Green Building Elements

Last week I wrote an article titled "Real Renewable Energy vs. Renewable Energy Credits" where I looked at the issue of renewable energy credits (RECs) versus direct purchase of renewable energy. (For some followup to that story, a podcast of the WDET radio program ‘Detroit Today’ where the issue of the local REC program was discussed is now online. In addition to discussing the DTE Greencurrents program, the Austin (TX) green energy program was also explored and compared with the REC program.)

While buying renewable energy credits helps to support the development of alternative energy solutions, many times these programs are not specifically local. The credits you are buying may be for energy produced in a different region entirely. If part of your goal in purchasing RECs is to support and encourage the development of local renewable energy, then a generic REC may not be what you want.

The state of Michigan has recently started a new program called MI-REX (Michigan Renewable Energy Exchange), which is intended to bring together people interested in purchasing renewable energy credits with the owners of small renewable energy systems who have credits to offer. At this point the program is just in a pilot phase, and no RECs have been sold yet. The state website has an application form to gather more information about the systems people would like to register and offer credits.

This program would allow small energy producers (possibly even including individual homeowners) with wind or solar renewable energy systems from 1kW to 100kW in size to sell renewable energy credits from the power that they have produced. (A solar array of 4-5 panels or a wind turbine with a 10-12 foot diameter might be all that is needed to reach the 1 kilowatt threshold.)

This particular program is only available for producers in the state of Michigan, but other states may be developing or already offering similar programs. MI-REX RECs will be denominated in Megawatt hours or in tenths of a megawatt hour. Certificates will be issued annuallyfor the entire previous year’s production. Buyers will have to purchase the entire certificate (no partial certificates will be allowed) after which the MI-REX will be retired.

Selling RECs isn’t going to be a cash cow, but it could be a little bit more assistance in paying for a renewable energy system. A wind turbine that is generating an average of 500 kWh/month (a reasonable figure for a well situated household wind turbine ) could earn $120 from selling the RECs if they were sold for 2 cents per kWh (or $20 per MWh).

MI-REX credits are expected to first be available in early 2008 for RECs generated during 2007.

That’s an intriguing lede to an article. Many of you may be suspicious that I’m going to be talking about CitizenRE and their alleged "free solar energy" offer, but this isn’t about that program. (And if you aren’t familiar with CitizenRE, I recommend that you take a look at the three-part series from Mike Taylor that discusses the program starting here.) Instead, I’m refering to an intriguing point that is made in an article titled "10 MORE Things to Know Before Buying a Solar Electric System" by Bruce Karney from OrganicPicks.com. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, but rather a simple fact of finance for people in regions where they are currently paying high rates for their electricity. If you are paying more than 20 cents per kilowatt hour, this may be applicable to you.

The article skips many of the basic things that many people considering solar are already well aware of, such as that a solar PV system needs to be installed on a south or southwest facing (for installations in the northern hemisphere); those are covered in his preceeding article. Both articles provide good information, and are highly recommended reading, especially if you are seriously considering buying a solar PV system.

However, the most intriguing item to me in the article was the line "You can buy a solar system for no money down." For many homeowners with concerns about the costs and cash flow, PV panels are seen as a pricey addition that they just can’t afford to pay for right now. But that’s not necessarily the case. As Karney explains,

"You can buy a solar system with no money down. If your credit is sound, you can take out a home improvement loan for the entire cost of the system. If your monthly electricity bill is more than $150, the amount you spend paying back the loan plus your small residual electric bill will be less than you’re paying now for electricity. In other words, your PV system will put money in your pocket every month from the first day you install it. Once the loan is paid off in 15 years or so, the amount of positive cash flow will jump dramatically."

One very important caveat to this, however, is that this is from an article written for San Francisco Bay area residents, where a competitive market for solar power systems and high electricity costs combine to make this scenario more likely. It may not necessarily apply to everyone’s situation, but it useful to consider nonetheless. My own electric bill is not nearly this high, so this doesn’t apply to my situation. But there are many people who live in higher rate regions and who use more electricity for whom this approach makes good sense.

Additionally, he offers the reminder to add your PV system to your homeowner’s insurance after it is installed. And, the question of solar PV systems taking more energy to manufacture than they can produce during their lifetime is also addressed:

Some solar system critics have said that the energy produced by solar panels is less than the energy it takes to make them, and this is simply false. The energy required to manufacture your solar panels and inverter and transport them to your home is equal to about 1 to 3 years worth of the energy produced by the PV system.

The article also offers some of the same advice that we have recommended many times before, but it still bears repeating: "Before you buy a solar PV system, do what you can to reduce your consumption of electricity. Conservation is cheap compared to solar panels. Search the web for "conserving electricity", read the suggestions, and implement as many as you can." Reducing the amount of electricity that you regularly use is both the most cost effective form of conservation as well as the greenest step you can take. Keeping the coal unburned is the best way to help green the planet.

Along with Karney’s two articles, I also recommend the recent article Shane Jordan had here on Green Options about "How to Get Your Home Ready for Renewable Energy" that has a number of good suggestions about getting your home ready to install solar power.

Article: "10 MORE Things to Know Before Buying a Solar Electric System"

Bats are wonderful creatures, though they are often misunderstood. Bats are especially good at helping to control insects. Some bats eat as many as 500 to 1000 insects in a single hour. So having a few flitting around can be a wonderful way to reduce the nuisance of insects in your yard without resorting to chemicals and poisons.

To encourage bats to settle near your house and bring their insect devouring prowess to work for you, a bat house is a relatively easy project that provides a place for the bats to nest. In order to be attractive to bats, a bat house needs to be narrow. In the wild, bats like the spaces between bark and a tree trunk. So a space that is narrow and dark is ideal.

Carla Brown from the National Wildlife Federation has put together her own, very well illustrated, step-by-step process for building a bat house for her home. So, rather than repeating what she has already done, I’m just going to point you to her project page for the step by step details.

Carla’s descriptions are excellent, and she writes that she had never before used a circular saw, so this is not an overly-challenging project to do. The plans she used are from Bat Conservation International’s website. The house doesn’t look like some of the commercial bat houses I’ve seen for sale. But I believe this design is more likely to attract bats to actually live in the bat house.

My seven year-old son and I are going to try to build our own bat house to put on our house this weekend following these directions. It’s a small project, requiring only a quarter sheet (2′ x 4′) of plywood, an 8′ long 1×2 board, and some miscellaneous hardware and building materials. It should be very possible to use some salvaged lumber for this if you happen to have some pieces you’d like to use.

The project requires only a couple of cuts to cut the plywood into three pieces for the house. The finished house is only a couple inches deep, but that is sufficient and cozy space for the bats. The narrow size also helps to keep other predators and animals out of the box, and keeps the bats safe.

The most unusual step of the project is probably running the circular saw in horizontal bands across the plywood to make a surface that the bats can get a grip on. Cutting rough grooves makes the plywood more like the bark that bats would expect to find. It is also important that the interior of the bat house be stained to help make it as dark as possible to appeal to the bats.

Good locations for bat houses include a southern orientation, especially in more northerly locations, and proximity to water. Sothern orientation helps the box reach the temperatures bats seek, and proximity to water makes it more likely that the insects the bats love to eat (such as mosquitoes) will be available for them. We are fortunate to have the side of the garage facing south, so it’s easy to mount the bat house at the peak of the roof to get good southern orientation. It’s less well suited for other solar projects, but it’s good for the bats. We are also quite close to the Huron River, so proximity to water is also taken care of.

Bats seek really warm nesting places, so the bat house needs to be painted or stained a dark color in order to absorb solar radiation and get as warm as possible. Bat Conservation International even has a map with guidelines on recommended colors for your bat house. Black or dark gray is usually best in northern regions.

It is unlikely that our bat house will be occupied until next year. The NWF says that bats are likely to be looking for a home in the spring, so the bat house may sit unoccupied until then. But hopefully we’ll have bats. We’ve seen bats out at nearby parks, so hopefully they’ll find our bat box and move in.

Links:

National Wildlife Federation

Bat Conservation International

BCI Plans

Color selection map