South Carolina Utility Warms Up to Bright Idea of Solar Power
Aug 31 - The Post and Courier --Aug. 31
Aug. 31--Santee Cooper plans to generate and sell solar power by the end of next year, in a small yet somewhat pioneering move for a South Carolina utility.
The investment will produce enough electricity to power just one to three
homes.
"In many ways it's lip service, but it's a start," said Max
Martina, managing director for the Alternative Energy Institute, a California
nonprofit. "It's surprising for me to hear that it's happening in South
Carolina. I think it's great."
Columbia-based Scana Corp. has decided solar generated power is
"cost-prohibitive." And Charlotte-based Duke Energy Corp, which serves
the Upstate, also has shied away from sun panels.
The technology behind solar-generated power was first developed in the 1950s.
It was touted as the fuel of the future during the gas crisis of the early
1970s, but it has not become as cheap nor as efficient as expected. Electricity
generated from sunlight still only comprises a tiny slice of all U.S.
electricity -- much less than 1 percent.
Other renewable energy sources, including wind, waste and geothermal wells,
contribute much more to the national power coffer. For example, wind turbines in
the United States produced 20 times more power than solar panels did last year.
Santee Cooper started a "green" power program in 2001, bringing a
number of its plants on grid that generate electricity by burning methane gas
emitted from landfills. Although the program comprises a sliver of Santee
Cooper's overall generating capacity, it has been considered a success.
Solar generation, however, has heated up in recent years, fueled in part by
incentives from state and federal governments. About 20,000 U.S. rooftops now
have solar panels, the sales of which have increased sevenfold in the past 10
years, according to the federal Energy Information Association.
At the same time, the amount of power produced by photovoltaic cells in the
United States has increased by 16 percent.
Businesses also are buying into solar power, in part because of government
subsidies that cover more than half the initial costs in most cases.
The average commercial solar-generating system now pays for itself in five to
nine years, instead of 20 to 30.
Santee Cooper said it won't qualify for government incentives. The utility
plans to bankroll its solar facilities with premiums collected on sales of its
green power. Santee Cooper charges about 30 percent more for the electricity
that comes from its landfill plants and it has collected $625,000 from the
program to date.
"We felt solar was really the way to go," Santee Cooper spokeswoman
Laura Varn said. "It's so excellent from an environmental standpoint and
it's really cutting-edge."
Santee Cooper is expanding more quickly with waste-generated power. It is
sinking $6 million into a methane-burning facility in Lee County expected to
start operating in November. It has an additional $7 million earmarked for
another landfill plant in Belton. When those sites are finished, the utility
expects to produce 13.8 megawatts of electricity from decomposing waste --
enough to power about 14,000 homes.
About 1.8 million people use Santee Cooper power.
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