Jul. 10--When he got to what he calls "the mid-life crisis age," Madison resident Jim Taylor, 45, said he figured "Well, I'm going to have to either buy a sports car or do something.'"

For Taylor, that something was installing an 8.4-kilowatt solar panel array on his roof in April -- the largest solar-energy system on a Madison residence. Although he originally intended to supply only his family's energy needs, he has been selling his excess energy to Madison Gas & Electric the last two months and now could increase his earnings under a new buyback rate proposed by the utility. Under the proposal, Taylor would sell all of his energy to MGE at a rate of 25 cents per kilowatt-hour and buy back the portion he needs from the utility's overall pool of renewable energy at about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Taylor will generate about $2,105 annually in sales to the utility, a portion of which will be profit after he buys back what he needs. MGE included the new solar energy buyback rate in its annual rate case filing in May. If the Public Service Commission approves the rate case, customers would be able to sell energy from home solar systems to MGE at the 25 cents per kilowatt-hour rate s arting Jan. 1. Taylor currently makes up to 22.5 cents an hour selling his excess summer daytime electricity to MGE under a time-use plan, which raises prices during peak hours. To get in on the higher buyback rate, Taylor and others like him would have to agree to sell all of their solar energy to MGE, then buy back what they need as a customer of the utility's "green pricing" program.

The new rate proposal would allow MGE to offer more solar energy to its customers if it gets more people to add solar panels, said Assistant Vice President Greg Bollom, who oversees energy planning for the utility. "Our customers generally have a strong desire to purchase renewable energy," mainly wind and solar power, he said. Those include the 4,300 customers who participate in the green pricing program, which allows them to get more renewable energy in their mix for a small premium, Bollom said. At the same time, the higher rate would help customers with solar panels pay off their initial investments more quickly.

MGE started the green energy program in 1999, but the new rate marks the first time it will buy power back at a rate specific to solar energy, and the first time it will be including that energy in a renewable energy program. Under the new rate, MGE will buy up to 10 kilowatts of power produced by a solar system. MGE expects that the new rate will increase sales of solar panel systems if it is approved, Bollom said. Solar panel system installations are already on the rise among Wisconsin customers of both MGE and Alliant Energy, said Niels Wolter of Focus on Energy, a program that helps Wisconsin residents install renewable energy projects through planning and fina cial incentives.

Eleven solar panel systems have been installed this year in the MGE service area, which includes most of Madison and parts of Dane County. Focus on Energy expects at least seven more will be installed by the end of the year. The numbers have been increa ing steadily since 2002. The group helped fund 17 systems for Alliant Energy customers in Wisconsin last year, compared to three in 2005. About 80 percent of the systems installed have been residential, Wolter said, even though incentives can cover more than half the cost of installation for business owners. Wolter said the solar buyback rate would encourage even more people in Madison to install solar panels by cutting the payback period in half, as well as help make home solar systems more mainstream.

Taylor said the response to his solar panels would have been the same if he had put in new shutters or built a new sunroom. Neighbors and guests are curious, "but no one has been motivated to run out and do it." The first question from a curious people who see the panels on Taylor's house at 917 Darien Drive is typically, "Do they work?", Taylor said. The second is, "What do they cost?" "Usually people get all excited about the answer to the first question, and then they get less excited when they hear the answer to the second question," he said. An average-size 2-kilowatt residential solar power system costs about $11,100 to install after incentives from both Focus on Energy and the federal government.

Taylor's cost roughly $50,000. Young people have been the most excited about his system, Taylor said, especially his oldest daughter, a senior engineering major at UW-Madison, and her friends. His other three children were unimpressed. "They didn't get very excited when my wife got a new countertop, either," he said.