Solar Redux

I attended "Flip The Switch" at 438 Main Street in Franklin today. Karen Noel Cochran, a member of the Franklin Sustainability Task Force, flipped the switch on her 64 SunPower 230 watt 4.7kW photovoltaic solar electric system atop her Five Points building.
Skip Heibert on top of the building
This system, designed and installed by LightWave Solar Electric, LLC is the second largest in the Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Coop. district (MTEMC). At peak it produces @ 14.7 kW per day; this will offset the energy costs of her Five Points Franklin properties at least $3,850 a year. The project was granted a TN Clean Energy Technology, TN-CET, grant (a Federal Energy Investment Tax Credit) that will pay for 40 percent of the system, a 30 percent tax credit, and a federal five-year accelerated depreciation benefit (MACRS): altogether it will cover approximately 85% of the cost of the system. These programs, TN Small Business Energy Loan and Tennessee Clean Energy Technology Grant Program are reimbursement programs and the system has to be built and certified, by TVA or MTEMC, prior to being eligible for the loan or grant.
TVA gives credit of 22 cents above the normal general power rate for all the power generated by the solar system; this means Mrs.Cochran can sell back the power not used at 22 cents above the current going rate.

The solar panel's performance is monitored and managed in real-time via the SunPower online monitoring system, which can be viewed inside the Starbucks at Five points or on the Internet, when it is up and running. You can also see the power being produced by the photovoltaic system installed at Bells Bend Nature Center/Metro Parks.