BREMERTON — Think of those solar-powered calculators.
Those gadgets, once regarded as novelties, can perform any multiplication or division problem thrown at them — as long as they have enough light hitting the little black squares.
Once expensive playthings of tech geeks, now solar-powered calculators can be bought for a few bucks at any stationary store.
Recently, across Kitsap County people opened their houses to show off their little black squares that collect light and convert it into power.
But instead of little, the squares are big. And instead of powering a calculator, the energy that is created powers their houses.
For proponents of solar energy and backers of the 2007 National Solar Tour, the story of solar calculators is illustrative.
“We’ve had those for years,” said Jeff Randall, a solar agent for Ego Tripping Energy in Port Townsend.
And as more people buy photovoltaic panels to supplement or replace electricity piped into their homes, the hope is that the price of harnessing the renewable, low-maintenance energy will go down as well.
“In a lot of ways, it already has,” Randall said.
At Carolyn Ferguson Neal and Tony Neal’s East Bremerton house, about seven people showed up to view the couple’s backyard-mounted solar panels.
“Which is pretty good, considering how nasty it is,” Ferguson Neal said as the rain began to fall.
The couple’s 12-panel system cost them almost $21,000 to buy and install, and with a host of rebates and government tax credits will likely take less than 10 years to pay for itself. Included in that price is the converter to change DC current to AC, and a meter that can keep track of the energy they generate and feed to the power grid.
In the early days of solar power, people had to buy big batteries to store the energy. But recently states have begun requiring utilities to allow people with solar panels to spill excess power back into the grid, in a system called “net metering.”
Randall said net metering has been a boon for solar power. It requires fewer startup costs, and allows people to get paid for excess energy they create. It also allows them take energy from the grid during winter months when the sun hides behind clouds.
Puget Sound Energy, which provides power to Kitsap and eight other Washington counties, including more than 1 million customers, has 211 households signed up for the net-metering program, said spokesman Roger Thompson.
“In the grand scheme, it’s still very small number, but it is growing, and that’s encouraging,” he said, noting that the number has doubled over the past three years.
New laws require the utility to pay people for producing energy — and if homeowners have equipment manufactured in Washington, they earn more. And although patience is required to make solar power cost-effective at today’s prices, Thompson noted that 20 to 30 years ago, wind power wasn’t cost-effective.
“Wind power has now become very competitive,” he said, noting that the wind power accounts for about 5 percent of the total energy the utility buys.
The Pederson family of Poulsbo bought its first solar panel when they built their house in 1983. It’s relatively small, and hangs off the back of their house and powers their water heater. It has worked without maintenance for more than 25 years, and that included when they had five teenagers living in their house.
But earlier this year they installed 28 new panels on top of their garage. Like the Neals, the Pedersons are part of the new metering program, which allows them to roll back the meter during summer months.
They paid $37,000 for the system. With rebates and tax credits, they expect it will pay for itself over the next 15 years.
“It’s not necessary that we see a profit,” Pete Pederson said. “My wife and I both think it’s the thing to do.”
If the Neals represent the smaller of the systems, and the Pedersons represent the middle range, then the Sassenfelds of Bainbridge Island represent the top of the line.
At 29 kilowatts, Helmut Sassenfeld’s state-of-the-art, aesthetically pleasing outbuilding overlooking Rich Passage is really an electric dynamo — and probably the largest privately owned photovoltaic system in the state.
It was built with 98 special panels that act as roofing and ceiling tiles, and created to power a working organic farm, a house the family is building and to serve as an educational center for those interested in sustainable agriculture and renewable energy.
Sassenfeld said the final total of the system, along with the house under construction and the agricultural endeavors has not been tallied. But it wasn’t done on the cheap, he said.
“What we spent is not what people have to spend,” he said.
Western Washington is known for its lack of sunlight, but Sassenfeld said it doesn’t matter. Germany, situated in Central Europe, averages even less sunlight than Kitsap County, and they lead the world in harvesting solar power.
Although the price has come down, solar harvesting still isn’t within everybody’s range.
Randall said for somebody with more interest in saving money and the environment than cash, the smallest system would cost about $15,000.
However, utility customers can opt to spend a little bit more each bill and receive only renewable energy. They’ll support the push for solar panel energy, without having to come up with thousands of dollars.
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