Comments on: Tennessee Solar Power Rebates, Tax Credits, and Incentives

By: Ken

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:15:06 +0000

Andy, you need to have the local utility install a net meter. My systems produces just like yours but when I’m not consuming I have actually watched my meter spin backwards. In the example you gave above about going on vacation, first read would be 4911 and second read would be 4411 indicating that you actually put all your energy on the grid. Oh and the .12 cents is in addition to the 9.5 cents so you should be getting a credit of .21.5 cents per KwH. Just a thought but you might want to take that up with the local utility.

By: Joey Eavey

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:16:11 +0000

I want to know why they wont buy all power produced.I have 100 acres to start a solar and wind farm, but they wont pay you for all the energy your capable of producing.taxpayers paid for grid why cant we use it.solar & wind is very simple to manufacture yourself why do they make you spend $30,000 when you can build your own commercial grade panel for a few hundred.How long are americans just going to keep letting these evil corp. & Gov. officials get awy with it.I’m a builder & my wife teaches, we pay for all the bums, we pay for the CEO’s new jets, now there’s not a gallon of milk for my own kids.Let’s all do something,100 milion on Oboma’s porch should do the trick. joeyeavey@comcast.net

By: andy

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:24:18 +0000

And of course, my figures were off in the example I used…..500+300 is 800 and times 9 cents is $72, not 81….so the total bill would be 8 + 72 or 80, not 90…..

But since this has no “edit” feature, I couldn’t correct my mistake….please forgive….it’s early….ahahahaaa

By: andy

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:20:19 +0000

jimmy-joe:

Harvey is trying too explain the rate structure, but I too found it quite confusing.

Here’s the deal.

TVA has a program called Green Partners. TVA will pay ( new, as of 1 July 09 ) 12 cents/kwhr OVER whatever your local power distributor charges for all solar (PV) electricity you produce…..BUT your local power distributor has to agree to participate in the program…..only a handful across the TVA region do…..but I suspect it’s more because nobody asked the others to do so that they don’t. Our distributor ( Johnson City Power Board ) did not until I attended a meeting and asked them to do so.

So, no, they don’t “push” the program, and unless someone in their distribution area is going to install a grid tied system, they don’t participate…but again, I suspect it’s more a matter of just asking them to do so…..since the costs are paid by TVA.

On the pay: Your solar pay is 12 cents/kwhr. Say your local is 9 cents ( it varies from distributor to distributor ), you would receive 21 cents TOTAL for everything your separate solar production meter records.

Your bill ( or at least MY JCPB bill )records the number of KwHrs on the original billing meter….say it shows I used 500kwhrs this month…they would charge me 8 bucks for the customer charge plus 9 cents times 500 ( $45 ) for the 500kwhrs……so my bill SHOULD read 8+45=$53.

But it doesn’t. Because they assume you also used ALL the solar you produced as well. Say my solar meter says I produced 300kwhrs that same month.

My bill would be for $8 + ( 500+300 )x 9 cents, or 8+81=$90.

The billing paperwork ( at least JCPB ) is clunky, and does NOT show you are being billed for 800kwhrs ( it shows only the 500 from the billing meter )…..you have to sort of “figure it out” by knowing the power rate and working it backwards from there…but that IS what they are doing.

OK…so your bill is $90.

NOW you get your credit for the solar production.

21 cents x 300hrs = $63

$90 – $63 = net bill of $27…that is what you pay.

The billing meter is bi-directional, so should you produce more power than your house is consuming at any point, the billing meter runs BACKWARDS…..and of course, that would reduce the amount shown in “KwHrs used this month” when you get your bill…potentially, with a large enough system, you could end up with positive credit in your account…and it REALLY wouldn’t take that large a system with the 12cent factor…

For example, our 3kw system produces about 350-400kws hours per month….and we typically use about 900/month ( and have for 30 years )….

900kwhrs (total) x 9 cents + CCharge is a $90 bill.

400kwhrs x 21 cents is $84.

We’d owe 6 bucks.

So with a slightly larger system, we’d be on the “they owe us” side of things quite a bit of the time……

By: Alan Ingram

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:12:56 +0000

Recently, overflying Nashville and Tampa and West Palm Beach, FL, I noticed a large number of very large commercial business buildings that could be ripe for solar panel installatins to reduce the amount of draw from the grid. Maybe the more logical solar farms are existing structures in the high use areas.

By: jimmy-joe

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:28:42 +0000

Hey guys it’s real easy to send an email to your state representitive telling them how you feel about alternative energy and the direction you feel this country should be heading. Trading a bunch of carbon credits between the big oil companies ain’t going to do nothing but raise the price of gas at the pump for us working types. We need some real help from those folks we sent to Washington. Green is the way to go long term no doubt… It’s going to take a while to get there no doubt… So what the heck do we do in the meantime while we are waiting for solar – etc. to get cheaper? How much stuff ever gets cheaper?

By: jimmy-joe

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:17:08 +0000

Sorry I think I confused Ralph for Harvey, I meant to say… Did anyone understand what Harvey had to say? It’s kind of like some sort of code or something… What is he saying?

By: jimmy-joe

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:12:29 +0000

Did anyone understand a word that the Ralph guy said…? I didin’t get any of it. My question is that I didn’t think that the electric coop’s in TN did ANYTHING to help push solar at the residential level. I thought that if I did build a system on my house, that I would HAVE to be off the power grid and simply have a stand alone system that supplied no one but me… Ya’ll educate me here, what is the real scoop? We will probably sell in a few years and leave the Memphis area to head closer to the TN river area and I believe the coop there is pickwick electric near the lake but I am not sure about the coop further north of say Savannah TN. I had thought about retirement around Corinth MS or over in Alabama even, but have no idea what those coops offer either. I’m not too sure about being north of I-40 near the river because there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot in the way hospital support etc. Of course I may need more education in that subject also. I am sure there is more if you go all the way up to Paris Tn… but it gets a bit colder there in winter months. Ya’ll be good… or be good at it… over & out

By: Ralph

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:22:02 +0000

harvey, and all others. We here in Nashville, TN are also more than Lucky, TVA is providing a Net-metering as well, every bit of power you produce using Solar, Wind, Hydro into the Grid with a Grid-tied system, you will receive $0.15 back on your Electric bill. You are being charged for each KWH you are taking from the Grid $0.09. So now here comes the great news. If you are working family and your house sits idle – with less than for example 1 KW per hour, and your Solar panels are laid out for 4 KW peak, and the sun shines on your southern roof (no pun intended) for the majority of time you are at work (may 12 hours) then your Home is producing 12 * 3 KWH (excess energy then needed) * $0.15 = $5.40 a day * 360 = $1944 a year. Well in the morning Hours / Night time the home will probably also use somewhere conservatively 1.5 KW * 12 * 0.09 = $1.62 of power you will have to pay for * 360 = $583.20 – So your profit making home makes you an extra: $1360.80 a year! Not to mention the Carbon foot print reduction and the pollution reduction that you contributed. How does that sound as future outlook for all of us? Check out my blog for Ralph’s Going Green Blog!

By: harvey walden

Thu, 14 May 2009 17:56:31 +0000

I’m tied into south west elec in haywood country how its work here is at the current rate of .09kwh they will pay .12kwh for solar power. So when a person installs a solar system the elec company will install a meter in between the system and house let’s say your system produces 2000kwh per month and you use 2000kwh per month you will be charged 360 dollars instead of 180 that was your normal amount of your elec bill then south west will pay you .21kwh (.09 base pluse .12 for produceing renewable power) for every kwh that comes through the meter that’s between the system and the house. They will pay .21kwh x 2000kwh (which you produced) total of 420 dollars you paided 360 so you had a net of 80 dollars plus your base of 180 dollars so each month your saying 260 dollars x 12 months 3120 dollars. That’s at todays numbers in 18 months our elec will increase by 42 percent there’s a new bill going through congress as we speak that will make carbons credits go to 50 dollars a ton when that happens solar panels will be a hot topic (no pun intened) the largest constuction site in tn is east of nashville and cost 2b yes b and will be up for production in 2012 its a japan company that make solar panels and with the 25 m project at the haywood meg a site that will be a 20@ solar field will take 23000 solar panels I believe in the near furture solar will be the norm in west tn area I’m sure the above was clear as mud hope I help alittle hwalden@vzw.blackberry.net