Can Solar Power Work?
Jun 13 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Can solar power work?
Gardner, Mass. -- This old mill city built prosperity from the force of its
waterways. So there was a legacy of renewable energy when the local electrical
utility sought to thrust Gardner into the age of inexhaustible sun power, ahead
of everyone.
On a warm evening in June 1985, Massachusetts Electric Co. dispatched a team
of experts to demystify photovoltaic power for about 70 mostly working-class
locals gathered in a college auditorium.
Panels that convert sunlight into electricity had been powering satellites.
Now they could electrify Gardner's homes, not to mention its library and even
the Burger King. They would help the country save oil and coal used by utilities
to make electricity.
People listened politely. But what got them excited -- and helped launch the
first photovoltaics test on a community scale -- was a question: How would you
like to save up to 40% on your electric bills?
Sun-catching panels soon covered rooftops of 30 homes and five other
buildings around town. The experiment is still running today, almost 20 years
later. Has solar power worked here? Has it worked around the country? Can it
help us get beyond our dependence on fossil fuels?
Yes and no, to all three questions.
Slow returns
Solar electric power, the industry says, has reached as many as 20,000
American rooftops, where it has proved it can supplement electrical grids and
trim bills. But its contribution so far is meager.
Despite technological progress, it hasn't worked reliably enough or
economically enough to expand beyond a small fraction of 1% of the country's
power generation.
Paul Maycock, who once ran the federal program in photovoltaics, sees its
long-range potential as 15%, at best. In other words, in the coming age of
whatever-replaces-petroleum, it can help greatly - - but even its boosters say
it can't carry the load. Twenty years from now, renewable energy will amount to
less than 7% of Americans' fuel, the Department of Energy predicts. The dominant
40% share will come from petroleum.
"Renewable energy will not solve the problem of increasing energy demand
by a booming world population, but it does offer a bridge of hope until a
replacement energy source for non-renewable fossil fuels can be developed,"
writes geophysicist Dohn Riley, commenting as director of the Alternative Energy
Institute in Tahoe City, Calif.
Complex conversions
Gardner's solar pioneers discovered the limits of alternative energy the hard
way -- by trying it.
In theory, photovoltaics is simple: When silicon, extracted from sand and
super-purified, is struck by sunlight, it gives off electric current. In a real
building the system isn't so simple.
First, a solar cell's direct current won't run a normal household's
appliances. It must be converted to alternating current by a box called an
inverter. At sites far from power lines, a battery bank is also needed to store
electricity for times when the sun isn't shining. With acid and hydrogen gas,
batteries are heavy, expensive and potentially dangerous.
That's why in Gardner and most other places, photovoltaics are installed in
tandem with the existing power grid. The grid handles the load at most times:
when the sun sets, clouds thicken or appliances suck more juice than the solar
cells can pump.
When the sun comes out, the solar panels take over and send any surplus into
the power line for use in the grid. The electric meter spins backward to credit
the contribution.
Gardner, a central Massachusetts city of about 20,000, was eager to try the
new technology.
Like much of hilly New England, its advantage had long been water power. With
coal and oil dominating hydropower in the 20th century, most of Gardner's
furniture mills eventually cranked to a halt. Manufacturing and wealth slipped
south and west.
When the solar experiment was proposed, some wondered about the choice of a
site in New England, which captures a third less solar energy than the
Southwest. Still, supporters figured, if it worked here, that would prove its
versatility.
The 4-by-6-foot solar panels started going up in fall 1985. Leon Rice, a
supermarket meat cutter, got one of the first systems.
Studying the inverter and gauges on his cellar wall like the controls of a
nuclear submarine, he saw that when the sky brightened, red lights blinked to
life. The inverter softly hummed.
He looked forward to the savings. And yet as his monthly electric bills
arrived, Rice didn't see much change -- perhaps $5 saved in the best months, he
says.
About a year into the experiment, the inverter broke down and needed to be
replaced. Rice didn't worry. Massachusetts Electric, which had paid to install
the $19,000 system and guaranteed upkeep, fixed it.
But later, as the inverter's lights again went dark, Rice climbed to his roof
to check his 10 panels. Water, he discovered, had wicked inside, where it can
corrode the cells.
This time when Rice again called the utility, it seemed reluctant to help.
Nothing happened for months, until Rice decided to replace his roof shingles.
The utility sent workers who unscrewed the 90- pound panels, eased them down by
rope, and piled them against the backyard fence to remount later.
There, beneath a tarp, they waited. A project manager at Massachusetts
Electric was hoping to find spares somewhere. Weeks passed.
"So I gave them an ultimatum," Rice says. "I'll give you a
week. Either they're outta here, or I'm going to have my son throw them in the
rubbish."
Two men came by in a truck and hauled them away, forever.
Today's photovoltaic panels are at least 50% better at wringing electricity
from sunlight and tougher in resisting nature. Some come with 25-year
guarantees. They still hog considerable roof space. Compared to coal or
petroleum, the sun's energy is dilute. That means it must be harvested by big
collectors.
The inverters are still temperamental, solar advocates acknowledge. They chug
along well enough for five or six years and then often conk out.
A short circuit
Tax breaks lured thousands of other Americans to try solar heating and power
in those years. But the energy crunch subsided, tax benefits disappeared in the
mid-1980s and never fully returned, and electricity stayed cheaper than
predicted. Solar power never took off.
By industry estimates, up to 20,000 solar electricity units and 100,000
heaters have been installed in the United States -- low numbers compared to the
country's 70 million single-family houses. Most solar units are in the sunny
West and Southwest. Some can supply half of a home's electricity.
Photovoltaic production has doubled over the past five years. The federal
government has a goal of 1 million rooftop photovoltaic and heating solar
systems by 2010. For now, it gives solar tax breaks only to businesses, not
homeowners.
Systems now cost $12,000 or more for typical homes and can take more than 15
years to pay for themselves. Tapping into a power line on the street can cost as
little as $100.
Adding the numbers
Gardner's experiment had mixed results.
Project engineers quickly declared the effort a technical success. It was the
economics, even with free systems and upkeep, that proved disappointing. The
average annual electric bill savings were less than $200, one consultant
estimated.
With that kind of return, the units needed to operate with virtual perfection
for many years. They didn't and still can't.
Massachusetts Electric once hoped to transfer responsibility for the units
entirely to the homes, and it is trying again this year to extricate itself from
the upkeep. But if the utility stopped caring for the systems, many homeowners
say they would get rid of them.
Massachusetts Electric was hoping to interest the state in taking over the
project in Gardner, where, so far, only four homes have given back their
equipment. Rob Pratt, director of the state's Renewable Energy Trust, said he's
willing to talk about it.
Rice, the meat cutter, has moved to Maine and given up on photovoltaics.
"If your goal is to save money, you're not going to do it," he
said. "If your goal is to save fossil fuel, that's fine -- but I'm a
working guy. If I had it to do over, I think I'd get a windmill."