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A solar system in Southwest Bakersfield
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Anonymous user Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
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0 responses 0 comments A new solar-powered neighborhood under construction by Castle & Cooke, Windermere in Southwest Bakersfield’s Seven Oaks, is to be the largest solar-powered residential community in the Central Valley. The homes feature seamless aesthetic solar rooftop SunTiles from PowerLight. Windermere features luxurious homes that can save owners as much as 60 percent on their annual utility costs by being 65 percent more energy efficient than the state's energy codes require. Solar systems are being built in according to buyers' requests and some plots are already designated fully solar. The Windermere home’s panels are constructed as part of the roof, and can be placed on any side of the roof except the north side, which would get the least amount of direct sunlight. The home's solar system works along with the power that comes from the utility company. The house is able to generate its own electricity while having the ability to tap into the utility company's power grid at night and on cloudy days. The solar houses could generate as much as 50 percent of a family of four's electricity needs.

Gordon Nipp, local Sierra Club member and solar homeowner, took the time to share with Southwest residents his views on the benefits of solar homes:

“Everybody wins with rooftop solar PV (photovoltaics) generating electricity from our abundant Bakersfield sunlight.

“The homeowner wins. By generating their own power, homeowners will likely save more on their monthly electric bill than they will spend on the additional mortgage needed to finance the system.  The cost of the system is reduced by about 40 percent by rebates and tax credits. Solar PV utilizes free energy from the sun, reducing the effect of utility rate increases and protecting the homeowner from price volatility. In addition, there is a certain satisfaction in watching the electric meter spin backwards when the system produces excess electricity and feeds it into the grid (not likely to happen, though, if the air conditioner is running). A solar PV system requires very little maintenance; solar panels typically have a 25-year warranty.

“The city wins. Solar PV creates two or three times more jobs per kilowatt-hour produced than a natural gas-fired power plant. If demand for solar panels were great enough, there is real potential that a solar panel manufacturer would move into Bakersfield, creating even more jobs.

“The state wins. Solar PV generates most of its power in the middle of the day when the sun is highest and when demand for air conditioner electricity is high; so pressure on the grid and on peak power plants is reduced. If enough people had solar PV on their homes, the need to upgrade electrical generating and distributing facilities would be lessened. The threat of rolling blackouts could be a thing of the past.

“The nation wins. Generating free energy from the sun helps us toward energy independence. Every kilowatt-hour of electricity produced by solar PV is a kilowatt-hour that doesn't have to be produced using foreign oil or natural gas. Fossil fuel is a non-renewable, limited resource; sunlight is not. In addition, having generating facilities distributed on individual rooftops reduces the threat of grid instability and blackouts if a large, centralized power plant were to fail.

“The earth wins. Solar PV helps fight global warming and air pollution. Every kilowatt of solar PV power offsets about a ton per year of global warming gasses that would have otherwise been produced by a fossil fuel-fired power plant, and it offsets other more direct forms of air pollution as well.

“Everybody wins - nobody loses.”

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