Feb 13 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Nancy Isles Nation The Marin Independent Journal, Novato, Calif.

Homeowners, businesses and farms that produce renewable energy should be paid by utilities for the excess power they send to the state grid, Assemblyman Jared Huffman says.

Huffman, D-San Rafael, detailed legislation he has introduced to require utilities to pay for excess power, and was joined Tuesday by eight constituents he honored for their suggestions in his "Oughta Be a Law" contest.

The contestants all submitted variations on the same theme, leading Huffman to produce Assembly Bill 1920, which he unveiled at the Novato headquarters of SPG Solar, the state's largest solar producer.

Contest winner George Davidson of Larkspur said he went solar in February 2006 and soon learned he was producing more power than he used.

"I could have added more panels and sent more into the grid, but there was no incentive," Davidson said. "I didn't get paid for it."

He said he has generated 5,994 kilowatt hours of electricity and saved 11,988 pounds of greenhouse gases from going into the atmosphere over the past two years. "You know, the stuff you and I breathe," Davidson said.

Huffman said utilities should be required to pay for excess power from all renewable energy technologies at a rate set by the state Public Utilities

Commission. That would encourage residents to produce as much energy as they can.

"They've been zeroing out their own bills but get nothing else out of it," Huffman said of the contest winners. "We need to change the policy for those who do have solar panels -- the message is they should not be efficient because it saves the utilities money and not themselves."

Huffman said the bill will be heard before the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee as early as March.

In addition to Davidson, the winners were Jared Babula of Sausalito, Peter Berkhout of San Rafael, Tom Faust of Corte Madera, Steve Kunkel of Fairfax, Jim Lammers of San Anselmo, and Ray Gallian and Bruce Gustin of Sonoma County.

Lammers, a former science teacher at Miller Creek Middle School in Marinwood, said he and his wife installed solar panels at their home when they were remodeling and found they produced more energy than they needed, so it reverted to the grid.

"We also pay a fee to stay hooked up," Lammers said.

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Contact Nancy Isles Nation via e-mail at nnation@marinij.com