Half a dozen years ago, only one or two people a year signed up for the V.I. Water and Power Authority’s net metering option. “Now it’s five or six people a week,” V.I. Energy Office spokesman Don Buchanan said.
The news from the Energy Office comes as the territory celebrates Energy Action Month. October, in previous years, was declared Energy Awareness Month, but Buchanan said federal officials noting the need for urgent action concerning energy changed the name.
Since the Legislature passed a law allowing net metering in 2007, Buchanan said that, as of a month ago, 396 households on St. Thomas and St. John, as well as 296 on St. Croix, are now permitted to produce electricity to cut their WAPA bills. He said there are probably 50 more since that tally was taken.
“All the installers I’ve been talking to say they are really busy,” Buchanan said.
Net metering accounts for almost one megawatt of power a day in each district, which Buchanan said is a huge amount.
V.I. Water and Power Authority spokeswoman Cassandra Dunn said that, at the daily peak, St. Thomas/St. John District customers consume between 55 and 60 megawatts a day of power. On St. Croix, the number stands at 40 to 45 megawatts a day.
According to Buchanan, high WAPA rates convinced residents to get on the netmetering bandwagon.
“It’s been transformative. It’s growing by leaps and bounds,” he said.
In the beginning, only people with cash to spare had installers put net metering solar panels on their roofs, Buchanan said, but today “regular working stiffs” see the light. He said it helps that installers are now willing to finance the installation.
Buchanan said that his research shows that the territory is making a faster conversion to alternative energy that any other island nation except the Spanish island of El Hierro. He said it uses 100 percent renewable energy.
The conversion to net metering for some WAPA customers wasn’t easy because of bureaucratic snafus, but Dunn said that the process has gotten much easier.
“We are definitely in support of net metering,” she said.
Dunn said WAPA has worked with other government agencies, in particular the Planning and Natural Resources Department, to ensure a smoother process. She said the more customers provide feedback on their experiences, the more the process will improve.
Another incentive to join the netmetering program comes because solar panels have dropped in price. “By about 50 percent in the past few years,” Buchanan said.
That isn’t the case with solar water heaters, which are running about the same price as they have for years.
The Energy Office doesn’t have statistics on how many households use solar hot water, but Buchanan said the solar hot water loan program that ran for two years drew 800 participants.
In proclaiming October Energy Action Month, Gov. John deJongh Jr. said that although the territory is currently challenged by limited energy resources, the month provides a great incentive to embrace the technologies that assist in utilizing energy more efficiently and in harnessing the great potential benefit from the area’s sun, wind and sea.
Throughout the month, the Energy Office will conduct a public awareness campaign to provide information residents through outreaches and media appearances.
The Energy Office will also join forces with the University of the Virgin Islands Center for Green Technology in a workshop to help the territory’s teachers learn about teaching energy issues. Buchanan said that a program where students will build wind turbines will replace the old solar sprint program in which students built solar-powered cars.
