LAKE STEVENS – The 30 dogs frolicking in the sun at George Schlosser’s pet boarding and day care center were enjoying the longest day of the year on Thursday.
So was Schlosser, but for a different reason.
Above his head, on the roof of one of his dog kennels, a large swath of solar panels soaked up the sun.
“Cha-ching,” Schlosser said.
The owner of K9 Korral Boarding Kennel and Doggy Daycare had just looked at his latest Snohomish County PUD bill.
It was his first since the utility set him up with a special meter that gives him credit for the electricity he produces with his new solar panels.
He liked what he saw.
From last year to this year, he saved about $80 on his April-to-June bill.
He found he was on track to cut his overall electricity usage by a third. More importantly, he found estimates that his $42,000 solar panels would pay for themselves in seven years were likely accurate.
“We want to do right by the environment, and at the same time, if we can make a buck doing it, that’s all the more incentive to do it,” Schlosser said.
Getting residential customers and business owners to put solar panels on their roofs is an emerging priority at the PUD, said Steve Klein, the utility’s general manager.
The utility only has 18 customers on these meters, but Klein expects that number to grow as the PUD promotes and helps customers make the move to solar.
He said the utility is in the early stages of developing an incentive program to help make it more appealing for customers to go solar. He said it fits in with the utility’s focus on renewable energy, and will help it meet a new state law that requires utilities to gradually ramp up their use of renewable energy.
There are already significant federal and state incentives to go solar, something Schlosser tapped into.
A federal program allows businesses to write off a third of the cost of putting in solar panels. That saved Schlosser about $12,000 last year.
Residential customers are offered the same incentive, but the amount is capped at $2,000, said Jeff Deren, the PUD’s lead on solar energy issues.
The typical time it would take a residential customer to pay off a solar system would be longer than a typical business owner such as Schlosser, said Neil Neroutsos, a spokesman for the utility.
Several renewable energy incentives currently being debated in Congress could help close the gap, Neroutsos said.
The state pays residential and business customers 15 cents per kilowatt-hour of solar energy they can produce for up to nine years, Deren said. They can be paid up to 50 cents per kilowatt-hour if the panels are made in Washington state.
Green energy brokers are also paying Schlosser about 5 cents per kilowatt-hour of energy he produces. Those brokers get green credits that they can turn around and sell to utilities or others who can use it to expand the amount of energy they generate from fossil fuels.
Schlosser said his wife is the driving force behind the move to renewable electricity.
“I think it’s great,” said Lynn Schlosser, George’s wife. “I think all businesses should do it.”
The business already had four clusters of lights powered by solar panels and batteries last summer when the couple saw a display on going solar at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe.
“When we talked to the people at the fair, I didn’t think solar would be as effective as it is,” he said. “Part of it, on my part, was a leap of faith.”
The Schlossers are already thinking about expanding their system of panels.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@ heraldnet.com.
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