Duke Energy's North Carolina Solar Distributed Generation Program is getting national attention as Scientific American picked up the story:
Over the next year, the utility plans to spend $50 million to plop a variety of different kinds of photovoltaic panels on commercial buildings, the roofs of private homes, and other property in North Carolina.
Once installed, the 10 megawatts worth of solar panels are expected to produce enough alternating-current electricity to power 1,300 homes. But the utility’s main goals for the demonstration project are to gain experience with distributed generation—putting the power plant closer to the customer—and with integrating intermittent, renewable resources like sunshine into the grid.
Duke will own the solar panels and the electricity they produce. Property owners will get a nominal but so far undetermined rental fee, says Duke spokesman David Scanzoni. More than 500 businesses and homeowners have registered to be considered. “Very few are interested in it for the money,” he said. “No one will get rich doing this."
It’s the first time, as far as we know, that a utility has put part of its power-generating equipment on the homes of residential customers. A similar program in California places photovoltaic panels on commercial customers’ rooftops.
No word yet on how much the electricity generated this way will cost, though it will probably be more than the retail rate of 8¢ per kilowatt-hour in North Carolina.
This is an interesting move economically. It seems many people are willing to donate their property to the cause, as evidenced by this quote from the company:
Please be aware that we have received a large number of requests to participate in this program and will not be able to satisfy every request. New requests will be added to a waiting list.
So Duke will be able to find cheap property in abundance, the only question is how long it will take for the solar panels to pay for themselves. Plus, Duke will receive all kinds of recognition and acclaim (and probably political favors) for their saintly green-ness. So I'm wondering why energy companies all over the world aren't already doing this.
Duke Energy customers in North Carolina may submit their name via this online form. I submitted my name even though my roof might be a bit too small and old for them, but I have a big, flat sunny backyard they should be interested in. I'm just not sure if I'm interested in having them put their solar panels all over it.
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Related:
Scott Adams discusses how the problem of financing greening investments could be solved by the government.
