Home Generation Sam Hultgren, Ben LaFond, Curtis Haglin, Kennedy Peterson

A Home in Minnesota… A home in Minnesota… On average, typical home uses 30kWh per day $80/ month for electricity Home Energy Use

Geothermal Geothermal: One kWh of electricity for a geothermal heat pump = 12,000 Btu of cooling or heating. (12.6 MJ) Twice as efficient as conventional air conditioning and Heating systems energy wise Geothermal total costs $11,000 to $30,000. (Not including tax credit) Long life spans, 25 to 50 years. Can be paid back in 5 to 7 years Types of Home Generation

Solar Solar: Grid tied and off grid systems Most home systems are photovoltaic cells (PV’s) Biggest factor is the amount of solar energy a home is exposed to Optimum angle: Homes Latitude  must adjust for roof angle Life span 25 to 45 years Average residential system: 75 kW-hr $25,000 to $35,000 cost (Actual cost around half due to incentives). Types of Home Generation

Wind Wind: 20 Watt to 100kW range of power On and off grid systems $4,000 (<1kW) to $350,000 (100kW) Turbine Power = (k) (Cp) (1/2)( ρ)(A)(V^3) Using Duluth data, a turbine with 8ft diameter, max efficiency= 2 kWh Types of Home Generation

Grid Connection Requirements to sell excess electricity: 7 documents $ application fee Possible engineering study with fee of up to $500 Grid Connection Policy

Incentives Federal Tax credit up to 30% of system cost State MN Power (Solar PV) $750/kW base incentive $250/kW if system installed by NABCEP certified installer $250/kW for non-profits MiM (Made in Minnesota) Department of Commerce Program Purchase system produced in MN Receive production-based rebates for up to 10 years Renewable Energy Credits belong to your utility Incentives

Net Metering in Minnesota Enacted 30 years ago Applied to all utilities both investor-owned, municipal, and electric co-ops Beginning July of last year, a municipal utility or a co-op can begin charging NEW net metering customers fee for being part of their grid Wump Wump But it’s worth it! Net Metering In Minnesota

Why go solar in Minnesota?

Cons of Going Off-Grid Reliability highly weather dependent Need multi-day battery storage Need a back-up generator in case of poor weather conditions Large capital costs Expensive to maintain

The Future of Home Generation “Leaving the grid in a widespread scale might not be a realistic projection of the future, if economics is assumed as the main driver of customer behavior.” -EPRI study, The Integrated Grid INSTEAD! Integration of the power grid to encompass municipal power generation and home generation.

The Future of Home Generation “Home generation and the grid are not competitors but complements, provided that grid technologies and practices develop with the expansion of distributed energy resources.” -EPRI study, The Integrated Grid

Tax incentives Reduced overall system losses Reduced need for capacity upgrades to existing power generation systems Improved resiliency against widespread system outages Less environmental impact from fossil fueled boiler emissions Benefits of an Integrated Grid

Mooney, Chris. (March 2015). Why going off the grid may not actually be such a good idea. The Washington Post. Retrieved from ditching-the-electric-grid-may-not-actually-be-such-a-good-idea/. The Electric Power Research Institute. (February 2014). The Integrated Grid: Realizing the Full Value of Central and Distributed Energy Resources. Retrieved from vuLqP76zMAhWogYMKHQlbCTcQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.utilitydive.com%2Fnews%2Fcan- minnesotas-value-of-solar-end-the-net-metering- debate%2F250451%2F&psig=AFQjCNHIlfuM_pWoFN_GcZTCVUEp84rH0g&ust= References

Questions?