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Alternative Energies Title: Going solar As states look to the sun for power, could a new energy age be dawning? On the top floor of Media Elementary School, Pete Alyanakian opens a window and climbs onto the roof. There, amid a few stray tennis balls, the sun glints off an array of solar panels the size of a billboard. A few roofs over, more panels have sprouted next to the historic armory and atop the local library. Installed in the dimness of last winter, the panels ticked along for a while. But now, with the sun blasting, the solar capital of Pennsylvania - as Department of Environmental Protection secretary Kathleen McGinty has dubbed Media - is cranking. The borough of 6,000 has become an environmental showcase while lopping thousands from its electrical bill. Elsewhere, too, solar power may finally be on the cusp of the breakthrough it has long promised. States are requiring more solar power to be used than ever before, especially New Jersey. Even humble homeowners are teasing out the potential, installing systems to create their own mini power plants. "The old model, that we get all our electricity from the power company and that's it, is ended," said Roger Clark of the Sustainable Development Fund, which has financed projects in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Now, residents can "get it from our local utility or other suppliers or generate it on our roof." Fuel prices are escalating. In contrast, "five, 10 years from now, what's the cost of sunlight going to be?" asked Richard King of the federal Department of Energy's solar-technology program. When solar-power executives toured New Jersey's Meadowlands last month, checking out a $25 million plan to cover 30 acres of enclosed landfill, roofs and parking lots with panels - touted as the nation's largest solar farm - Thomas Leyden of PowerLight Corp. called it a "Persian Gulf" of opportunity. What will also drive much of the growth in solar now, many say, are mandates in 22 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, for renewable energy goals incorporating solar. Last month, New Jersey updated its goals and is counting on solar to supply 2 percent of its power needs by 2020. Only California has a plan as ambitious. Pennsylvania plans to supply half a percent of its power by solar energy. A far cry from Jersey, but still no slouch, "particularly in such a coal-aware state," said Marchant Wentworth, legislative representative for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Power companies will either have to generate that much solar power or, in essence, pay someone else to do it. Solar power generation will be measured by tradable "renewable energy credit." Power distributors like PECO will be looking to buy them to meet their goals. From places like Media. And from big-box stores with vast flat roofs that make solar proponents all but salivate. Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical has installed 17,500 square feet of panels atop its facility in Spring House, its output equaling the power needs of about eight households. The roofs of nine Bayonne, N.J., schools save the district $500,000 a year, roughly what it spends on textbooks. Under rules in place in New Jersey and proposed in Pennsylvania, the new household system will be hooked into the power grid with the electric meter spinning backward during the day when the sun is shining, then forward at night when the TV is on. Residents pay only for the net of what is used. Then, residents get another financial bonus when selling whatever credits have been earned. In reality, most homestyle generators will use "aggregators" like the Philadelphia Energy Cooperative, which Media belongs to. The co-op handles the administrative details of getting and selling the credits, then uses its rate structure to pass savings along to the solar generators. The technology to accomplish all this "is turning a corner," said Ken Zweibel of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. It is developing "thin film" technology that is cheaper and can be incorporated into rooftops and windows. "We may actually be working our way out of a job," he said. What continues to hold solar back is the upfront cost - $42,000 to $77,500 for a residential rooftop system. Here, too, is where New Jersey shines. State officials are nearly giddy with the success of a rebate program funded by an extra utility charge, about $12 to 15 a year for residential customers. This year's fund is about $85 million - all already promised or paid out, with rebates of up to $43,500 for a $77,500 residential system. With a $2,000 federal tax credit introduced this year and other incentives, the payback could be 10 years for equipment that lasts 20 to 30. The state has seen a burst of construction, from six solar power systems in 2001 to 1,270 today, with 600 more in construction and 1,000 applicants for the next round of funding. "You don't usually think of New Jersey as the solar hub of the world," Wentworth said, "but it is rapidly becoming so." Across the river, Pennsylvania has about 200 systems, according to the Department of Environmental Protection, meeting but a sliver of its eventual goal. At the moment, construction is all but grinding to a halt. Pennsylvania's gain from utility restructuring was a $4 million lump sum to the Sustainable Development Fund in the PECO service area. All of that money has been committed, with 145 systems completed and 55 more in progress. In three years, the state DEP has paid out $15.9 million in "Energy Harvest" grants - about $1.9 million to 27 systems that incorporate solar in some way. Proponents wish subsidies and paybacks weren't an issue. Do people demand paybacks on their $10,000 stereo systems or their marble hallways? With fuel prices rising, maybe they won't be. Even now, installers are beginning to get calls from people who want to go solar with or without the subsidy. And some may be preparing for when utility rate caps in Pennsylvania expire. For PECO, that will be January 2011. Alyanakian got the idea for Media when he was on a state energy task force. He kept hearing how solar power could reach critical mass and drive the price down. "Forget about the onesies and twosies," he thought. "Let's talk about getting a whole town up." One of two Republicans on a Democratic town council, he knew it wouldn't be an easy sell. "But one thing they understand is 100 percent grant funding," he said. Energy Harvest and the Sustainable Development Fund came through. By year's end, more panels should crown the firehouse, theater and borough hall. When Alyanakian climbs back into the window of the Media Elementary, he's in Claire McGeehan's fifth-grade classroom, where students have been so fascinated by panels outside that they planned their own solar project: lining pizza boxes with foil, and trying to cook marshmallows. This was all in Alyanakian's mind, too. "In 15 years, these technologies will be cost-effective, and they will be the users," he said. "They're the ones we want to educate now."
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