An empowering idea

Where does your electricity come from?

You may think it comes from a dam on the Columbia or some other big river. Or from a coal or nuclear power plant somewhere.

But if you live a little east of Arlington, your electricity may come from Kevin Duncan's small dam and water turbine.

If you live in Lynnwood near Beverly Elementary School, you may get part of your electricity from Nick Aldrich's solar panels.

"Some people have pictures of their kids. We have pictures of our project," Duncan said.

Across Snohomish County and the state, there are people like Duncan and Aldrich, their meters running backward as they feed electricity back into the grid — and potentially into your home.

Information

Snohomish County PUD Net Metering: www.snopud.com/energy/home/
NetMeteringProgram.ashx

Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy: www.dsireusa.org

Sell Green Tags through the Northwest Solar Cooperative: www.cascadesolar.com/greentags.htm

Find someone to install a solar-power system: www.findsolar.com

Solar power in Washington: www.solarwashington.org

These individuals are making small green contributions to the vast power grid, and they get credits or get paid for the electricity they make but don't use.

Programs in which individuals can return or sell power back to the grid have generated a lot of interest, according to the Snohomish County Public Utility District, but not many people have signed up because of the high upfront expense.

The PUD has eight customers with solar panels and two with small hydro projects. Throughout the Northwest, there are hundreds of small energy producers who have solar, hydro or wind projects.

Duncan said it's nearly impossible to start a small hydro project these days because of environmental concerns. It took four years to get the 117 licenses and permits to build his hydro project — after his first two attempts failed in the permitting process, he said.

And it's not cheap.

Though Duncan wouldn't say how much money he gets from the Snohomish County PUD each month, he said it probably wasn't until recently that, because of increasing energy prices, he broke even on the system. He got the license for it in 1987.

Before the recent increases in energy rates, Duncan wasn't expecting to pay off the system until 40 or 50 years after it was created.

There are two small hydropower producers in the county who make more electricity than they use.

Duncan is one of them, at his property on a bluff overlooking an area east of Arlington known as Ebey Meadows.

His interest in hydropower came from his dad, who worked for a utility in Pierce County.

When Duncan was a boy, he created his first water turbine by putting a propeller in an open-ended coffee can.

When he was older, he took a job with the PUD but left that and started his own energy-related business, KVA Electric.

Now, on a warm spring weekday, when most people are at work and homes use minimal energy, Duncan estimates he powers about 25 homes, including his own.

In the evening, after most people come home and turn on appliances, that number probably goes down to around four homes, he said.

As long as there's water in the reservoir he uses, he produces more power than he can consume. There are a few months during the summer when the reservoir is dry, he said.

The electricity Duncan generates flows to the power grid from a small building on his property. That's where the water arrives via a 3,000-foot-long pipe that starts in the reservoir on top of the hill above his house.

The 1,100 vertical feet the pipe drops from the reservoir to Duncan's generator building is what creates the power.

When the water reaches Duncan's turbine, it's going about 3,000 feet per second — or about 2,045 miles per hour, fast enough to travel from Everett to Seattle in about 50 seconds.

The water hits the turbine and spins a generator, creating an average of 70 kilowatts of power, though the turbine can create up to 100 kilowatts during heavy rainfall.

Inside Duncan's home are albums filled with photos of the construction of the project and pictures from when he and his wife, Vicki, hike up to the reservoir to inspect it.

From a computer inside his home, Duncan can tell everything from how much water is in the reservoir to what the water temperature is to how much money he's making.

The system also is programmed to call him on his cellphone and tell him if there's a problem or if he hasn't checked on it for a while.

He does a lot of traveling for his job, Duncan said, and, if necessary, he could shut down the generator from his phone. But for the most part, the system runs itself, he said.

"It does what it needs to do and then it tells me," he said.

The hydroelectric system doesn't consume any of the water it uses, he said. It all goes directly back into a stream and into the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River.

Duncan's project is environmentally friendly, he said. There are no fish in the reservoir, which used to be a small lake before it was converted to a reservoir in the 1960s to help irrigate nearby farmland.

Being environmentally friendly is a big part of what Aldrich, who has the solar panels, is all about.

On a sunny day last week, Aldrich's electric meter had a couple of flashing arrows that pointed left, meaning he was giving electricity back to the PUD, he said.

That electricity is used by his neighbors or someone else nearby, and Aldrich gets credits on his account for generating that power. When he uses more electricity than he makes, he'll reclaim those credits.

Aldrich is among eight people in the PUD's Net Metering program, which provides a special meter that records two numbers: energy used and energy given back.

More people are installing solar panels, said Doug Boleyn, the president of Oregon-based Cascade Solar Consulting. But to spend thousands of dollars for a solar-energy system, it often takes someone such as Aldrich, who does other environmentally friendly things like raising and releasing salmon, and who is creating a bird sanctuary on his one-fifth-acre lot on a Lynnwood cul-de-sac.

"We have rain barrels, and my wife and I both drive hybrid cars," he said.

Aldrich bought solar panels because he believes it's how he can do his part to help the environment, he said.

Boleyn said the popularity of solar energy increases as consumers hear more about global warming and the energy crisis. People also are drawn to making their own energy as a hobby or even because of their religion, Boleyn said.

"The challenge, of course, is the economic balance," he said. "Most people who are driven just by payback are not going to invest in solar," he said.

A solar-energy system installed on the roof of a house can range from $6,000 to $20,000, depending on the size and the technology used. The panels are sales-tax-free by state law.

Aldrich spent $17,000 for his 18 solar panels, and he figures it probably saves him about $250 a year on his electric bill. At that rate, the panels would take nearly 70 years to pay for themselves — or at least 20 years longer than their estimated life span.

But there are incentives, including one that starts this summer that could allow small solar-electricity producers to recover their investment at nearly four times the retail rate of electricity.

Besides being sales-tax-free, 30 percent of the cost of a system — up to $2,000 — can be written off federal taxes, said Chris Fate, who oversees the Net Metering program for the PUD. The write-off is for systems brought online in 2006 and 2007. There is no cap for businesses.

Additionally, starting July 1, solar-electricity systems in Washington can make an extra 15 cents per kilowatt-hour through a production-incentive program. The payment goes up to 18 cents if the inverter was made in Washington.

Aldrich is also part of a Green Tag program. Through a group called the Northwest Solar Cooperative, coordinated by Boleyn, he makes another 5 cents per kilowatt-hour by selling the environmental attributes of the power he produces.

Boleyn buys the environmental qualities of Aldrich's power. Those are eventually resold to businesses and people who want to be able to claim that the power they use comes from green sources, such as solar and wind systems.

Essentially, people who make money from Green Tags are selling their bragging rights, said Boleyn. Aldrich said he made $318.60 last year from selling his Green Tags.

Altogether, solar-energy producers could make as much as 31 cents per kilowatt-hour for their energy, Fate said.

New tax and government incentives, combined with growing concerns over global warming, also may cause more people to open their checkbooks and put solar panels on their roofs.

Even without the new production-incentive program, Aldrich said that if he combined the check from his Green Tags and the credit from the PUD, he made about $66 in 2005.

Boleyn expects the cost of solar panels to come down in the middle of 2007 as production catches up to demand, and solar power will become even more cost-effective. But small hydro projects will likely remain out of reach, Duncan said.

Brian Alexander: 425-745-7845 or balexander@seattletimes.com