Solar panels in Fl
 

Recently I had discussions with a few different people about installing solar panels (PV systems not solar hot water) in the villages.
I just came across an article in an online magazine that I get, it is very interesting to see how negative Florida is on Solar Photovoltaic panel installations. Here is the link I hope this works.

What

The article provides a lot of background information, as well as some very interesting comments. Back up North (Pennsylvania) Solar, and other forms of distributed generation are accepted and actually promoted, it really seems odd the "sunshine state" actually seems to oppose these installations.

The links works, but I have no idea why it came up labeled as WHAT..

FWIW, you can change the link description. If you edit your post you will see a string that looks like this:

www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/12/whats-really-at-stake-in-the-florida-solar-battle?cmpid=SolarNL-Tuesday-December9-2014]What[/url]

I have removed [url] tag from start of from the string so you could see the link text in my post.

Simply change 'What' to whatever you wish and then preview post to check it.

SOLAR POWER: The new community discussion group, Preserve Our Environment (POE) will host a guest speaker at its Jan. 12 meeting who will discuss the workings of solar panels converting the sun's light energy into direct current (DC), then invert it into alternating current (AC), for use in a home. Come hear the presentation and ask Dr. John Swanson the questions you would like to ask. Time: 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Send a private message to Queen for location (as the meeting location is presently being arranged). For further information on Dr. Swanson, check his facebook page:www.facebook.com/ResidentialSolarPower.

If you dig deep enough, you will find that Duke Energy and Fla Power are very anti solar. Instead of receiving a bonus or discount on your power by selling it back via the grid, Floridans are charged and taxed more for solar use. No monitary incentive to switching to whole house solar.

Big business in the pockets of our elected officials seem to result in laws like that far too often.

Wow that is really sad. It is being widely promoted in states like Washington were it is much less feasible given our grey days than it would be in Florida. Everyone we know in Hawaii has active solar and solar water heating as well with the highest cost per kilowatt of any state they can finance the whole thing and pay less a month than they did for regular electric. People are even putting in air conditioning which only rich people had when we were young.

Whatever the attitudes of Duke Energy and Fla Power, one should consider it a good opportunity to learn from someone who is an internationally respected engineer and scientist in solar power. John Swanson will give a talk on Monday, Jan. 12, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The expected location for John's talk is a community church, United Church of Christ, 12514 CR 101, Oxford, Fl. Come ask John your questions regarding the use of solar power in Florida. Hope to see you there!

bingo!

If you want solar go ahead and buy the system, but don't expect your neighbors to pay part of the cost.

In the news again - will the houses in the Villages be allowed to have solar power?

Florida sees strange bedfellows in fight over solar power | Fox News

There is no restriction to install PV panels here.

I am big advocate of solar, but when looking at the cost in installation including a Federal 30% tax rebate it still takes a long time to re-coop that investment.

Of course the other side of the coin is that doing so is better for the environment in reducing your carbon foot print, but the first thing to do is ban gas golf carts :rant-rave:

Now if the state would give us incentives that would change things.

Jimbo... if you want to reduce your carbon footprint you might want to replace your Mazda Miata for a Chevy Volt! :doh:

Jimbo is absolutely right.

No one is stopping you from installing Solar panels. And if you have extra energy Duke will pay you for it.

Many people have solar panels for their pools.

Check out how much it would cost and tell us how long it would take to break even. Maybe twenty years?

I believe the overwhelming majority of new carts sold in The Villages are gas carts. If there was a serious air pollution concern, as there is in CA, I could see some merit in your suggestion but that isn't the case here. It is not as if electric carts don't have an environmental impact, they do because they consume electricity (albeit mostly generated using natural gas) and lead-acid batteries (which take energy and other resources to manufacture). The market has effectively spoken: people prefer gas carts. You can claim that the local golf cart shops "push" gas carts but most people believe that gas carts are more suited to their needs. If lithium-ion batteries, which have a long list of very significant advantages over lead-acid batteries, were at a lower price point the situation might be different.

At some point PV panels for your house and lithium-ion batteries (or another battery technology) for golf carts will become cost effective and widespread. The problem is trying to find a balance between forcing people to pay for expensive technology so as to create economies of scale (and cost-effectiveness) and letting people buy what they want. "Incentives" and "subsides" are code for forcing people to pay for those technologies.

Sadly, SECO will not buy back extra energy. It is easier (and more profitable) for them to produce all the power themselves, so legislation is usually required to force them to buy back.

However, the cost of PV systems has dropped dramatically over the past ten years, and continues to fall with economies of scale, so if I lived in TV year-round I would have one installed and just pay SECO less money, even without the facility to sell extra to them.

Certainly, solar hot water is a cost-efficient start to going green. I am shocked that TV doesn't use it at all of their pools, for heating the pool water and, where relevant, the showers. They should really give it a go at the next Sports Pool they build - they would be pleasantly surprised at the savings.

There is a petition you can read and determine if it is worthy of your signature.

It is being prepped for the 2016 election.

For more info contact:
info(at)flsolarchoicedotorg. Obviously the (at) =@; dot=.

Most of the western states do offer a tax rebate to encourage solar use, because everyone benefits. In Utah some new home developments were all solar and residents have $5-$10 power bills. Nice, huh??

Check it out! It is good to have options.

My experience (25 years in Florida) has been that state government will not promote alternative energy sources. They only are interested in being able to build oil rigs off our shores. The oil lobby is in the legislators shorts and will not let go!!

There are oil pumpers in some of the south central areas of Florida in addition to off shore. I ran into an old classmate a few years ago when asked how he was doing he said same as my daddy did raising cattle and oil wells. As I understand it some of the old money and therefore power in Florida is from oil production.

God Bless America

http://reclaimdemocracy.org/wordpres...o-flag-big.jpg

You can put a LOT of money into solar panels because you believe in your philosophy but it won't benefit you in your lifetime. I think we can go TOOOOO far in both directions. Reuse, recycle also means not wasting money. I laugh as people make their homes over on TV to make them more "green" and smash up perfectly good cabinets that someone could USE. Remember to eat your leftovers, and save your money, learn to sew and cook and wear things out before you worry about solar. AND Save your money and try to save mine too.

Please don't downgrade the production of domestic oil or worry about the pipeline. YOU need it and I need it and it will decrease the dependency on mid-east oil...and I mistrust that bunch much more than you distrust the Republicans.

See how we can push each other's buttons on this forum?

Good MORNING. It is a beautiful day in the Villages made up of mostly OLDER and very OPINIONATED people. Makes for some lively discussions.

I like the liberals who live here. Both of them.

Here's why solar works in New England. Super high electric rate of 24 cents/KWH this winter!!!!!

I suspect Florida is in the 11 cents/KWH range which makes solar panels a tougher investment to justify. (can anyone confirm the rate.)

I wish you hadn't posted this. Now they are going to propose that the eletric rates be raised to promote solar power.

I had contacted SECO shortly after moving in with regard to Solar PV panels, but found that they were not very supportive of this. You can go to their website and get all of the info. SECO is a distribution company (with no generation facilities), they get their power from Duke and Florida Power (as I understand it.)
The interesting point is that around a dozen or so states have figured this out, where there can be some incentives for residential PV without significant harm to other users. In these states, they typically have a requirement for renewal energy to be a specific portion of the local utilities energy supply. I am not sufficiently up to date with Florida politics and the interaction with the local utilities to see how these are setup. It appears from some news releases that the utilities may be putting in very large scale solar facilities themselves without giving the option for homeowners to do this (at a reasonable cost.)
I worked in this area for about 20 years of my 40 year utility career, and have seen several iterations of customer generation is god, customer generation is bad, etc. Hopefully the above mentioned grass roots effort will succeed and a suitable system will be put in place for homeowners to install PV systems.
Hope this helps.