subject: Making Commercial Solar Power An Even More Profitable Investment [print this page] Commercial solar installations must be economically feasible. Even more so than for residential installations, where as long as the electric solar panel setup basically pays for itself the family may be willing to deal with the cost for the sake of the environment, businesses can't afford to invest in the products and work of a solar electricity company like Baker Electric Solar unless it will generate value beyond the cost - otherwise the money would be better spent somewhere else that would actually go towards helping the company survive and compete. The ability to contribute energy back to the electricity grid when the solar system is out-producing consumption makes this profitability even more possible.
The idea is relatively simple. Most contemporary solar power systems can be set up to support either net metering or feed-in-tariff schemes, by which any power produced by the solar cells that isn't being consumed in the place of business and isn't necessary to charge up the reserve batteries goes back through the electricity connection to the utility company to be consumed by another customer.
With net metering, the utility company and the on-site system each monitor how much is sent back to the utility company. Then, if it's too cloudy for the system or at night when the Sun isn't shining and the business needs to draw electricity from the grid, the owner only pays for any electricity used in excess of what the solar system contributed. It's like "storing" energy with the company and creates a bummer. This scheme answers one of many people's biggest concerns about commercial solar, which is that it can't be relied upon to produce consistent electricity 24 hours a day seven days a week. Interruptions are obviously not an option for a viable business. So this solution works especially well for companies in San Diego that might have high peak usage or expect to need power at night frequently, but which don't tend to use up the max capacity of their solar system.
The other option, a feed-in-tariff, allows the owner of the solar production to sell excess electricity production back to the utility company. If the local utility companies pays well enough to make the extra Watts produced valuable to the company, this scheme can make installing a solar power system its own profitable investment, as well as shorting the period to earn a return on it. This option is less common but it's a great way to take advantage of underutilized resources like the abundant natural sunlight that we have in San Diego.
Commercial solar installations tend to make a great deal of financial sense when designed correctly. These ways of giving back to the utility grid to utilize excess electricity production just cement renewable energy as an even better investment for many companies.
