The Energy Show: High Electric Bill? – Consider These Money Saving Tips

The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon

People complain about their high electric bill almost as often as they complain about the price of gas. And for two good reasons. First, utilities consistently raise their electric rates — not only for inflation, but also to increase their profits. So even if you don’t change your habits, your electric bills will generally keep increasing (like my waistline). Depending on where you live, these rate increases can average 3% -7% per year. The second reason is that we are using more and more electricity. Our 21st century lifestyle is much more energy intensive: we have more appliances, electric vehicles, electronic toys and cellphones, use heat pumps for space conditioning and hot water, and rely on more air conditioning as the climate gets hotter.

The average electricity consumption in single family homes in the US is 900 kwh per month. Although the average electricity cost around the country is 13.5 cents per kwh, there is a tremendous cost variation depending on location, climate, and cost of living. For example, in Hawaii, the average electricity cost is 33 cents per kwh. The official data for California indicates that the average cost of electricity is 20 cents per kwh. I question these averages because when I look at PG&E’s current electric rate, the baseline rate tier is 20 cents per kwh. Tier 2 electric rates (up to 400% of baseline electricity or about 400 kwh) is 27 cents a kwh. Tier 3 electric rates, defined as “super users” are 40 cents per kwh. If you require a lot of air conditioning, have a swimming pool, a bunch of networking and home entertainment equipment, or an electric vehicle, congratulations: you are likely a “super user.” Once you are in the super user tier — over about 1300 kwh per month — you are paying 40 cents for every kwh you use.

Obviously, if your home has a sunny exposure, solar makes great sense. But many people do not have that option. So what can you do? The first step is to find out what is causing those high electric bills. Buy or borrow a gadget called a “Kill A Watt Meter” and do some electricity sleuthing around your home. Some of the electricity hogs that I’ve found over the years include a defective AC compressor motor, keeping the temperature too cool in the summer and too hot in the winter (the fan motor in your furnace uses a lot of electricity), pool pumps running more than required, old refrigerators, vampire energy loads, and an abundance of electronic gadgets (including lighting, security, music and networking systems).

For more about the clever and insidious ways that our electricity providers separate us from our hard-earned dollars, tune in to this week’s Energy Show.

Education Is The Key To Solar Support

By Tony Clifford, CDO of Standard Solar

We often talk about how popular solar is, and poll after poll after poll continues to prove it. Polls consistently show overwhelming popular support for solar, and it’s not even close.

The latest survey, a messaging poll by Global Strategy Group on behalf of the Solar Energy Industries Association, adds more fuel to the fire. It turns out that no matter what side of the political divide you are on, you support solar—as long as you are educated about the benefits and strengths of it as an electricity source.

For example, the survey shows that 78% of people polled believe in net metering, the compensation system that pays solar consumers for the excess electricity they produce and export to the grid for the use of everyone else. Dig a little deeper, and you discover the number jumps to 84% among people who fully understand what net metering is and how the specifics of the policy affect them.

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Here’s another finding: 76% of Americans believe their utility should get more of their electricity generation from solar power. With a little education on the benefits of solar to the overall grid that number jumps more than 10% to 87%. What’s most amazing about this is that it doesn’t take much education to make this happen.

I’m often asked about how we should be handling our outreach as an industry. Sometimes, I get frustrated because it feels like we talk to each other a lot about how great solar is without getting the news out into the general public. Now I realize, with a little effort, we can move great mountains in support of the solar industry.

Of course, the survey wasn’t just about discovering that an educated public is a pro-solar public. It was also designed to figure out what message most resonated with the American people. This, too, had an extraordinarily clear answer.

The message testing clearly shows that people are most persuaded by jobs, low-cost and clean air messaging, and that having access to solar was something they felt strongly about. Support for solar was particularly strong with younger voters, men, Hispanics and opinion leaders.

So what makes the new messaging survey so exciting is that it proves that with just a little effort—think of it as lobbying our friends and neighbors—we can genuinely affect attitudes about solar energy and pressure those power-industry actors who haven’t yet gotten on board with the Solar Revolution.

But like the fight for the investment tax credit and the tariff fight, this isn’t something one company or even a group of companies can do on their own. It will require a concerted effort from the entire industry to speak to anyone within earshot and explain to them why solar is right for them. Talk to them about the jobs. Talk about the clean air. Talk about giving everyone the right to access solar for their electricity needs.

We can do this, but it’s going to take everyone doing their part. SEIA has done the work and research necessary to show us how to do it. Now it’s up to us to make it a reality.

Magnificent Minnesota: Study Says 70% Renewables By 2050 Within Reach

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Most solar observers who look at the Midwest and identify what state leads that group of states almost inevitably settle on Minnesota as the far-and-away leader.

(Here’s the obligatory note suggesting that Illinois is hot on Minnesota’s tail and that it had better keep moving forward if it wants to remain the name on everyone’s lips when it comes to a Midwestern solar leader).

But the Land of 10,000 Lakes (which is actually closer to 15,000, but who’s counting?) is well known for its progressive solar policy, particularly when it comes to community solar, where its reputation doesn’t just make it stand out in the Midwest but in the entire country.

And it benefits too from having a utility that, after long and involved battles, decided to join the Solar Revolution instead of fighting it. Xcel is now not only on board with solar development but in some cases is leading the charge (though it still isn’t an enthusiastic supporter of rooftop solar, preferring instead the utility-scale and community solar farms that it has control over).

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Now there’s even strong support for the expansion of solar power and other forms of renewable energy in the state as the latest study for the state’s Department of Commerce suggests that the state could get up to 70% of its electricity by 2050 without destroying the state’s economy.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has the details:

The deployment of more solar and wind generation would be no more costly than new natural gas power, a cheap source of electricity, according to the study done for the state Department of Commerce. Enough solar generation could be added cost-effectively by 2030 to meet Minnesota’s ambitious solar-power goals.

So that’s great news for solar advocates in the state, some of whom have been pushing for a much more aggressive renewable portfolio standard for the past couple of years. Could this latest study add fuel to that fire and get it passed? Could Minnesota boldly join states like California and Hawaii and go all-in on 100% renewables?

OK, maybe that last is a pipe dream for now, but the new study should buoy hope that Minnesota can stay on the Midwest’s leading edge when it comes to solar development, at least for the foreseable future.

More:

Study says Minnesota can economically reach renewable energy goals by 2050

GI Energy Files Objection To Confusing New York Energy Storage Rules

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

New York has developed something of an inferiority complex about its renewable energy and storage market. They ceded leadership first to New Jersey, then Vermont (yes, VERMONT, of all places) and now Massachusetts gets the majority of headlines in the Northeast.

So New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, no shy retiring flower himself, has made it his life mission to seize back the headlines from his fellow Northeastern states by setting aggressive goals for both renewable energy and storage growth – and he’s not hesitant to tell anyone who is listening how fantastic his plan is going to be.

And make no mistake, Cuomo’s plan is ambitious, particularly for energy storage. Starting from zero, Cuomo has pledged to reach 1,500 MW of energy storage and put out a plan in June that would set a target at double that.

But what Cuomo seems to forget is that the wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly and often painfully, and according to at least one company that desperately wants to participate in New York’s energy storage boom is objecting to the rules as they are now in place, saying they make it impossible for third-party storage projects to compete.

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Our friends at Microgrid Knowledge have the details of GI Energy’s complaints:

Because third parties are unable to price their projects properly, they face an uneven playing field, GI Energy argues.

“And, “perhaps most confounding of all,” GI Energy writes, utilities can deem their own energy storage projects as grid assets subject to no delivery bills while third party projects are treated as new retail accounts that are billed for delivery” — as if they were any other commercial behind the meter service.

As a result, what could be the single biggest operating expense for energy storage developers remains undefined in New York, the filing states.”

How can third-party storage projects compete when they’re not sure how much the utility is going to charge them for the delivery? No, we have no idea either.

These and other rules are going to have to be hashed out right quick if New York is going to be any sort of significant player in the energy storage market, and New York is going to have to address complaints like those of GI Energy if they want to stay ahead of their Northeastern neighbors in this new race to the top.

More:

Barrier to Energy Storage in New York?