WEBVTT 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.000 [Gary Cocke] Hi, my name is Gary Cocke. I'm our Director of Sustainability at UTD. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:18.000 I'm working remotely, spending a little time with my family during the pandemic, 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:22.000 and I wanted to talk a little bit about my experience with getting rooftop solar. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:24.000 I get a lot of questions on that. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:26.000 Hopefully I can answer a lot of those here. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:31.000 So I have a 6.4kW system on my roof. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:36.000 I have 20 320W LG panels, 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:41.000 13 of which are on my south-facing roof face, 7 on my west-facing roof face, 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:46.000 and between all of them the goal was to go for net-zero. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:50.000 So that means that over the course of a year, 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:52.000 hopefully I produce as much energy as I use. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.000 I'm about one year in, and since the home was kind of new, 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:58.000 I didn't have historical usage data, 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:01.000 so we'll see how close we get over the course of year one. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:08.000 I was able to do net metering through my utility. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:13.000 That means that I overproduce in the fall, winter, and spring, 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:17.000 and I'm able to sell energy back to my utility 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:20.000 and I get about half what I pay for my my energy, 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:25.000 but it means that I have no electric bill or close to no electric bill, 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:31.000 and I get a credit on my trash and water bills 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:33.000 in exchange for overproducing electricity. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:38.000 In the summer I have higher production, 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:42.000 but my usage is much higher due to my HVAC, 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:48.000 so during those months it helps to just reduce the bill that I do receive from my utility. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:55.000 Now I learned a few things throughout this process with getting rooftop solar. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:02.000 I've been hearing that it was becoming pretty feasible, pretty financially viable, 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:07.000 and so I went and I started getting quotes in May of 2019. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:13.000 I got some quotes and I found a provider that I really liked --all of the quotes were free. 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:16.000 So you may as well go out there and see if it makes sense for you. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:19.000 Then I needed to get HOA approval. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:23.000 It took about 30 days for my HOA to turn around that approval. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:28.000 I learned in the process that HOAs are really pretty limited in what they can say. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:33.000 So if they were going to either reject the design 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:36.000 or if they were going to propose amendments 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:42.000 -- if they were going to decrease my performance by 10% or more -- 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.000 then it wouldn't be viable. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:50.000 So I got no feedback from my HOA other than their approval. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:52.000 After that I needed to get approval from my utility. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:58.000 That was the one that took a while and I was just working according to their schedule, 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:02.500 so they ultimately gave me approval with no hassle 00:03:02.500 --> 00:03:04.000 other than it just taking a while. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:12.000 So by August of 2019 I had my system up and running and providing energy for me. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:17.000 Pretty easy. It was a turnkey process, so although it took a while 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:19.000 and there are hoops to jump through, 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:23.000 I used the company that did all of the paperwork for me, 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:27.000 and it was just a waiting game from my perspective. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:32.000 Now regarding the finances, that was the key issue. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:34.000 It needs to make financial sense. 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:41.000 So there was a 30% federal rebate that I was able to take advantage of in 2019 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:44.000 and 2020, that is a 28% federal rebate. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:51.000 It comes back to you on your annual income taxes, and then you should check with your utility. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:57.000 I was able to take advantage of a utility rebate that was 60ยข per Watt. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:01.000 So since I have a 6.4kW system 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:06.000 that means I got almost $4,000 of rebate from my utility. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:12.000 So all things considered it was a about a $20,000 investment 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:16.000 that I was able to pay for with about $8,000 of rebates 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:22.000 and then I could do a low interest loan to finance the the remaining $12,000. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:29.000 So when you take into account the monthly payments that you pay for the solar panels 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:32.000 and then the value of the energy that they're producing, 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:36.500 I don't think it's quite revenue neutral, but it's close to revenue neutral. 00:04:36.500 --> 00:04:40.000 So for me, the calculus that I did 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:45.000 was that if it's a relatively manageable cost for me 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:50.000 to go 100% renewable with rooftop solar, I did that. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:52.000 If you're a bit more cost conscious, 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:58.000 -- if I had chosen a 70% system so I was offsetting 70% of my energy use -- 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:06.000 at that point I never over-produce energy, but I get essentially the market value 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:07.500 for every kWh that I produce. 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:12.000 It becomes even more financially advantageous for you to do it. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:16.000 There's lots of providers out there. Quotes are free. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.000 It's easy to do. It's fairly turnkey. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:21.000 Those are the lessons that I've learned. 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:24.000 If you're interested, I recommend you go out there and get a quote. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.000 Thank y'all and have a good day.