Gary,
I have a 24' pole with a soft squeegee on it that I use to clean my modules but it's a pain! With as little snow as you have you won't have to do anything.
Last night it was 15 below here. I think I'm going to move to the Kona side of the big island of Hawaii.
Rob

We have net metering and they zero out any extra power generated once a year. The date is June first. This is bad because it is right after three very solar months plus a time where we don’t have to use much heat or AC.

I have been working with Duke Power to get this changed. It looks like I have made progress but now they want to maybe change it to 11/1 they say a lot of solar users have gas heat so they want to zero out then.

I just installed Mini splits to heat with and put in enough solar so I could carry over extra power to the winter and heat with it. Wow if they zero use out 11/1 that will kill me. I sure hope this does not back fire on me.

I have contacted the biggest solar installer trying to get him on board. He is reviewing his customers to see how many are like me. Duke power had just called him to talk about what date to use.

He seemed fine with march 1 as the date I purposed because even know he uses most of his power in the summer the winter he just breaks even or has to pay some. He wants me to call him in a couple days to talk about it again.


In North Carolina Duke Power wanted to change net metering to only give solar customers wholesale rates not retail credit as we get now. People picketed to corporate office. Duke has raised rates last three years in a row so they back off for now.

It is crazy to think that we invest on solar based on the rules in place but they could change for the worst so quickly.

If you get paid for the excess (above what you pay to purchase a kWh), why does the date matter?

When they Zero us out they keep any extra we have for free we get 0 dollars for extra on the zero out date.They say this is so people only build systems big enough to cover what they use.

Most months we can carryover extra to the other months. I carried forward 200KWH then I used that up the next month. but on June 1 they zero out all carry forward credit and keep it for free.

What I'm reading is that major utilities are starting to really feel the effects of solar customers like us.
You have to realize what's happening. When you or I put in a system we take corporate profits away, basically that's taking money out of the hands of the few and putting it in the hands of the many. Corporations want control and they see individual power as limiting that control.

Now a lot of utilities are starting to rethink their position, they're saying, 'how can we profit from individual PV' basically.

I just read the monthly newsletter from my rural coop. I get paid 10.7 cents a Kwh, which is what I pay for the electricity I buy. I have a contract but I don't know how long it lasts guaranteeing that price. All new installs will be paid what my coop purchases electricity for which is 3 to 4 cents a Kwh. It seems to me that someone is trying to limit installs but as prices of systems and the ease of installations drops along with the rising cost of energy solar installs won't go away any time in the near future.

Alternate energy is the only long term viable future.

Rob

They already have rules in place to not allow more than 1% solar on a line.
Some states require power companies to have % of their power generated from renewables. I guess I can see why they do that now.

On a brighter note my panels are melting the snow off.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...ay-capture-jpg

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...y-capture2-jpg

They are all back to making power.

Yes, they will do that. Once you start to get a part of the panel exposed it will start to heat up and melt the snow. I've seen my panels melt snow in single digit temps.

Rob

Wow single digit temps that is pretty cool. I hope to not see snow for a couple more years now.:)

I wish I could say that!