Solar in the City

Growing number of city dwellers choose to have the sun's rays power their homes

    Just about every day, people come by to stare at Joan and Cliff Montagne's house. No, the Montagnes aren't selling the place. They only recently moved in after a ground-up remodel.

   What's catching people's eyes is the high-tech array of 40 sleek solar panels on the roof, and the solar water-heating system outside near the sidewalk.
   "People come all the time," Joan Montagne said. "I think we're going to put up a little kiosk by the front gate with fliers in it, so people can see what we did."
   The Montagnes are among a growing number of city dwellers looking for economical, environmentally friendly energy alternatives.
   While much has been made of wind power and other alternatives, city dwellers aren't likely to seek a permit for a 90-foot-high windmill in their backyards.
   That's why urban solar power, using one of the state's most plentiful - not to mention free - resources, is fast becoming a booming industry.
   For Montagne, the rationale for adding solar electric and water-heating systems to her South Tracy Avenue home was pretty simple: Rising energy prices, her increasing concern about energy independence and her ever-growing worries about global warming just added up, she said.
   "We just thought it was really important for us to reduce our energy use and our carbon footprint," Montagne said. "We wanted to walk the talk."
   Of course, the dramatically smaller electric bills don't hurt, she added.
   "I think we paid $12 for electricity in November, after we got it all hooked up," Montagne said. "It takes care of almost all of our electricity."
   Mixing with the grid
   Montagne's system came courtesy of Joe Boniface, owner of Independent Power Systems, a company with offices in Bozeman and Boulder, Colo.
   Boniface has installed more than 100 residential solar electric systems in homes around the state, about 40 of them in Bozeman.
   "For solar power in Montana, especially in an urban situation, the solar panels should be situated on a roof, preferable a south-facing roof," Boniface said.
   If a home doesn't have an unobstructed south-facing surface, east- and west-facing rooftops can work. But the home's solar setup will lose 20 percent or more of its power-production potential, Boniface said.
   If no usable roof space is available, panels can be mounted on a pole near the home.
   "And there are other more creative options you can do with awnings and even trellises," Boniface said.
   Power generated by the solar panels is fed to an inverter, which switches it from DC to AC. Then it's ready to be used inside.
   Once the system is installed, its operation is seamless. If more power is needed than the solar array can provide - to run the washing machine, the dishwasher and a 50-inch plasma-screen television at the same time, for example - power is automatically drawn from the grid.
   "You don't even know the solar power is being fed to the house," Boniface said.
   One of the most-tangible benefits of solar electricity is net metering. It's a simple but brilliant idea.
   Power from a home's solar electric system can either replace or mingle with power from the electricity grid. But it also can flow the other way, pumping excess electricity back into the grid, and money back into the homeowner's wallet.
   In the old days, the dials on the meters that measure electricity would spin one-way only - toward a nice fat electricity bill. Not anymore.
   "It's really fun to watch that meter spinning backward," Montagne said. "And you can see the difference on your bill every month. We put a lot of energy back into the grid."
   Good investment
   Unfortunately, solar power does not come cheap, in large part because the technology is still evolving.
   The total cost of a system depends on how big it is and how much peak power it produces. Installation costs are estimated by multiplying the peak power in kilowatts by about $8 to $9 per watt. So a two-kilowatt system - enough to provide most of the power needed to run a 2,000-square-foot home - costs roughly $18,000.
   A solar heating system, which uses solar collectors to trap heat from the sun, which in turn is used to heat water or provide space heating, can run anywhere from $6,000 to $10,000.
   But experts say it's a good investment.
   "About 60 (percent) to 70 percent of the energy we use is for space and water heating," said Dale Pickard, owner of Radiant Engineering Inc., another Bozeman company that does solar-power installations for city dwellers. "People really don't realize that. These things are a wonderful application for solar."
   Thor Arnold, a local architect who has incorporated solar power systems into projects ranging from private homes, Montagne's among them, to the Bozeman Public Library, said though the cost is high, interest is on the rise.
   "The demand is growing rapidly as fossil fuel prices rise," Arnold said. "A lot of people like the Montagnes have realized the wisdom of understanding how solar electric, solar hot water and wind power can reduce our long-term power bills."
   National statistics back up Arnold's claim.
   The number of solar power systems installed nationwide jumped 33 percent in 2006, according to Solarbuzz, an organization that tracks industry trends worldwide.
   Incentives abound
   Even though the cost is high, a quick look at the math makes the interest easy to understand.
   An initial investment of $18,000 can save a homeowner hundreds of dollars a year in electricity costs, and pay for itself in as little as a decade, depending on how much power it produces.
   And there are a variety of incentives, tax credits and rebates available to sweeten the deal.
   Locally, homeowners installing a new solar-power system can get as much as a $7,000 rebate from NorthWestern Energy to help cover the cost of the system.
   Add to that up to $2,000 in federal tax credits for solar electric systems, Pile on a $500 state tax credit, and that's as much as $9,500 off the top of the system's cost.
   Homeowners can claim another $2,000 federal tax credit for the cost of a solar waterheater system if they install one, even if they already claimed the solar electric system credit.
   The value added to a Montana home by the installation of a solar energy system is also exempt from property tax, up to $20,000.
   Perhaps best of all, any cash or credit homeowners receive from NorthWestern for excess power pumped back into the grid is 100 percent free of federal income tax.
   Of course, before investing thousands in a solar energy system, it's important to be sure you really need one. And even after installing a system, conservation is still key, Pickard said.
   "You have to look at the whole picture," Pickard said. "People don't realize how much they can save just by turning things off."
   Arnold said rebates and incentives available will likely grow as more and more people realize the benefits solar energy can provide.
   "There's a growing awareness of how much energy we Americans burn compared to the rest of the world," Arnold said. "People are becoming more willing to pay more if it means we're able to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels."