Renewable Energy Credits = Welfare
So what do you do if you can’t connect directly to a provider of green power? One thing you can do is pay someone else to use renewable energy.
The green community can not continue to rely on subsidization as a primary source of cash flow.
If they were able to provide real tangible incentives they could move past the early adopters. There are real imperatives out there, feel good is not a sustainable one. There are also real solutions, like clean tech, which encourage innovation and help the economy by perpetuating a positive cycle.
OFFSET ME!!!
Really, set up a fund…
I live in Yuma, AZ, as I think I’ve said here before. It’s sunny at my house, oh, 355 days a year. I’d love to go solar. APS, our power company, has a plan by which they pay you back 50% of the total cost (material and labor) of converting your house to photo-voltaic solar, tied to their grid – provided a licensed contractor does the job. If I produce more energy than I use, the surplus goes to the grid and I’m paid a dividend. If, for some reason, my panels can’t handle my production needs, I draw the extra I need from the grid and pay a bill like I usually do. The only catch is that you must sign an exclusivity agreement (to be binding in perpetuity) with regard to who you sell your extra power to. Yep: APS. Sorry, Arnie, nada for CA in the summer. Still, it’s a pretty good deal. Problem: for my house, it’d cost about 11-12 grand to have it done such that it would over-produce at least 9 months of the year and have a decent lifespan. Sure, I’d get around 6 right back, but, I don’t exactly have that kind of extra cash under the mattress. Anybody want to help me out with helping the planet?
What I don’t understand about my region is why all new homes aren’t built with this rolled in. Yuma, and SW AZ generally, are growing at an astronomical rate. New, and thus easily compatible homes, are popping up all over the place all the time. We certainly have the climate to lead in this push. The Vegas area is the only other place that comes to mind. Even if building contractors added 20k to the price of a new house for this feature, it’d still be a selling point – think of the savings on a 30yr mortgage with even the most modest of monthly electricty bills.
If I could get some face time with just one millionaire environmental crusader, I think it’d take me about 5 minutes to convince them to convert my house. Hell, they could even have the dividends in the good months.
Shloky, you’re absolutely right – ‘feel good’ is not a sustainable position when it comes to environmental concerns – whatever your political stripe or take on global warming, resource management or alternative energy. The plan from APS sounds pretty good to me, especially having come from a corporation of its size. I guess I just need some help in making this ‘real solution’ actually real for me.
OFFSET ME!!!
Isaac