Combining Photovoltaic Systems with ENERGY STAR® Homes: Lessons Learned from a Demonstration Program Focused on New Construction and Production Builders

Dianne Griffiths, Steven Winter Associates, Inc.

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Abstract

A demonstration program was initiated in 2002 to spur the installation of photovoltaic systems by production builders on new ENERGY STAR® homes. As enticement, an incentive of as much as $20,000 was offered for a 2-kilowatt PV system, if it were installed on an ENERGY STAR® Model Home in a subdivision of at least five ENERGY STAR® homes. Yes, this was essentially a free PV system and there were additional incentives for building to New York State ENERGY STAR® Labeled Home standards. Sounds like an offer that’s too good to refuse, but it took two years to find six builder projects geographically distributed around the State. This paper will describe the hurdles faced in convincing production builders to participate in the demonstration program and subsequent PV system installation and interconnection agreement issues. Another aspect of the demonstration program was the monitoring of the PV system performance. Results will be presented on the performance of the PV systems and the fraction of the occupied homes’ electricity use that is met by the PV system. Thus far, three of the monitored PV homes are occupied and the annual solar fractions range from 30% to 50% of the household electricity use.