REC Agreement Signed

I finally received the REC agreement from CNMEC, signed it and returned it by mail. Nice to have a little additional income from the system.

CNMEC REC credits

I received a letter last week from CNMEC saying they are finally able to buy REC credits. The lawyers are still looking at the fine print on the contract that will have to be signed by both parties, but I'm looking forward to shortening the payback time on my system to the tune of $14.97/1000kWh. They are multiplying any production back to December of last year by a factor of 4 as an incentive, so I will qualify for that as well. Since New Mexico does not yet have a formal exchange for REC credits, this seems like the best way to go ahead and get started with some additional income from my PV system.

New Meter

The co op came by and swapped our main meter out for an analog one (the REC meter is still digital). He said the digital meters were not doing what they wanted, and that they would soon be carrying forward generated electricity credits into the next month. Good news, considering that PV systems are sized to fit on an annual basis instead of being reconciled each month like they've been doing. Maybe they'll start buying REC credits as well! It's cool to actually see the meter run backwards. This one was all zeros when they installed it a week ago, and it hasn't gone into positive territory yet. I took a short video showing it running backwards, and how dramatically it slows down when a cloud blocks the sun.

Roof Rake

Here's how the rake stores

Before raking

Some flex in the shaft helps with the high roof

We had a freak snowstorm last night that delivered about 8" of wet snow. I got to try out the roof rake I bought a while back on the solar panels. It worked like a charm! This particular model has two polyurethane wheels on the bottom to protect the panels from damage. I was back online as soon as the sun came out. I highly recommend this to anyone who has to deal with snow on their panels b/c it's so frustrating not producing electricity when you know you could.

One Year Anniversary

Here's our total production for the first year: 7,520.43 kWh, and about $1100 of avoided cost.

Snowy December

Only 170 kWh

Production for December was dismal thanks to about 3 feet of white stuff all told, in 3 major snow events. Still, we need the moisture! This month motivated me to start a search for a roof rake to clear the snow.