SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District) offers customers the opportunity to purchase rooftop solar PV panels through their PV Pioneer II Program. Units are net metered; any excess power is sold back to the utility. and on days when the PV panels can't meet a household's demand, the customer buys the additional energy from SMUD.
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SMUD will "buy down" over half the cost of the system. A typical 2-kilowatt system generates enough energy to offset about half the annual energy needs of a household and costs under $4500 through SMUD (total cost is over $10,000). A financing program to provide a loan is also available.
In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has started a $1.2 million Residential Photovoltaic Program. It will install 125 PV rooftop systems on customer homes in 1999.
Six 75-watt modules will be placed on the roof, providing about two-thirds of the energy needed for a typical home. Interested people are encouraged to contact them to find out if the roof meets specifications. The PV program has been successfully tested on six homes.
SMUD: riwasko@smud.org
http://www.smud.org/green
FROM Solar Today
