INTRO: Imagine every homeowner with windmills and solar panels. It would avoid power outages, cut down on pollution and maybe even save money. A small number of Michiganders are doing this now. It’s been almost a year since state rules went info affect for something called net metering. Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus visited a man who’s taking advantage of it.
Scott Williams lives on the outskirts of Escanaba in the UP.
“I’m fifty years old. So when I grew up it was give a hoot don’t pollute.
Williams is thinking back to 1971. He first saw a guy on TV created by The Forest Service. His name was Woodsy Owl:
“And that’s where it all kind of started.”
70 feet in the air, 2 small windmills are bolted to a tower in his backyard. And he’s got 3 solar panels in the front.
“I wanted to know there was power there when I needed it. I am out of town. If my power goes down my refrigerator is down, my heat’s down. I don’t have water. But now I can sleep well at night knowing I do. No matter what happens I’ll always have power.”
Williams could be called off the grid. He doesn’t need the network of power lines stretching across the state. Instead, they’re starting to need him.
“The meter goes both ways. It’s like a bank account. You put it in you take it out. As long as there’s something to take out then I don’t get charged for it.”
Michigan has a new law on net metering. Any power you make yourself and don’t use goes to the utility. UP Power, Consumers and DTE, now have to credit you with every watt of electricity you don’t use. And they can’t cancel the credit at the end of the year.
Williams started hooking up cables and batteries in his basement 5 years ago.
A charge controller converts the wind and solar to 48 volts. That leads to a giant fuse box of copper. 32 batteries the size of car batteries, are stacked on a shelf. A meter on the wall keeps track of voltage. Batteries will last 2-3 days on their own. But the wind and the sun always come back.
“Right now we’re getting 1150 watts and it’s a cloudy day out. There’s no sun.”
Even the U.P. gets 5 hours of sun a day in the winter. Each solar panel is putting out 1,000 watts. More than enough for a refrigerator, microwave and light bulbs. Grand kids can watch a 46 inch flat screen TV in the family room and a 53 incher in the living room. Williams and his wife don’t have to worry about wasting energy and they shouldn’t ever have to pay the electric company again.
“Well they’ll never actually give me a check. But if I could off set my usage for the winter that’s what I want. I just want to be net zero. I want to live comfortable but at net zero. And it can be done. It’s not impossible. You can do it.”
Most of his equipment came from a $25,000 bank loan. Technology has made the same stuff smaller and cheaper today. Williams says he would have spent that much over a 12-year period anyway. So why not avoid pollution and the power company at the same time?
“So instead of paying the power company 100 bucks a month I just pay the home equity loan and it’s tax deductible. I get a federal tax break out of it. 30%. So it’s actually more of an investment than it is anything else.”
Williams says power companies should see him as an ally not a threat. And with this new net metering law people like him could sprout up all over the place.
“I can see where every house will have some form of power generation. And it’s good for the grid too. When I’m producing power is at the peak time of the day when the power company is at their peak demand. So I’m easing their burden on their transmission lines. My excess power goes to my neighbor.”
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS SUBJECT BY COPYING AND PASTING THESE LINKS BELOW INTO YOUR BROWSER
www.michigan.gov/netmetering
www.michigan.gov/customergeneration
Audio MP3: Off The Grid Outside Escanaba