Village Of Lake Grove Goes Green

Tag : Electric Panels
"That's the benefit of solar power," said Dave Lea, the village'smaintenance mechanic. "I'd love to be able to install solar panelson my house, if I could afford the initial bill."
The panels cost roughly $1,000 a panel, Lea stated, "but they aremaintenance-free for 100 years." The village installed 128 panels;the majority are located on the south side of the recreationbuilding's roof, with some on the west, and a few on the east,which gets the morning sun, explained Lea. The village decided toinstall the solar panels on the recreation building first becausethe facility has good sun exposure.
"The meeting hall has a flat roof, which isn't good for solarpanels, and the roof itself also has problems and may needreplacing at some point," he said. "Then we would have to take thepanels off."
Advanced Solar Power, Inc., installed the panels for the village."You really don't want to put solar panels on the roof if the roofis older or north facing," explained Ken Vogel, the company'spresident. "There are probably companies that will do the workregardless, but we are not going to do something if your roof hasstructural problems. Ideally you need 800 square feet of fairly newroof, preferably less than five years old."
"People get sticker shock initially," Vogel explained, "but thesystem pays for itself. And there are state and federal income taxcredits available, and LIPA [Long Island Power Authority] isoffering an upfront cash rebate as well."
Long Island, with its high electric rates and above average amountof sunshine, has always been an ideal location for using solarenergy, according to Advanced Solar Power.
They explain that a residential photovoltaic, or PV, system is madeup of solar electric panels that convert sunlight directly intoelectricity, plus an inverter that adapts the electricity for homeuse. Vogel claims that a quality PV system will last 20 to 25 yearsor more with almost no maintenance.
The company also touts the benefits of solar power, which they sayimproves air quality and public health. They claim that, over 25years, a system in New York would eliminate 80 tons of carbondioxide, the chief greenhouse gas responsible for global warmingand climate change. They say it would also take away 824 pounds ofsulfur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain, and 307 pounds ofnitrogen oxides, the primary ingredient of smog.
Another perk to using solar power is something called net metering.Under net metering, Vogel explained, a PV system connects to ahome's existing electric meter. When a Long Island home useselectricity provided by LIPA, the meter spins forward. But when aPV system generates more solar power than the home consumes, themeter spins backward and the excess energy is fed back to LIPA.Therefore the customer is not charged for energy they didn'tconsume.
In New York, residential customers with PV systems of less than 10kilowatts of capacity qualify for net metering when they areconnected to the electric grid in accordance with requirementsestablished by the New York State Public Service Commission. By theend of the summer, according to Vogel, commercial businesses willqualify for net metering as well.
This is what Lea is waiting for. "Once we get the net meteringworking, that's when we should have the zero LIPA bill." He alsosaid that Advanced Solar Power will be installing a communicationssystem, hopefully as of press time, so that the company can monitorthe system from their office and "also on our end," Lea said. "Thisway we can see what we're producing and what we're saving. It'sstill a work in progress at this point. But I think this payoffwill be quicker than what we originally thought last year when westarted this process last Thanksgiving." That's when the villagefirst started looking to choose a vendor. "A lot of time has goneby since then and prices for fuel have really skyrocketed. This isdefinitely the way to go."
LIPA has been a big help to solar power companies on Long Island,according to Vogel. "Believe it or not, LIPA is a green utility. Weare very fortunate to have them helping us," Vogel said. "A lot ofutility companies across the US don't have rebate programs forsolar power. We're lucky LIPA does this."
"Cost reduction was not the only factor while considering such aproject," said Village Mayor Bob Scottaline. "I am hopeful that weare setting an example for others ... We all need to do our part toreduce our dependency on foreign oil, while also doing whatever wecan to be as green as possible. I will be researching putting asmaller version of the system on my home."