by Jeff Feldman

Some people wait for the stars to align before initiating action; for Barbara Humes, it had more to do with the Sun. Humes had been waiting eight years to see solar electric panels raised on the roof of her Harpers Ferry’s home. In late 2009, the pieces finally fell into place, and renewable energy came to her Ridge Street home.

Nature has been harnessing the power of the Sun since the dawn of time. Leaves converting sunlight to energy via photosynthesis are the original solar cells. Humans began following suit in the mid-1800s, with the earliest solar-electric experimentation taking place in France. In 1954 Bell Labs produced the first modern solar cell. The world’s first solar-powered automobile was featured at the General Motors Powerama in Chicago in 1955. Vanguard I, the first solar-powered satellite, was launched into orbit in 1958.

As solar technology advanced and production costs dropped, solar-generated electrical power systems, commonly called photovoltaic (literally light-electricity) or PV for short, began to find their way onto residential rooftops during the back-to-the-land movement and energy crunches of the 1970s. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter had solar panels installed atop the White House. Today the solar industry is growing tremendously, projected to leap from $20 billion in 2009 to $90 billion in 2010, according to a report in the Financial Times.

A potent fusion of a revitalized green movement, upwardly spiraling energy costs, and expanding financial incentives are driving interest in renewable energy here in the Eastern Panhandle, across the nation, and around the globe. For West Virginia residents, current financial incentives include a federal tax credit of 30 percent of the installed cost for renewable energy equipment, an up to $2,000 state tax credit from West Virginia, and “net metering,” which requires utility companies to buy back excess power generated by home-grown energy systems. There’s also a developing commodities market for SRECs, or Solar Renewable Energy Credits, a forum where credits earned by solar energy producers are sold to utility companies striving to meet state mandates that a certain percentage of their power be solar-generated.

These incentives represented exactly the alignment of stars Barbara Humes had been waiting for. A native of Martinsburg, Humes had been living in Silver Spring, Md., where she owned a bungalow complete with a rooftop solar array. When she moved back to the Eastern Panhandle in 2001, Humes wanted to continue her green-energy ways at her new home in Harpers Ferry, but was dismayed to discover that few financial incentives were in place to support renewable energy at that time. This began to change in 2005 when Congress and the Bush Administration enacted the first federal solar-energy tax credits in 20 years. The federal incentive was a good first step, but West Virginia had to get on board. Humes began contacting her state delegate. She joined a movement of fellow West Virginians who worked with officials in Charleston to see net metering legislation pass in January 2007. In June 2009, West Virginia enacted its solar tax credit.

At a holiday party in 2008 Barbara Humes met Chad Gauthier, owner of two Harpers Ferry-based, green-oriented businesses: Pinnacle Enterprises, a green building firm, and Environmental Energy Systems, a renewable energy systems supplier and installer. Humes was looking for a solar installer; Gauthier was looking for his first renewable energy client. That they happened into one another at this neighborhood gathering was the last star to fall into alignment for Humes, launching her on a new solar energy journey.

In early in 2009, Gauthier did an evaluation of Humes’ home. They analyzed three years’ worth of electric bills, explored opportunities for improved energy efficiency, and assessed the solar potential of the lot the home occupied. Gauthier calculated there was enough solar exposure to generate 30 to 40 percent of the electric usage in Humes’ already very efficient home. By year’s end, Barbara Humes had a 2-kilowatt solar PV array mounted on her roof.

“Solar PV technology is not as complicated as people think, “ said Colin Williams, director of operations for Mountain View Solar & Wind of Berkeley Springs. “There are no moving parts. The panels on the roof simply make electricity when the sun shines.”

We have all witnessed the simplicity of solar energy; solar-powered calculators, for example. Whether it’s calculators, PV arrays mounted on residential rooftops, or the Mars Rover, the technology is basically the same.

Ninety-four percent of all PV modules manufactured today are made from crystalline silicon, the same material used in the semiconductor industry. When sunlight strikes a PV module’s silicon-based cells, the energy knocks electrons loose within the semiconductor material. These now free-flowing electrons create an electrical current. This direct current, or DC, can be used to charge batteries or power DC appliances. In most residential applications today, this current is run through a device called an inverter, converting it to alternating current or AC, the standard form of electrical current in our homes.

Williams cited other misconceptions about solar PV. He jumps on the false perception people have about the instability of the technology. “Solar panels are built around a stable and proven technology,” he says. “Most panels come with a 25-year warranty and will easily last 40 years or more with little drop in efficiency.” Andalay, the manufacturer of the solar panels Chad Gauthier specified for Barbara Humes’ rooftop, warrants a minimal drop of 3 to 5 percent in power generating capacity over a 25-year period.

There are currently over a dozen solar PV systems installed throughout the Eastern Panhandle. Expect to see that number grow dramatically in the coming months. At Redbud Farm, an organic operation near Gerrardstown, Clarissa Mathews and Haroun Hallack recently installed a 30-panel, 6-kilowatt PV system, perhaps the largest system now active in the state. Because the roof of their old farmhouse is not oriented well for solar, they mounted an array on metal framework at ground level. Mathews, assistant professor at Shepherd University’s Institute for Environmental Studies, expects their new Sanyo PV system to offset about 50 percent of their current electrical needs. “That figure could go as high as 90 percent once our 20-year-old son leaves home,” she says only half jokingly.

Even with financial incentives in place, a system of this size is still expensive. Hallack, who has been training and doing work in renewable energy for several years, said their PV system cost about $38,000. “We were able to purchase our equipment at an industry wholesale price. Plus we did a fair bit of the installation on our own,“ said Hallack. “This system could have cost us closer to $50,000. “ Organic farmers and college professors typically don’t have that kind of cash lying around. In this case, Mathews and Hallack covered the cost of their PV system by leveraging income from a recent farmland preservation easement. The 30-percent federal tax credit on the purchase and installation of their system significantly offset to the tax burden from the sale of their farm’s development rights.

Colin Williams claims that solar-energy systems are affordable for the average consumer. He explains the math. “You buy a $20,000 PV system. You get a $6,000 tax credit from the federal government plus $2,000 more from the state. The cost of your system is now down to $12,000. Factor in the sale of [Solar Renewable Energy Credits back to the power company]; that’s several hundred dollars per year, depending on the SREC market and how much solar power your PV system produces. Finally, add in the savings on your electric bill each month. You are now realizing income from your PV system, income you can use to cover the monthly payment for the home equity loan you took out to buy the system in the first place, with money to spare. And the ‘profit’ you gain from being a solar power producer continues for the 40 to 50 years that the PV system is operational. It’s as if someone is paying you to put solar on your roof.”

The investment seems worth it for so many reasons. Just ask Barbara Humes. After her $16,000 solar investment, she is thrilled to watch her electric meter spin backward as her solar panels generate power. Appropriately, it was on the Winter Solstice, as the northern hemisphere began to tilt back toward the Sun, that Humes concluded eight years of waiting, and flipped the switch on her new solar PV system, rejoining the renewable energy revolution.

For information on solar PV or other renewable energy systems, contact Environmental Energy Systems at www.greenbuilderwv.com or Mountain View Solar & Wind at www.mtvsolar.com. To learn about incentives for renewable energy systems and energy efficiency upgrades, visit the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency at www.dsireusa.org.

Jeff Feldman runs GreenPath Consulting, a green building consulting firm. Jeff and his wife Kristin Alexander live in a strawbale home in Berkeley County. You can reach Jeff at GreenPathConsulting@gmail.com.