Residential Energy Generation News

Although there are dozens of energy efficiency improvements that the average homeowner can embrace, there are an increasing number of renewable energy generation systems - and incentives – that are appearing in the residential marketplace.

Selling Your Energy - Ontario's Feed-In Tariff Proposal

The province of Ontario, Canada recently announced a strong feed-in tariff system modeled after similar programs in Europe. The program takes into account the cost differential between energy types and rewards participants accordingly, so the same number of watts fed into the main grid from these private sources are rewarded on a scale according to the estimated installation and generation costs to the energy contributor (Source: RenewableEnergyWord.com, September 25).

The proposed program includes everything from solar-generated energy to offshore wind energy and unlike programs that exist in the United States, there are no government subsidies or credits involved. In addition to the proposed feed-in tariffs, the province will commit to building an infrastructure of what they term “enabler” lines to aid in transmission of these new, privately generated renewables to the main transmission grid.

One anticipated result of these tariffs is a swift growth in the installation of renewable energy generation systems in private homes and commercial buildings. With such a wide variety of opportunities to generate renewables, one could expect to see an expansion upon the traditional hardware available to facilitate this generation.

A Material Improvement

One area where more experimental forms of energy generating components are already available to the homeowner is in solar generation cells. Several companies are developing building and roofing materials that include photovoltaic films that can be integrated into an existing roof design, rather than in the form of the standard - but less aesthetically pleasing - solar panels. Such roofing materials, while appealing, are still more costly and less efficient at this stage than the traditional solar panel technologies (Source: NewYorkTimes.com, September 26).

This week, however, some of the top experts in the development of solar materials presented some encouraging news in the development of solar generation materials at the Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (PVSEC), a European solar tradeshow. Among the many stated goals of these experts were advancements in both the efficiency of crystalline silicon (c-Si) and thin-film solar photovoltaics (PV) and the costs to produce these materials (Source: TradingMarkets.com, September 26).

Energy Efficiency Meets Renewable Energy - Geothermal

Another type of energy generation system that holds some promise on the homeowner’s level are geothermal systems, in which ground source heat pumps transfer heat stored in the ground to the residence, where a small amount of electricity can then be used to bring the temperature up further and the heat can be used for the home or to heat water. If no additional energy is added, the relatively cool temperature (compared to surface-level temperatures) can be used to cool air for dispersion into the home. Depending on the location of the home, a vertical system may involve drilling down to 200 feet and could cost as little at $10,000-$15,000, though many systems can cost more (Source: BCLocalNews.com, September 26). For the typical cost of a system, a homeowner could expect to recover the costs of installation at around seven years of operation, which tends to be sooner than the payoff seen with some other forms of energy efficiency or renewable energy generation systems at the homeowner’s level.

Making an Impact with Energy Efficiency - Where to Start

As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, the best starting place for many homeowners is still to take on the simpler, less expensive energy efficiency improvements before seeking out more costly renewable energy generation systems. For homeowners who don’t have any idea where to start looking for the most cost-effective energy efficiency improvements to their home, I recommend The Home Energy Saver website tool, which was developed by the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.