Utility offers deal for solar panels: Santee Cooper buys homes' spare energy in net billing
Sep 15 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jenny Burns The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. Have a solar panel? Been thinking about getting one? The program, called net billing, works like this: Santee Cooper buys electricity from you, and you buy electricity from the company. At the end of the billing cycle, you'll likely have a reduced electricity bill or Santee Cooper could owe you money. You can produce the power through any renewable energy source, wind power and solar being the most common. It's a concept that's being employed in 42 other states, and "green" builders and environmentally conscious residents have been pushing South Carolina to start. Santee Cooper will be the first in the state with the program when it starts. While Santee Cooper works to spread the word about the new program and educate residents on the benefits of renewable power, others question if net billing was the best route for the company to take. Santee Cooper is offering zero percent interest loans to a limited number of customers who sign up for the program to help them buy a solar panel. The company hasn't finalized how many customers would be eligible. So far, no customers have registered for the program. Santee Cooper said the newness of the program was probably why, hoping education on the subject will jump-start those who may be interested. "Net billing is a way to balance the growing energy needs with our role as an environmental steward," said Lonnie Carter, Santee Cooper's president and CEO. Rob Edwards, owner of Maritime Green Builders, is considering using solar panels in a new "green" home he's building. He already plans to use a solar hot water system. He said net billing will help those who decide to make the investment in a solar panel more quickly recoup their costs. "It's going to be important for people to test out how the system works and see what the payback is" for net billing, Edwards said. Dan Evans, director of Carolina Solar, a division of Carolina Cooling and Plumbing, agreed that it would take education about solar panels and the net billing program for residents to understand how they might save. You can be working during the heat of the day and selling electricity back to Santee Cooper because the solar panels are generating enough power to cover the home. At night, you'd be buying electricity back from the company. "For the first time ever in South Carolina, certainly for all of Santee Cooper's area, we'll be able to really significantly benefit from using solar energy or wind energy," Evans said. But solar power experts say Santee Cooper's program does not benefit the customer as much as net metering, which is what 38 other states offer. Four additional states have some utilities that offer net metering. Net metering means the resident's meter runs forward and backward and charges the same rate to the resident and to the utility for the power. Santee Cooper says the rate is the same no matter who is generating the power, but there is an added charge for a consumer using the grid's power to cover the utility's infrastructure and distribution costs. And they chose net billing because they wanted to offer residents more money during peak hours. Santee Cooper will pay a higher rate for electricity produced during peak times, such as summer afternoons. "We think it's fair and benefits customers and more fair than a standard rate. You get payback for the time of use," said Laura Varn, Santee Cooper's spokeswoman. Rusty Haynes, project coordinator at the N.C. Solar Center, said true net metering allows the utility and customer to trade energy at the same rate with no added charges. "If you really do want to promote customer [generated electricity], you would implement real net metering," he said. Evans, who sells solar panels, said true net metering would be more advantageous to the customer, but he's glad an S.C. utility is offering a form of the program. Since solar panels can cost $4,000 to $6,000 for the panels to generate up to one kilowatt of peak output, it is necessary that customers see how they will save on their electricity bill. The shingle type of solar panel costs between $18,000 and $22,000 for two kilowatts of peak output, he said. Evans said most of his customers who are interested in solar panels want to do it out of concern for the environment. "We have customers who thought about it and it wasn't cost-effective at all. But now with this net billing, they may decide, 'Well, maybe it's worth it,'" he said. Contact JENNY BURNS at 626-0305 or jeburns@thesunnews.com.
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