How to Cut Your Alternative Energy Costs

SOUND: Drilling…
It’s a perfect spring day in Greenland.

Workers are perched on a roof of a new commercial building, installing solar electric panels.

They’ve already put up a solar hot water system.

When they’re done, the sun will provide power to the commercial building and to the owner’s house, about 20 yards away.

Jack Bingham of Seacoast Energy Alternatives is supervising.

Bingham: There’s 72 glass tubes up there and they just make hot water. So they’ll be a big storage tank that stores all that hot water and they’re gonna use it for radiant floor heat, they’re gonna use it for domestic hot water in the house, they’re gonna use it to heat the pool in the summer. It’s a very interesting, fairly complex system, but it’s all driven by the big ball in the sky and that’s free.

Well, kind of.

The energy itself may be free, but the system hardly is.

It costs about fourteen thousand dollars to install a solar photovoltaic system for an average three bedroom home.

And an average domestic solar hot water system costs five to ten thousand dollars.

Small wind turbines and geothermal systems aren't cheap either.

Luckily, the federal government, the state, and New Hampshire's utilities want you to become more energy independent and efficient.

The owner of this building will get a 30 percent federal tax credit, accelerated depreciation, and a six thousand dollar state renewable energy rebate.

But finding and stitching together that crazy quilt of funding sources can give the most resourceful homeowner a headache.

Richards: It is a confusing process for people to navigate, trying to figure out how to finance and fund some of these programs.

That’s Laura Richardson with the state office of energy and planning.

Richards: You know, most renewable energy systems, you invest up front. You don't pay a little bit over time. And so for a lot of people, that is a challenge.

But the effort to find money can pay off.

Richards: There are a lot of little funding sources, that when you start adding one on top of the other on top of the other you wind up with some very strong financial incentives.

Let’s take one at a time.

This year, the federal government offers a 30 percent tax credit on solar electric and solar hot water systems, small wind systems, and geothermal heat pumps.

You can also get a 30 percent federal tax credit, up to $1500, for making your home more energy efficient – by, say, installing an EnergyStar-rated roof.

Now let’s turn to New Hampshire.

Utilities have a big stake in getting you to stop using so much energy.

The New Hampshire Electric Cooperative will give its customers a rebate of up to thirty five hundred dollars on solar hot water, solar electric and wind systems.

The other utilities aren’t so generous.

But they will help you tighten up your leaky house, which is the first step toward energy efficiency..

For years, Public Service of New Hampshire has offered free energy audits.

And they’ll help pay for weatherization for people who use electric heat.

But that’s a small minority of homes in this state.

Tom Belair is PSNH’s energy efficiency guru.

Belair: We have a proposal into the public utilities commission to expand that program to non-electrically heated homes, homes that are heated with oil, liquid propane, gas, so we’re looking to expand our weatherization program to help the majority of homes that are in New Hampshire.

The state hasn’t yet responded to that request.

But it is working feverishly on rules for its Renewable Energy Fund.

Starting July first the fund will provide cash rebates up to six thousand dollars to people who install domestic solar electric and wind systems.

This sounds great, of course, but if a lot of people line up for rebates, that money could run out fast.

The program is funded by payments from utilities that don’t purchase enough renewable energy.

Officials believe the state will raise only about $5 million this year – and by law, it can only use 10 percent of the fund for homeowner rebates.

Clifton Below is a PUC commissioner.

Below: If it was an average of about $5,000 per system, that would only be about 100 systems that could be funded. E: That’s a really small number, isn’t it. C: Well, yes, but it’s not clear to us at this point how many systems are being installed in New Hampshire at this point.

And the money’s available for projects dating back to last July.

Below says lawmakers are considering whether to lift the ten percent cap.

The state is also developing rebate programs for larger projects and for solar thermal systems.

For now, if you want to claim your state rebate, get in line.

Fast.

For NHPR News, I’m Elaine Grant.