Tennessee activists help power TVA grid from home

Tennessee activists help
power TVA grid from home
By Duncan Mansfield
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KNOXVILLE — Longtime critic Stephen Smith is now helping power the Tennessee Valley Authority grid from his home.
The 47-year-old founder of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has become what may be a small part of making the nation's largest public utility less coal dependent.
Smith and his wife, Libby, recently installed the largest residential solar energy system in TVA's Generation Partners program, which pays for homegrown kilowatts.
The Smiths installed a $55,000, 36-panel solar system that covers the roof of their 2,800-square-foot, three-bedroom, 1962-era Knoxville house in February. It generates 7.1 kilowatts, twice the size of a demonstration project being proposed by the city of Knoxville under the national Solar City program.
The payback may be years away, though it's been reduced substantially by a new 30 percent federal stimulus tax credit. But the Smiths' system is generating smiles every time their electric meter runs backwards as their house makes more electricity than it uses.
"I don't want to say it is a form of protest," a grinning Smith said Tuesday of his solar system. "I think it is a statement of a positive vision."
The Smiths have generated more than 1,600 kilowatt hours since Feb. 11, sparing the Tennessee Valley 27,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions and producing a $104.55 credit on their March bill alone.
Retrofitting an existing house in an established neighborhood rather than building a new one in a remote area was especially important, said Libby, also an activist.
People are curious
"I like that we are visible, so people can see what we are doing. We are not hidden away. People see a real house can do this," she said.
"You would be surprised how many people have stopped by," her husband added. "They see it and they want to talk about it. 'What can I do to get this? And I have to walk them through it.'"
The Washington-based Solar Energy Industries Association estimates 100,000 to 200,000 homes nationally are powered at least in part by photovoltaic solar panels; even more if homes with solar-powered water heaters are included.
The Smiths have one of those, too, a $10,000, twin-tank, top-of-the line unit.
The top 10 solar-powered states are California, New Jersey, Colorado, Nevada, Hawaii, New York, Arizona, Connecticut, Oregon and North Carolina, respectively, the solar energy group said. Most offer tax breaks and other incentives.
Tennessee offers no incentives yet, but Gov. Phil Bredesen may propose some soon.
Association spokeswoman Monique Hanis said the major considerations for consumers are their home's location, the high cost of solar systems and the availability of government incentives. Their motives, though, can range from environmental altruism to "almost a sense of taking control."
Sixty-six businesses and homes, including the Smiths', are members of TVA's Generation Partners program, which is offered by 84 of TVA's 158 distributors in Tennessee and six surrounding states.
Together, they have a capacity of about 300 kilowatts.
TVA energy executive Joe Hoagland hopes to raise that capacity to 1 megawatt by increasing payments.
Homegrown producers now get 15 cents for every kilowatt hour produced, regardless of how much they pay for electricity from their local distributor. In the Smiths' case, their local distributor charges 9 cents a kilowatt hour, reducing their homegrown power profit to 6 cents a kilowatt hour.
Providers are paid
TVA's new plan will pay homegrown providers 12 cents for every kilowatt hour they produce on top of whatever their distributor charges.
For the Smiths, that pushes the profit to 21 cents a kilowatt hour and reduces their system's payback from around 23 years to about 17 years.
Now add the 30 percent federal stimulus credit, worth about $18,000 to the Smiths on their $55,000 system, and the effect of future electric rate increases, and the payback shortens still.
"I anticipate we are probably looking at more like 12 to 15 years," Smith said.