Solar power means money

What many people don’t realize about solar power is that it not only saves the user money in utility bills—it can make money for them, too.

Solar users across the globe are selling power back to the grid, and since Louisiana passed a net metering law in 2003, a number of Baton Rougeans have been doing the same.

If an Entergy customer, for example, turns off all the appliances in a solar-powered home before going to work in the morning, the solar panels begin generating electricity, and the needle on the power meter actually spins backwards. When the homeowner returns home and cuts on the lights and other appliances, the meter starts moving forward again. At the end of the billing cycle, the power company tabulates the negatives and positives and totals a net debit or credit.

It gets better. When a homeowner whose energy usage is in the credit column moves, Entergy will cut the customer a check for the avoided cost of the unused power equal to about two cents per kilowatt-hour of energy saved. Entergy then uses these purchased credits to meet a quota for deriving energy from renewable sources.

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