home & garden
Solar Electricity Center for EcoTechnology / By Kevin Pink Continued from Page 16
selecting a contractor (www.tinyurl.com/ljqc656) to financing your system (www.masssolarloan.com). The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Residential Guide to Solar Power (www.tinyurl. com/kt7x93r) contains step-by-step information for interested homeowners.
What Are Some of My Options? Install solar on your home: You can purchase your own panels and have a contractor install them for you, assuming the up-front costs and enjoying all the benefits as you pay yourself back over time with the savings. And, if you need to finance the system, the good news is that Massachusetts has just announced a Solar Loan Program for residents to obtain low-interest loans to purchase and install solar systems on their homes. For more information, go to www.masssolarloan.com. Power purchase agreements (PPAs): Another business model in the solar market is the power-purchasing agreement (PPA)/ leasing model. Under this model, the homeowner does not purchase the solar panels. Instead, a third-party company provides and installs the panels, and the homeowner either leases or agrees to purchase the power. This model helps homeowners avoid the up-front cost of solar installation. However, the customer is responsible for paying a lease fee or purchasing the electricity generated by the panels, and the contractor gets to claim any tax credits and other financial incentives. Community Shared Solar: However, if you don’t have a good site for solar power, or don’t have the financial ability to purchase a solar system of your own, there are still ways to benefit from solar electricity. Community Shared Solar (www. tinyurl.com/kkngghf), for example, allows several community members to invest in and/or purchase the power of a system hosted on an appropriate site. For example, a landowner may have an unused field that gets enough sunlight to make it an attractive site for solar electricity. A group of individuals may 30
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come together to establish a community shared solar site on that unused field, all investing in a share of the up-front cost, and reaping the benefits of solar electricity once the system comes online. CET is developing a toolkit for groups interested in developing a participant-owned Community Shared Solar project. Green up your electricity: Another option for supporting solar electricity is to match 100 percent of your electricity usage with electricity generated by a variety of clean energy technologies by paying a small additional premium on your electric bill each month. You can “green up” your electricity by enrolling in Mass Energy Consumers Alliance’s New England GreenStart and New England Wind programs (www.massenergy.org/cet). Your contribution is 100 percent tax deductible – and 100 percent of the electricity sold through New England GreenStart is produced by renewable sources in New England, with 74 percent of that energy supply coming from low-impact hydroelectric power and 26 percent coming from New England solar, wind, and anaerobic digester installations. We hope you found this article helpful and informative. For more information about solar power including exciting developments, keep an eye on our GoGreen News Blog, www.cetonline.org (or you can go directly to the blog at www.tinyurl.com/mftsqdq). ~ The Center for EcoTechnology, www.cetonline.org, helps people and businesses save energy and reduce waste. We make green make sense. For 40 years we’ve offered proven advice and resources to save you money, make you more comfortable at home, and help your business perform better. As a nonprofit 501(c)(3), CET works with partners throughout the region to help transform the way we live and work for a better community, economy, and environment – now and for the future. We provide practical solutions that save energy, materials, and money and have a positive impact on our environment and community. We serve residents, businesses, and communities in the areas of energy efficiency and waste reduction and through our retail store, EcoBuilding Bargains, www.ecobuildingbargains.org.