Archive: Opinions

I just joined a growing number of upstate New Yorkers who are saving 10% on their electric bill (well, the energy generation portion) by purchasing energy generated by a local solar farm.  The paperwork evidently took almost five months to be finalized, so I just got my first bill, retroactive to January.  So the bad news is I had to pay the solar company five months in one fell swoop.  But the good news is that I have so much credit on my NYSEG account (for the five months I already paid them) that my NYSEG bill was $0.  I am pretty sure they owe me enough that my next three or four bills will also be for $0.  I am thinking of framing my $0 NYSEG bill.

The solar farm I am part of is in Seneca County, which is close enough that I am considered local enough to qualify to sign onto it.  I actually heard of the company, one of a handful of community solar companies that has been soliciting new customers in Tompkins County, when they approached the Lansing Town Planning Board with a plan to build a solar farm in Lansing.  As I watched their presentation I thought, hey, why not?  When I got home I checked out their Web site and found that, sure enough, I was eligible.  So I signed up.

Nothing happened for a long time, but the company kept in touch via email, and the other day I got my notice that I could set up my online account on the company's Web interface.  And what a good start!  So far my impact on saving energy has been the equivalent of 6.004 miles driven, 0.254 gallons of gas, or 8.5 barrels of oil.


A modest start, but going in the right direction.  And as for my $0 bill, yeah, I know.  NYSEG is making interest on the money it owes me in energy credits, and I am not. So of course there really is a cost to those bills.  It's just fun to see "$0" on a bill.  And it says i will have to pay a late fee if I don't pay the $0 by July 19th.  Ooooooohhhh, I'd better get right on that!

Clearly I need to get a life if that is where my fun comes from.  But I don't see dancing lessons in my future, so I guess I'll have to take fun where I can find it.

Speaking of fun, I am one of those people who has long enjoyed complaining about my electricity bill, especially lately when Lansing has been suffering so many blackouts.  The financial Web site Wallethub just released a new study, however, that found that New York is the 43rd most energy-expensive states out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, which is the cheapest. That makes us the ninth cheapest state on energy bills.

I was surprised by that.  I figured Alaska would be the most expensive state, just because I've been there and I can't imagine what it must cost to bring electricity across that terrain.  I was close.  Alaska is the third most expensive after Connecticut and Wyoming.  And my home state Massachusetts is fifth -- it's a good thing I moved here!

And we have the second lowest energy consumption of any state except Hawaii.  New York has the third lowest automobile fuel consumption per driver, with only Alaska and Washington, DC drivers using less gasoline than us.  But if  you use home heating oil as I do, there's bad news.  DC has the highest price on home heating oil, with New York scoring as the Avis (we're number 2) in this category.  I just got a whopping bill for home heating oil my budget plan didn't cover by the end of the heating season.  It ain't cheap.

In the wake of this week's news that the Cayuga Operating company has filed to shut down it's coal-fired power plant here in Lansing, signing on for solar power is becoming a better and better idea.  The problem with green electricity in the past was that the numbers didn't add up.  But a 10% savings on green electricity generation turns the equation around.

Here's how community solar farms work: each month you get two electric bills instead of one.  NYSEG still bills you for delivery at its full rate.  The solar farm gets energy credits from NYSEG, which NYSEG deducts from your bill, leaving their part of the charge intact.  The solar company bills you for generation at 10% less than you would have paid.  So the solar company can only sign up a number of people who use the amount of power the farm produces.  The solar array being built on Jerry Smith Road in Lansing will generate 5 megawatts of power, so they will be able to sign up customers who collectively use 5 megawatts or less.  The added benefit is that you don't have to have special equipment or own solar panels that, lets face it, don't particularly make houses more attractive.

I will never forget attending a business show at the Ithaca Farmer's Market site years ago where local businesses had booths to show Tompkins County what they were all about.  A young whippersnapper was walking around in front of the NYSEG booth trying to guilt people into paying more for green electricity because it was, this little nasal-voiced twerp aggressively told me, the right thing to do.

My thought was, if NYSEG was so hot to trot with green electricity why didn't it pay the extra money itself and not aggravate its customers at a business fair?

Of course that has been the problem with green energy for years.  It was a matter of conscience, not a matter of money.  As anyone with a jot of common sense can tell you, human nature is such that people are a lot more apt to respond positively to saving money than they are to guilt.

That's why these community solar farms are revolutionary in the emerging history of green energy.  They have found a way to supply energy cheaper and make their customers feel good about their impact on the earth, while rejoicing in slightly lower electric bills.  That is the way to do it, and speaking for myself, I can't wait to see myself have more positive impact on the earth.  And I can't wait to get my second $0 NYSEG bill in a row!

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