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Solar power eliminates utility bills in U.S. home
By Jon Hurdle Thu Jan 18 2007, 9:24 AM ET
EAST AMWELL, New Jersey (Reuters) - Michael Strizki heats and cools his house
year-round and runs a full range of appliances including such power-guzzlers as
a hot tub and a wide-screen TV without paying a penny in utility bills.
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His conventional-looking family home in the pinewoods of western New Jersey is
the first in the United States to show that a combination of solar and hydrogen
power can generate all the electricity needed for a home.
The Hopewell Project, named for a nearby town, comes at a time of increasing
concern over U.S. energy security and worries over the effects of burning
fossil fuels on the climate.
"People understand that climate change is a big concern but they don't know
what they can do about it," said Gian-Paolo Caminiti of Renewable Energy
International, the commercial arm of the project. "There's a psychological
dividend in doing the right thing," he said.
Strizki runs the 3,000-square-foot house with electricity generated by a
1,000-square-foot roof full of photovoltaic cells on a nearby building, an
electrolyzer that uses the solar power to generate hydrogen from water, and a
number of hydrogen tanks that store the gas until it is needed by the fuel
cell.
In the summer, the solar panels generate 60 percent more electricity than the
super-insulated house needs. The excess is stored in the form of hydrogen which
is used in the winter -- when the solar panels can't meet all the domestic
demand -- to make electricity in the fuel cell. Strizki also uses the hydrogen
to power his fuel-cell driven car, which, like the domestic power plant, is
pollution-free.
Solar power currently contributes only 0.1 percent of U.S. energy needs but the
number of photovoltaic installations grew by 20 percent in 2006, and the cost
of making solar panels is dropping by about 7 percent annually, according to
the Solar Energy Industries Association.
As costs decline and the search accelerates for clean alternatives to expensive
and dirty fossil fuels, some analysts predict solar is poised for a significant
expansion in the next five to 10 years.
STATE SUPPORT
The New Jersey project, which opened in October 2006 after four years of
planning and building, cost around $500,000, some $225,000 of which was
provided by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. The state, a leading
supporter of renewable energy, aims to have 20 percent of its energy coming
from renewables by 2020, and currently has the largest number of solar-power
installations of any U.S. state except California.
New Jersey's utility regulator supported the project because it helps achieve
the state's renewable-energy goals, said Doyal Siddell a spokesman for the
agency.
"The solar-hydrogen residence project provides a tremendous opportunity to
reduce greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming," he said.
The project also got equipment and expertise from a number of commercial
sponsors including Exide, which donated some $50,000 worth of batteries, and
Swageloc, an Ohio company that provided stainless steel piping costing around
$28,000. Strizki kicked in about $100,000 of his own money.
While the cost may deter all but wealthy environmentalists from converting
their homes, Strizki and his associates stress the project is designed to be
replicated and that the price tag on the prototype is a lot higher than
imitators would pay. Now that first-time costs of research and design have been
met, the price would be about $100,000, Strizki said.
But that's still too high for the project to be widely replicated, said
Marchant Wentworth of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group
in Washington. To be commonly adopted, such installations would have to be able
to sell excess power to the grid, generating a revenue stream that could be
used to attract capital, he said.
"You need to make the financing within reach of real people," Wentworth said.
Caminiti argues that the cost of the hydrogen/solar setup works out at about
$4,000 a year when its $100,000 cost is spread over the anticipated 25-year
lifespan of the equipment. That's still a lot higher than the $1,500 a year the
average U.S. homeowner spends on energy, according to the federal government.
Even if gasoline costs averaging about $1,000 per car annually are included in
the energy mix, the renewables option is still more expensive than the grid/
gasoline combination.
But for Strizki and his colleagues, the house is about a lot more than the
bottom line. It's about energy security at a time when the federal government
is seeking to reduce dependence on fossil fuels from the Middle East, and it's
about sustaining a lifestyle without emitting greenhouse gases.
For the 51-year-old Strizki, the project is his life's work. "I have dedicated
my life to making the planet a better place," he said.