Using funds received as part of the federal economic stimulus package (under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — ARRA) to stimulate the development of renewable energy and green jobs in Connecticut, the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF) plans to introduce a solar thermal domestic hot water incentive program on or about August 1, 2009. What’s a good nutshell description of this program?
The Solar Thermal (ST) Program will provide grants of approximately 20 percent of the cost of ST systems for domestic hot water heating only. Pool heaters and space heating applications will not be funded. All Connecticut residents and non-residential sites are eligible, regardless of the type of hot water heat they presently use.
The program hopes to support approximately 600 residential and about 100 commercial domestic hot water applications. What’s the impact from taking those applications off the power grid?
Although only about 30 percent of Connecticut’s homes use electric hot water heaters, the economics of using ST are significantly more favorable than for homes or businesses using gas or oil-fired heaters. Consequently, we would expect that more than 30 percent of the applicants will have electric hot water heat. If we assume 50 percent of the residential applicants have electric hot water heaters and 50 percent have either gas or oil, the residential market should account for an annual reduction of 1,159 MWh in electrical generation, and a reduction of 7,623 MMBtu in natural gas and oil consumption. We can assume that the commercial market will be largely oil- or natural gas-fired, so the savings from the commercial installations should be about 15,250 MMBtu (152,500 therms). This is equivalent to 109,700 gallons of fuel oil. The reduction in electrical energy consumption (from the electric hot water heating customers) will reduce fossil fuel consumption at the generating plants by another 10,500 MMBtu, so overall, the ST Program should reduce annual fossil fuel consumption in Connecticut by 33,373 MMBtu, or the equivalent of 240,000 gallons of fuel oil. These systems will avoid the creation of 2,686 tons of carbon dioxide very year, for the life of the systems.
Contractors marketing or developing solar thermal (ST) systems must be approved by the CCEF as a Solar Thermal Eligible Contractor to participate. How many certified contractors are there in Connecticut?
CCEF has not approved any “eligible contractors” yet. A request for qualifications will be issued within a week to solicit applications, and we expect a quick response from a few companies that are currently installing ST systems in the state. We intend to have a list of “eligible contractors” available to the public when the program is officially launched. We recognize that the Connecticut labor pool is very low for the number of ST installations that we anticipate over the next 32 months. There are only 87 holders of the ST-1 license in Connecticut. However, only one ST-1 is required for each installation company, to supervise the journeymen installers (ST-2 license) and apprentices who will do most of the physical work. We expect the workforce to grow rapidly, as demand improves for solar thermal systems.
The incentive that is being handed out, is it intended to pay for the cost of installation? Or, is the money being targeted to something else?
Of the federal funding, 90 percent ($3,600,000) will be given out as grants to help pay for the installation of ST systems. The remainder will be used for administrative and educational costs. Some of these educational costs may be funds given to vocational schools for ST training programs, or to help purchase equipment for this purpose.
