Utility willing to install solar panels – NorthWestern seeking guinea pigs for energy changes

If you’d like to install solar panels on your home — or maybe on your community’s school or government buildings — NorthWestern Energy is looking for proposals it would subsidize or fund entirely.

NorthWestern, the utility that serves more than 300,000 electric customers in Montana, is recruiting 10 Montana communities that wish to install solar panels on a government or school building. NorthWestern’s "universal service benefits" (USB) fund will pay the installation cost.

By Mike Dennison
Tribune Capitol Bureau

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/news/stories/20040413/localnews/223250.html

The utility also is offering to subsidize installation of solar panels on as many as a dozen homes, paid for by the same fund.

Schools, local governments or homeowners interested in the program should contact the National Center for Appropriate Technology at 1-866-723-8677 or, on the Web, http://www.montanagreenpower.com, to obtain applications. The application deadline is April 23.

It’s the fifth year for both programs, and the program for school buildings is being expanded this year to include local-government buildings, such as county courthouses, libraries or city halls.

Since 1999, USB funds administered by NorthWestern have paid for installing solar panels on 27 middle- and high-school buildings, including schools in Augusta, Conrad, Choteau and Fort Benton. USB funds are financed by NorthWestern customers, who pay a small portion of their monthly electricity bill into the fund.

This year, NorthWestern wants to expand the program into 10 different towns, installing solar panels not only on schools, but also local government buildings.

Each system and its monitoring equipment cost about $18,000, said NCAT program specialist Cathy Svejkowsky. They generate about 3,000 kilowatt hours per year, or about $235 worth of electricity under current prices.

Since NorthWestern pays for the installation, any savings on power goes to the school or local government.

On the residential program, interested homeowners must submit a proposal with a cost estimate of installing the equipment. If their project is approved, they pay for the installation (by a contractor) and get a rebate for part of the costs.

NorthWestern offers to pay a rebate of $4 per watt, and no more than $8,000 per home.

Many homes opt to install a two-kilowatt system, said Ray Schott, another program specialist for NCAT. That’s 2,000 watts, so the subsidy would be the maximum $8,000.

Installation of a two-kilowatt system can cost about $14,000, so the net cost to the homeowner after the rebate would be $6,000.

A two-kilowatt system can generate about 3,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, or $235 worth of power with current prices. At that rate, it would take about 25 years to pay off the homeowner’s installation cost of the system.

Schott said most who apply for the program aren’t doing it to save money.

"Most people do it because they think it’s the right thing to do," he said. "They’re lowering greenhouse gases, and they want to get off the grid, and it’s kind of like a start for them."

Schott said there’s enough money in the residential program to pay for 15 kilowatts, or systems for at least seven or eight homes.

The program has subsidized solar-panel installations at 59 homes since it began.