OPD Hosts Renewable Energy Seminar

The Overton Power District (OPD) hosted a presentation on small renewable energy systems at its office in Mesquite on Tuesday, June 30. About two dozen people attended the event. Representatives from McLane Electric out of Las Vegas came to present the seminar and answer questions from the public.

McLane is a dealer of several lines of solar and wind generating systems for homes and small businesses. On display was a large roof-top solar panel and a Skystream® wind generating unit.

But Tabor was clear that the components for solar systems are still quite costly. Large solar panels are required to be installed. The quantity of these are determined by how much power is needed and how much space is available for installation.

In addition a piece of hardware called an inverter is needed. This converts the DC power coming from the solar panel into AC power that is used by household appliances. A multitude of racks, controllers and electrical switches are also required for full installation.

The cost of a solar system for an average home is $18,000 – $20,000. Such a system usually will provide about half of the power needs of an average household, thus cutting utilities bills significantly. But it can take a long time for those savings to reach a break-even on the initial investment. Depending on the circumstances, it is expected to take from 8-15 years for the system to pay for itself.

This makes maintenance costs an important factor. If maintenance costs end up being very high, it can extend the pay-off period significantly. Fortunately, the panels usually come with a 20-25 year warranty. Inverter boxes, however, customarily come with only a 3-7 year warranty and can be costly to replace.

OPD General Manager Delmar Leatham felt that the time of home solar units being economically viable was still a way off. But, he felt, with the amount of public investment being made to develop renewable energy technology, that time may be coming soon. “I think that its quite possible in 5 or 10 years that the prices for these systems will come down, and the cost of power will have gone up, to the point that solar will become more practical,”Leatham said.

The wind generating systems on display had three large rotating blades placed at the top of a 25 foot tall (at least) pole. Tabor stated that wind technology had come a long way in the last two decades. “Products like these have advanced considerably and have become much more reliable and efficient,”she said. Tabor stated that the manufacturing company, Skystream®, had invested $20 million into development and improvement of the product.

An average wind generating system of this kind currently costs a total of about $20,000 for equipment and installation.

When operating at high efficiency levels it is able to provide about 20-30% of the total household power of an average home. This can cut down significantly on the power bill.

But this is all dependent upon an adequate amount of wind. The cost of power generated from wind systems, by necessity, increases significantly with lower average wind speeds.

At an average wind speed of 12 mph, the cost of power is a little over 12 cents per kWh if the cost is amortized out over a 20 year period, according to manufacturer documents. That is about the same amount currently charged by NV Energy to its Las Vegas customers.

But OPD customers pay significantly less. Local customers pay around 8 cents per kWh. “It is true, you have a very low cost on power in this area,”said Tabor. “That would obviously be a point of consideration in purchasing these types of systems.”

To match OPD rates, the wind generating system would have to see average windspeeds of 18-20 mph to break even on cost over a 20 year period.

OPD staff has been studying average windspeeds in certain locations in the district. Leatham stated that preliminary studies have shown only about 1400 hours per year where wind speeds are above 11 mph in the area. That is only about 16% of the time.

“Between solar and wind, the wind generation is probably more economically viable right now,”Leatham said. “But you’d need to be in a much windier place for it to really pay off.”

Cost is not always the most important factor, though. For some, the dollars and cents issues mean less than the larger environmental factors. Leatham stated that many are willing to pay a premium for their power in order to leave a smaller carbon footprint. “The folds whare are installing these systems are the people that want to be proactive in helping with climate change,”Leatham said. “They recognize that somebody has to start down that road first.”