Despite colder climate, solar panel sales grow

• Rochester-area businesses say growth -- aided by government incentives -- has business booming.
• Nearly 200 residential solar projects in Monroe County from 2003-2014%2C a figure that is expected to grow.

The array of 30 solar panels being installed this week on Mark Rakestraw's Ogden home aren't just good for the environment. They're good for his bank account too.

"It made more financial sense than I anticipated when I first started looking into it," said Rakestraw.

The panels will provide all the electricity he needs and the utility bill savings will balance out the cost of having them installed in about six years. After that, Rakestraw will enjoy getting all his electricity from the sun, at no charge.

"I was surprised the payback period was so short. It kind of rivals what you would get in the stock market or your 401K," said Rakestraw, a cabinet maker who operates Rakestraw Cabinetry in downtown Rochester.

Business is booming

Rakestraw is among dozens of Monroe County residential customers — aided by state and federal financial incentives — turning to solar power to reduce or eliminate electric bills.

State data shows that between 2003 and 2014, there were 183 residential solar projects installed in Monroe County. There were 65 in Ontario County.

Compared to Erie County, which had 300 residential solar installations, and Westchester County, which had 717, Monroe has disappointing numbers. But contractors in the Rochester area said they're business is booming.

"My business has doubled this year. We're booked into January already and I actually had to hire a couple (Rochester Institute of Technology) interns to keep up with all the work we have. While we might not be where Buffalo is, I can tell you that were very busy here," said Shawn Lessord, senior project manager for Renewable Rochester, located at 780 Ridge Road in Webster.

Solar power is no longer an untested technology. Homeowners have seen enough neighbors take the plunge and are beginning to recognize it as a legitimate alternative to their utility company.

Rakestraw was inspired by a solar panel installation at Whittier Fruit Farm, near his home.

"The sizing was based on last year's electric bill. They see how many kilowatts you use in a year and they try to put in a system that will equal, or maybe a tiny bit more, but mostly just equal what you use," Rakestraw said.

If a solar system produces more electricity than the owners need, the extra power goes into the power grid and the owner get credits that can be used when their system isn't making enough. With a properly sized system, in the Rochester area, the extra power generated in warm sunny months typically results in enough credits to balance out the cold overcast days.

"In the summer you'll produce more than typically you'll need, and in the winter you'll produce less. So you get those as credits and it nets to zero," said Bill Schmitz, CEO of Arista Power, a solar panel installation contractor. "The meter will spin backwards when you're making more, and then, obviously, it'll spin forward when you need more."

Essential incentives

Customers see solar power as a hedge against increasing utility bills.

"With the winter we had last winter, bills went up significantly," Schmitz said. "So there's a fear that those could be affected again this coming year and future years, and a great way to offset that is to lock in the price with solar. We're seeing the market being very strong right now."

The growth in solar power isn't just due to increased acceptance or a desire to reduce utility bills. The growth of installations is largely due to financial incentives available at the state and local levels, plus lower costs for materials and labor. As a result, the payback time, or the period when consumers can expect to see return on the investment, has been reduced to about five or six years in most cases.

"I think, across the board, more and more people are aware of the benefits in the technology, but also are more aware of what they're spending on their energy. People think about that more than in the past," said Jesse Cook, president of Geotherm, a Rush-based alternative energy company.

The financial incentives have been so effective that Cook has shifted the focus of his company, where solar now accounts for about 40 percent of the work.

When he started the company 13 years ago, solar was so expensive he focused on selling and installing geothermal systems because they were an alternative energy technology financially viable without the need for incentives.

"In the past five years in particular the material cost of solar has plummeted to make it also viable so we've been doing a lot of solar on top of the geothermal that we've been doing for a long period of time," Cook said.

Current government incentives include a 30 percent federal tax credit for solar power projects. That credit can be stretched over five years if you don't have enough tax liability to use it all in one filing.

The state offers a 25 percent tax credit, with a maximum limit of $5,000.

On top of that, the state currently offers a rebate of 90 centers per watt installed. For a 10,000 watt (10 kilowatt) system, the rebate would total $9,000. "The incentives have kind of gone down as the solar panel pricing has gone down," Lessord said.

When he started in the business 15 years ago, Lessord said, the state rebate was $7 per watt.

A typical home needs a 6,000 to 10,000 watt solar panel system to provide all their electricity.

"We might have been installing them for $5 a watt two years ago. Now we're installing them in the $3 to $3.50 a watt range. The price of solar panels and equipment has gone down," he said. "The manufacturing processes have changed so they've been able to reduce the cost to us. You're seeing an influx of companies trying to get into the business of manufacturing products to make it easier for installers and so our labor costs have come down to."

Solar numbers

• In New York state, about 5,000 people work at more than 422 companies involved in some aspect of the solar industry, including: 68 manufacturers, 25 manufacturing facilities, 161 contractor/installers, 32 project developers, 22 distributors and 139 engaged in other activities such as financing, engineering and legal support.

• The 295 MW (295 million watts) of solar energy currently installed in New York state ranks the state 10th in the country in installed solar capacity. The solar energy installed in the state is enough to power 49,800 homes.

Source: Solar Energy Industries Association.

Some solar-panel installers

• Simply Solar Systems LLC, 2890 Church Road, Hamlin.

• Arista Power Inc., 1999 Mt. Read Blvd., Rochester.

• LTHS Solar, 2129 Five Mile Line Road, Penfield.

• Astrum Solar, 395 Summit Point Drive, Henrietta.

• Rochester Solar Technologies (Division of O'Connell Electric Co.), 830 Phillips Road, Victor.

• Renewable Rochester, 780 Ridge Road, Webster.

• Rochester Solar and Wind, 47 Tearose Meadow Lane, Brockport.

• Geotherm Inc., 335 Kavanaugh Road, Rush.

BLOUDON@DemocratandChronicle.com

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