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Solar Company Finds Con Ed Not As Green As Advertised
Denville NJ (SPX) Apr 23, 2008 In 1931 Thomas Edison was quoted as saying, "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that." Well, we did wait a very long time. But with fossil fuel energy at record prices, enterprising individuals and companies are now striving to make the great inventor's words a reality. Solar energy growth is exploding around the world. But as one local solar company has learned, Con Edison, which uses the great man's name in its moniker, clearly takes exception to Edison's own words. The Solar Center's experience, which is mirrored by other local solar installation companies, shows a utility which is obstructing the march to solar electricity. Although Con Edison is putting a great deal of effort into advertising campaigns such as the "The Power of Green", The Solar Center is finding that the power of green is no match to the entrenched ways Con Edison resists the generation of electricity by anyone but ConEdison. The Solar Center, which operates in the Tri-State Region, is having an ongoing struggle with Con Edison over approval to connect a solar electric system in the town of Scarsdale to the ConEd grid. Since December 7th of 2007 The Solar Center has received 11 letters of denial from Con Ed for interconnection of the residential solar electric system. Although this solar electric system is no different from thousands installed all over the country, Con Edison has found new reasons to object to just about every aspect of the solar electric interconnection. The Solar Center has invested hundreds of man hours to address all the objections raised by the engineers of Con Edison, only to find their points of refusal continued to grow. As late as March 23rd , after months of correspondence, the Senior Engineer at Con Ed, Mort Kevelson, came up with a brand new list of "points of denial." The list totaled 35 in number; the longest list yet. One of Mort's objections was that one of the font sizes on the application needed to be changed. While Con Edison publicly supports Mayor Bloomberg's PLANYC initiative to achieve a thirty percent carbon reduction by 2030, in reality ConEdison's staff aggressively works to thwart the approval of solar electric systems in their service territory. The Solar Center now has five residential solar electric projects being held back from interconnection. The Scarsdale project, while complete, has remained off line for four months. Both the municipal authorities and NYSERDA, the state authority that inspects and approves solar systems to receive a rebate, have approved this installation. According to Solar Center Engineer Damian de Caires, "Although Solar Center engineers, NYSERDA engineers, and the municipal electrical inspector of record agree that the system is technically correct, a team of Con Ed engineers continue to withhold the interconnection approval for the solar electric system to the grid." It certainly appears ConEdison is doing everything it can to hold back solar electric systems. The photovoltaic system is state of the art, utilizing Sanyo solar modules, the highest output modules on the market. The system also includes a battery back-up system in case of power outages. "We put a lot of time and effort into this project. We first had to get approval from the town, and this took quite a bit of effort in itself," says George Engelbrecht, Solar Consultant for The Solar Center. "The town would not let us put solar modules on a portion of the roof that could be seen from the road, so we had to configure the system for the back roof and an upper roof that was not visible. They were happy with the redesign and we moved ahead. We thought that was the hard part of the project. We were not prepared for ConEdison's strong resistance to solar energy." The Solar Center is appealing to the Public Service Commission for help in resolving these difficulties. The Solar Center hopes that Con Edison staff will soon see the light and make solar electric systems more accessible to the homeowners and business. Related Links All About Solar Energy at SolarDaily.com
City Of Avalon Selects REC Solar As Preferred Solar Electricity Provider
Avalon CA (SPX) Apr 22, 2008While most of California is busy planning Earth Day celebrations, Catalina Island is tackling its environmental challenges head on. A group of environmentally concerned residents from Avalon announced the selection of REC SOLAR, Orange County as the preferred provider for their new community solar program. The solar community initiative is just the first phase of Catalina's multi-tiered sustainable living charter, locally known as the 2020 Vision Plan. |
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