Antonio's New Solar Panels
My good friend, Antonio Cutolo-Ring, finally took the plunge and installed a 3.2 kW solar pv array on his home in Weston, MO. The array is grid-tied and we (The Energy Savings Store) used 14 - 225 watt Sunpower panels with Enphase micro- inverters (because of shading issues). Antonio e-mailed me after the first few days: "Yes, everything seems to be working well. I know the solar panels won't be always be producing as much electricity as they have the last three days, but it looks to me like that if they did and I don't use any more electricity than last year that I'd be producing as much electricity as I use! Pretty cool."
Antonio's home is very energy efficient already and we estimate it will produce about 85% of his electricity needs.
In addition to the 30% federal tax credit, he was able to take advantage of KCP&L's new $2/watt solar rebate - cutting his installation cost in half. Antonio and I are both on the board of Concerned Citizens of Platte County together - we work on environmental and health issues. He told me "I'm very pleased to have finally been able to put my money where my mouth has been for so long!"
A note on the photo: that's Taneasha Bledsoe - our new Staff Engineer looking so cool on the roof.
