Posted on 11/25/2013 10:59:18 AM PST by TurboZamboni
Minnesota’s expanded $15 million-a-year program to support homegrown solar panel manufacturing will offer output-based incentives for the first time, according to details released Friday. The program, funded by ratepayers of the state’s four investor-owned utilities, will pay homeowners, businesses, nonprofits and governments from 13 cents per kilowatt-hour to 27 cents per kilowatt-hour over 10 years of output from solar arrays built by either of the state’s two panel makers. The retail electricity rate in Minnesota is about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. The payments are on top of what system owners get for selling power back to utilities, a signal that solar energy remains significantly higher priced than other generation. TenKsolar, which manufactures panels in Bloomington, and Silicon Energy, with a plant in Mountain Iron, Minn., are the two companies that benefit from the program. It was expanded under a 2013 state law that also requires investor-owned utilities to get 1.5 percent of their power from solar energy by 2020.
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LOL if you think about it its kind of funny. Minnesota + solar = subsidies.
How much will they pay for hamsters on treadmills?
I left MN 25 years ago because your average Minnesotan had no concept of technology.
Suggesting that Minnesotan’s put fragile solar panels on their roof to be buried under a foot of snow is proof.
Ice dams will rip them apart.
$350 per hampsterwatt
Here in the midwest, if you’re going to go green, hydro is the only thing that makes any kind of sense. Its also the reason the greenies are desperate to tear out as many dams as they can.
When we built new in 2001, I looked at all the available technologies for residential heat/cool and settled on a ground source heat pump. Four 200 foot wells under the driveway kick out cheap heat and AC.
300 + percent efficiency is tough to beat. Payback was less than 5 years vs. traditional all electric.
Hey dere! Yous just cover dem solar thingies up with one a dem plastic tarps from the Fleet Farm, not? Keep alla snow an ice offa dem, jest like it keeps it offa the ole Scout.
Yah Du, that should fix it. We get Sven and Ole up on da roof to install it.
I have always found this to be a stupid idea. Unreliable, intermitten and unplanned electricity on the grid from too many people is going to be a huge hazard. Assuming way more people bothered with it.
They do not want sensible. They want people to use less power. They want us back in caves.
Big gov solar panels work fine under a foot of snow. It just requires buying the power at 10 cents retail, running it through the solar panels, then selling it back for 27 cents.
Wish we would have thought of it several years ago, but now I’m not so sure we will live here long enough to make it worth the cost. Aren’t those pumps really expensive?
To back this up, we opted for the best Andersen windows and doors, blown cellulose in 2 X 6 exterior walls and about R-70 blown cellulose in the ceiling.
I caulked all the receptacle and switch boxes and foamed every hole where wiring was run through 2 X 4s and 2 X 6s, sealing off each column from the next.
We have broad roof overhangs to keep the sun out, except in winter months (our architect placed the house to take advantage of winter sun and avoid summer sun.) Summers in the Ozarks can be brutal.
One home heating expert recommends sealing off the attic vents but I'm not sure this is a good idea.
The University of Minnesota had a Cold Climate Housing study some years ago. You might see if you can find a copy. It's useful no matter what climate you have.
I know a dude who sells geo-therm. best done on new construction to be an affordable ROI.
No roof vents means too hot an attic and often ice dams.
If you have a traditional shingle roof, it’ll often cut in half the life of the shingles.
If I owned new-con house,I’d get geo thermal.
Algore said the Earth’s core is millions of degrees so I would stay toasty warm.
Hadn’t thought of that.
Thanks! I appreciate the information. Probably beyond what we can spend, though, since I don’t know how long we will be living here.
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