The Economics of it!

I have often wondered what it takes for certain neighborhoods to go solar here in Washington DC, after all we have seen Mount Pleasant, Capitol Hill and Georgetown all go solar in one way or another.  Having met several of the people involved with the solar effort in DC from the solar co-op’s to the installers I recently stumbled across what was truly one man’s solar campaign to move  his community to go solar.  Just take a stroll down the 1400 blk of Longfellow St NW and you will see the unexpected a cadre of roof top solar panels on some 7 different homes.

Tim Makepeace who lives on the 1400 Blk of Longfellow St NW appeared in one of our blog posts almost 2 years ago but for a completely different “green” effort he undertook during his last home renovation.  He is now out there campaigning for solar on as many rooftops as possible on his block.  I had to ask him how this all came about and it started with a visit to the Mount Pleasant solar fair some two years ago when it struck him that it “all added up to a zero cost”, essentially the economics of it were finally starting to all come together and that he could have solar for next to nothing.

He met with several installation firms and they pretty much broke it down into 4 categories:

1) SYSTEM COST

2) DC SOLAR GRANT

3) FED RENEWABLE TAX CREDIT

4) SREC’s – Solar Renewable Energy Certificates

After adding it all up and convinced he could install for next to nothing Makepeace started going door to door engaging each of his neighbors breaking down everything into its different aspects and how they could go about becoming the next solar block for next to zero cost.  Some 8 property owners and 9 months later the block has about 52kW’s of solar. He indicated that everything was going great and neighbors were signing up to be the next house to go solar until DC Govt. decided to cash in the “renewable energy trust fund” for some budget shortfalls that had not been accounted for.  Makepeace noted that everything came to an abrupt halt with that issue as it meant the ability to have it installed at a near zero cost was no longer possible.  The DC solar co-op’s are currently working with city counsel to get that reinstated but it will take a bit more time before it is active again.

Tim mentioned he really likes the electric meter spinning backwards as PEPCO owes him close to a 1,000kW’s of electricity since he is producing more than he can use but it goes back onto the grid for his neighbors to use so none is wasted.

With the DC Renewable Energy Grant up in the air many solar enthusiasts are looking at ways to bring the cost of solar down via other economic models and one is to work the SREC market mandating that PEPCO purchase its renewable energy requirements from DC/MD/VA as opposed to how they currently buy it from large scale solar farms in the Midwest which does little in the way of building a local solar industry in the DC metro region.

PHOTO TOUR OF 1400 BLK OF LONGFELLOW SOLAR HOMES

Let us know if your block is looking to go solar or is in the process, we would like to highlight your efforts as well!

Michael Kiefer
Green DC Realty Team
Phoenix Real Estate Solutions
Realtors DC/MD/VA
www.greenDCrealty.com
www.GreenDCdaily.com
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