Harness the sunshine

48 Hours. Solor power. Alan Willoughby at his home . Photo/John Borren

If you dream of slashing your power bill, some Bay of Plenty residents say: go solar. Renewable energy experts say a drop in the price of solar panels the past five years, plus fast-rising power prices, are swelling the ranks of households harnessing sunshine. 48 Hours reporter Dawn Picken visited homeowners who are minimising dependence on the grid, including some who are getting solar panels for free.

Empty-nesters in an older home It's 11:30am on an overcast Tuesday when 48 Hours visits the Welcome Bay home of Alan and Christine Willoughby. The hilltop property, set on 1000sq m, includes banana palm trees and pohutukawa. Much of the 200sq m home's roof is covered in solar panels capable of generating 6.7 kilowatts of power. Alan says they had the PowerSmart (based in Mount Maunganui) system installed three years ago for about $27,000, including a solar hot water heater. He says it's slashed their energy bills.

"In the summer, we get a monthly credit of about $40. In winter, they might have to debit 8 or 9 dollars. We haven't paid a power bill in two years."

Christine says even on grey days, they generate power. She boils the jug, then shows me her solar power box which indicates the system has generated 9 kilowatts that morning.

Without a battery to store energy, most solar households must use power as they produce it. Christine says they've adjusted by running the dishwasher and washing machine during the day. Even the beer fridge is set on a timer. "It's pretty cool. Probably some days I might stack the dishes up a wee bit, if the temperature is low, hand washing waits for next day." The couple has also double-glazed most windows and switched out conventional lightbulbs for LEDs in the home, which was built in 1976.

The Willoughbys grow their own fruit and vegetables, store rainwater and use wood from their land if they need to heat using a wood-burning stove on cloudy days. They sell excess electricity back to their utility, Meridian Energy. They used to export power at about 25 cents per unit before New Zealand utilities last year pruned the price they pay to buy back excess energy from new solar customers. Today, Meridian's website states the utility buys solar power at 7 cents per unit in summer and 10 cents per unit in in winter.

The Willoughbys say they pay Meridian about 30 cents per unit when they're not on solar power. Even so, Alan figures the system will pay for itself in 15 years, depending on how much utility prices rise. "It's better than putting that money in the bank. It's not going to get any cheaper. You can't predict how much it's going to go up to. It never has come down in past; I can't see it doing so in the future."

Family of four near the beach Brad Dixon and his two daughters, 5-year-old Stella and 7-year-old Eva, greet 48 Hours at their Mount Maunganui home, which includes about 120sq m of living space and a large ranch slider leading to a sunny deck. We get a peep of ocean view in one direction, and in the other, a glimpse of solar panels atop a low roof.

Brad says, "People used to be put off by the look of them, but these, you can barely see."
The seven panels were free, thanks to a new programme offered by a company called solarcity.

Brad leases seven solar panels for $50 per month. He paid $150 upfront. He says the panels provide up to 12 kilowatt hours of power per day, saving his family $70 to $90 each month on their utility bill. "Even if I had to pay a little more, I would've done it. The biggest drawcard for us was that we could tap into a renewable energy source. New Zealand prides itself on its clean, green image and it's absurd that not more people are making use of solar power."

Under solarcity's solarZero programme, customers pay nothing up front, with a fixed monthly fee starting about $50 a month for low-energy users to more than $200 per month for farms or businesses. Solarcity's online calculator indicates someone with a typical monthly power bill of $250 could save up to $14,000 over 20 years.

Bradley Dixon with his daughters Eva Dixon, 7, Stella Dixon, 5. Photo/George Novak

Brad says solar works for them, because he or his wife are home during part of most days. He hopes the lease-to-own option gains popularity. "When you've got kids, you want to make sure you're leaving the planet in a good state and this is one small thing we can do and it's not costing us anything."

Living solo in a new build Anthony Sarafa moved into his new, 211sq m home in Pyes Pa a year ago. The software engineer and former Aucklander said going solar was easy. "I think new homes all should put in some solar. The system doesn't require any maintenance [beyond occasional cleaning] and systems have come down further since I got mine."

Anthony says he spent $14,000 for 15 panels and an inverter (converts solar energy to current which can be fed into a commercial electrical grid), all sourced through solarcity.

"It's obviously a significant expense up-front, but will get paid off over time."

Anthony has calculated each cent he's saved and earned on solar power. He says Contact Energy has paid him $614.14 since last September, bringing his total savings and earnings to $1521 over 14 months. "At this rate the system will be paid off in 11 years."

When 48 Hours visited, Anthony's array was operating at a maximum 4000 watts. His advice to potential converts: consider more than return on investment. "They should just do it. There's a bigger objective, because as electric cars get more common, we can all charge from the sun, which eliminates the need for foreign oil." Anthony plans to buy an electric car next year, which will make his solar panels payoff even sooner.

Solar experts' take The report also estimates rate of return for solar photovoltaics at around six percent. According to NZIER, "This means consumers, on average, will be better off saving the cost of solar photovoltaics installation and continuing to use grid-supplied energy for all their electricity supply."

Solarcity NZ chief executive Andrew Booth says the Bay of Plenty is one of the top three markets nationally for solar energy use, though just .2 per cent of Kiwi households use solar. A recent Deutsche Bank report mentions New Zealand as one country where solar energy costs the same or less than retail power.

Auckland-based SkySolar managing director Nick Freeman says his company's 3-kilowatt system costs roughly $10,000 installed. He says the company has 50 customers in the Bay of Plenty and will soon open its first Tauranga office. He tells people thinking about going solar to buy the right-sized system. "Never put a system on with the aim of selling it [power] back."

Nick suggests ensuring any new solar system has the ability to grow and add batteries as they drop in price over the next two years. "For most scenarios now, a storage system is more expensive than people want to spend."

Mysolarquotes.co.nz founder Kristy Hoare, based in Mount Maunganui, says about 40 companies nationwide provide home solar installations, including several that service customers in the Bay of Plenty. Kristy says the popularity of solar is growing. "Most people just want to be more independent from the big retail providers. They're sick of their bills going up and want to take back a bit of that control."

Waikato University senior science and engineering lecturer Dr Mike Duke has researched photovoltaic (PV) systems and says while the industry used to be about innovation and the environment, today's focus is cost. "It's gone from green, let's put on solar because we're saving the planet...that's been overtaken by the drive to get cost down. It's about return on investment. If you put money in the bank, you earn 4 or 5 per cent [interest]. If you install solar panels, you're looking at a rate of return of up to 10 per cent."

Anthony Sarafa has a newly-built home with solar power system. Photo/John Borren

Solar battery storage system
US firm Tesla says its home battery storage system will be available by the end of the year in Australia - sooner than first predicted. The Powerwall unit has a lithium-ion battery used to store energy created by solar panels. Waikato University's Dr Mike Duke says cost is reportedly USD$3000 for a 7 kilowatt hour battery "...which is a pretty good capacity. I think that's going to make PV look really promising to a lot of households in New Zealand". Industry experts say Tesla and other companies plan to make battery storage systems available here within the next year.
*For more information on solar power, good places to start are: mysolarquotes.co.nz; powersmartsolar.co.nz; solarcity.co.nz; skysolar.co.nz; teslamotors.com; seanz.org.nz