As Natural as Indoor Toilets A Case for Solar

By J Milligan

When I started looking into installing a grid-tied PV system on my house I didn’t know what a grid-tied PV system was. I knew I wanted “solar” and I had a few very false assumptions about the technology and the process of installing it. I think a lot of people do. They must, or there would be a lot more PV systems out there.

I thought it would be prohibitively expensive to put in solar and that ConEd, my utility, would never allow it. I thought that any government rebates had disappeared with the Carter administration and that solar systems required banks of heavy, leaky, toxic batteries. I quickly discovered that I was wrong, wrong, wrong. The technology has gotten better and cheaper, for both the panels and the inverters. The “grid-tied” concept means that there are no batteries necessary; that you remain tied to the grid so you will never run out of power on a rainy day, and that you can sell your surplus electricity to ConEd. In New York State, there are rebates and tax credits that in my case covered about half the costs of installing the system. And ConEd is a willing and ready partner with reasonable safety demands and inspection requirements performed by a cheerful guy named Craig Shin.

I’m telling you, it was easy. In my case, I hired Dave and Chris of Solar Energy Systems. (There are other approved installers to choose from, but I have to say that Dave and Chris are terrific.) They came over, measured the roof, came up with a design that met my budget needs and guided me through the paperwork. Solar Energy Systems sub-contracted the roof and electrical work and supervised the whole process.

When it comes down to it, installing solar is nothing esoteric—attach the racks to the roof, attach the panels to the racks, splice into the meter, wire the whole thing up and throw the switch. I’m glossing over things a bit, but it’s no more complicated than the heating system or the plumbing. And that’s how people should think about it—a PV system is as natural a part of the house as indoor toilets.

This isn’t weirdo hippie tee-pee off-the-grid craziness. It’s good sense. I have a house in Brooklyn. For just under ten thousand dollars my system will generate over 40% of my electricity needs annually. In the first two months, it has produced over 600kwh of clean power. How long will it take to pay off the initial investment? At current rates, maybe twenty years. But rates are going up, and that is only the narrowest way of viewing the investment. If I were to sell my home, a potential buyer is looking at lower utility bills than the house next door. It’s also, in my view, the right thing to do. I no longer have to blindly plug into the grid and wait for someone else to decide how power is produced. Now I make it myself. And that is what I set out to do in the first place.

J Milligan is a writer living in a brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn.