Something happened last Friday that added to my looking glass theory.
I signed up for a Home Photovoltaic System design course at Miami-Dade College North Campus and decided that the next step would definitely have to be to take the advanced course for the same class in order to take it to the next level. To my surprise (or lack thereof), the course is only offered at Broward Community College. The direct reason for this is unknown to me, and to be honest, I do not wish to look into it too much. The fact of the matter is, us South Floridians have to make that hour and a half hike all the way to Broward county to get a 7 credit hour course. Let me make sure my SunPass is fully replenished!
Also during the course, I realized something very interesting and helpful for the Blog. I was unaware that Gainesville was one of the first cities to adopt a Feed-in Tariff method, where your home's energy is sold back to the grid at $0.32 per Kwh.
Since I myself did not now the terminology and difference between Net Metering and Feed-in Tariffs I will put their relevant definitions here, courtesy of the Ontario Power Authority:
Net metering: Under net-metering, you are paid for the excess electricity that you produce. This means that the power produced from your renewable energy project is consumed on site and if there is any left over, you receive payments for it.
Feed-in Tariff: Under FIT or microFIT, you are paid for all of the power that your project produced at a rate fixed by the OPA (a rate much higher than what you would receive for excess energy under net-metering). The OPA will sign a contract with you to guarantee that the OPA will pay you for all the power you produce over 20 years. Your utility will continue to charge you for all the power that you consume.
Looking into this a little bit, Germany and Spain have been big shakers in this department. You can find a bit more in Wikipedia (duh!) and what States have adopted these measures and for how much:
This is a good sign for Florida, let's just pray it catches on like a Solar Power H1N1.
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How is FPL doing in Miami Dade? I believe they are crediting something.
ReplyDeleteFinally they have started to make their move involving this "trend", and I'm not just talking about "setting your A/C at 78° and turning off ceiling fans when you leave the room" type stuff...maybe some net metering here, a few more tax incentives there and we might just catch up with Hawaii and Alaska...Yay!
ReplyDeleteI believe that there is a "rebate" once you have an Energy Star rating. There are a few raters that do this such as VETERANS ENERGY SOLUTIONS LLC South Florida.. Believe it or not! LOL.
ReplyDeleteyeah sure, you get a rebate in one hand and they give all a rate hike with the other, bastards... How about the proposed 6&7 reactors they want implemented over mount trash-more. Instead of investing these billions of dollars in renewable energy they continue with the way of the old of nuclear energy and it's gets better, I believe most of that power generated goes to Georgia!!! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/TurkeyPoint/
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