Reminder - start your SOLAR GARDEN tonight!

Just a reminder that tonight at 7 p.m. at the Lunda Center (Western Technical College), there will be a presentation about the new Xcel Energy Community Solar Garden. Whether you live in an apartment, shady villa, or not very solar abode, you can still go solar by "subscribing" to one or more 200 watt solar panels which will be installed locally in a "commnity garden" array. If you want, you may pay for enough solar panels to cover the amount of electricity you already use.

The beauty of the community solar garden is that it is LOCAL and, if you wanted to install solar anyway, you don't have to cut down trees, pay for installation, maintenance, and repair, or have other concerns about an on-site system.

Xcel estimates that each 200 watt panel will produce about 257 kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity per year. (One 100 watt light bulb uses 1 kilowatt of electrity (1,000 watts) in 10 hours.) The energy your panels produce each month will be credited to your bill.*

If your home uses about 257 kWh of electricity per month and you subscribe to 12 panels, you will basically be producing all your electricity via solar panels. (Of course the output varies depending upon weather, snow amounts, damage, etc.)

It's always a gamble. The Vernon Electric Community Solar Garden sold out in just a few weeks. That array consisted of 305 watt panels for which subscribers paid $600 each ($1.97/watt). But VEC pays back the "net meter" rate (the cost a customer is charged to purchase electricity) so a 20 year payback period was predicted.

The Xcel solar garden offers 200 watt panels for about $1.78/watt but pays back subscribers at a wholesale price (currently about 7.4 cents per kWh) while charging them at at retail price (currently 11.09 cents). *So this means if you use 100 kWh of electricity in a month and your panels produce 100 kWh of electricity, you will still have to pay the difference - currently about 3.69 cents/kWh PLUS you will still need to pay the fixed cost (which will soon be going up from $8 per month to $14 per month, punishing efficiency and low income customers. The increase was approved by a three member "Public" Service Commission panel, whose members are appointed by the governor and whose predecessors, more often than not, get primo jobs with those they regulate after leaving the panel. What a country!)

But, if you want to promote local renewable energy and get your own solar powered life without all the fuss and bother or siting and installing and maintaining your own system, this is definitely the way to go!