Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative, Inc.
Can I save money by installing a solar energy system?
Headquarters Office PO Box 539 • 1002 E. Main Stigler, OK 74462 800-328-2368 Branch Office PO Box 587 • 1800 KOA/Power Drive Sallisaw, OK 74955 918-775-2211 Pay-by-Phone: 1-888-678-1937 www.cooksonhills.com Alternate Emergency Only: 918-552-0016
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Joe Ogle, President Rocky Woods, Sr., Vice President Ronnie Pevehouse, Sec/Treasurer Dan Callahan, Trustee John Dillard, Trustee Dart Drummonds, Trustee Mike Rose, Trustee
District 6 District 1 District 7 District 2 District 3 District 4 District 5
STAFF Juli Orme, General Manager Chris Morris, Chief Financial Officer Jason Fontaine, Director of Engineering Mark Blaylock, Director of Operations — Stigler Marty Huff, Director of Operations — Sallisaw Ellen Mattison, Manager of Accounting Services Kristie Cash, Manager of Office Services
Russell V. Barber, General Counsel Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative, Inc. welcomes members to submit photos, and articles which will be subject to editing. Cookson Hills reserves the right to publish or modify any article. Companies and individuals featured in the Hot Watts newsletter do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, or view of Cookson Hills.
>> Part 2 of 2 Check out the April Hot Watts for the first part in this series answering the question “Can I save money by installing a solar energy system?”
(PV) is $2.89/watt, or $28,900 for a 10-kilowatt grid tie-in system. In addition, there may be other costs to consider, such as liability, homeowners’ insurance and property taxes. Given the information listed above, evaluate your situation to ensure installing a solar system makes sense financially for you. Talk to your electric cooperative to help evaluate your feasibility for solar energy.
Financial considerations When evaluating the potential of installing a solar electric system at a home or business, considerations should include: 1. Solar access: Oklahoma is fairly good in comparison to other parts of the country. Site specific access depends on installing the system so it is not shaded. See Oklahoma photovoltaic solar your location on the map below resource for average output. The below map is measured in 2. Retail cost of residential kilowatt-hours per square meter per electricity: Oklahoma is low day (kWh/m2/day), which represents in comparison to many other insolation, the total energy on a parts of the country. A lower surface over a specific time interval. electric rate makes the return on Examples use the location’s solar investment length longer than a resource to determine average higher electric rate. [2948400] output and savings per year, and 3. Available incentives: Solar were calculated using the National solarqualify system for installations energyResidential systems may Renewable Energy Laboratory’s a federal tax2 credit of 30 percent (NREL) PV Watts calculator using Oklahoma photovoltaic solar resource kWh/m /day until 2019,7.026 percent 2020 theperdefault including 2/day), which represents This map isin measured in kilowatt-hours square metersettings, per day (kWh/m 6.5 insolation, the total energy on a surface over a specific time interval. of Examples the location’s and 22 percent in 2021. inverter efficiency 96 use percent. 6.0 solar resource to determine average output and savings per year, and were calculated using the 5.5 Renewable Energy Laboratory’sFor (NREL) PV Watts calculator using the default 4. The total cost of National the system: more information, visitsettings, 5.0 including inverter efficiency of 96 percent. For more information, visit pvwatts.nrel.gov. 4.5 installed cost of The average pvwatts.nrel.gov. Your output may vary depending on site specific factors and regular maintenance such as washing the panels several times per year. Output also may drop about 1 percent per year residential solar photovoltaic through the average 20-25 year lifespan of most systems. Example #1 - Northeast Northwest
Solar radiation (kWh/m2/day): 5.20 Installation & equipment cost: $28,9001
Average kWh/year: 14,187 Average savings/year: $1,4192 Estimated payback: 20.4 years3
Example #2 - Central
bit.ly/CHEConFB (case-sensitive)
Cookson Hills Electric Cooperative, Inc. is an equal opportunity provider and employer. If you find your account number hidden in this issue of the Hot Watts, you’ll receive a $25 credit on your electric bill.
2 | May 2021
Solar radiation (kWh/m2/day): 4.89 Installation & equipment cost: $28,9001 Average kWh/year: 13,366 Average savings/year: $1,3362 Estimated payback: 21.6 years3
Example #3 - Southeast Solar radiation (kWh/m2/day): 5.15 Installation & equipment cost: $28,9001 Average kWh/year: 13,710 Average savings/year: $1,3732 Estimated payback: 21 years3
Source: This map was produced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy.
