solar among PSE customers has now gained recognition for the utility by the Northwest Solar Center, a joint project of Washington State University and Shoreline Community College, which this October named PSE the region’s “Best Large Utility” for 2009.