Plattekill Public Library                                  The Next Renewable Energy Seminar

2047 Rt 32                                              will be in the spring of 2010. Call us to register and make suggestions for the program.
Modena, NY 12548          
(845) 883-7286                                                    The library is getting a subscription to Home Power Magazine. Check out their free articles.             

  Renewable Energy Seminar   Thursday, October 29, 2009 The focus was on three types of renewable energy sources:

• Photovoltaics (solar electric)
• Solar Hot Water
• Wind Energy

Discussion  included renewable energy overview, site requirements, and incentives available. 

Presented by Paul Morini of Alteris Renewables.

My take:  "Economic Solar Power".  Note the phrase. NY State has made laws that take the cost of photovoltaics and make them almost zero for the consumer. Paul gave an example of a 4 KW system, and I will approximate the figures, so be cautious!  Overall cost: $29,000. Loan amount: $18,000 Actual initial cost after all incentives and rebates during the first year or so...$7,500. And over the 10 year life of the subsidized loan, your yearly payments are almost the same amount ($780) as the savings on your electric bill.

Gosh. Its like someone worked out the math and made it happen!  After that, you get $700+ of free electricity every year. And your home assessment will not go up because of this for 15 years.

Paul also covered the economics of solar hot water heaters. Interesting. Wind power is not economic because of the laws in NY.

                                                         -- John Georghiou, Plattekill Library Director.

"I WENT green a couple yrs ago. Got photovolts on my roof ...
Of the $40,000 bill the co. charged NYPERG pd HALF. I got a 2.9 % loan from Rondout Savgs for the other $20G. Got $8Gs in tax rebates for buying green. Total outlay: $12G for a $40G system. I'm puzzled as to why more people AREN'T doing it. My investmt will be pd for in under 10 yrs. in CenHud savings."

                                          --  a Plattekill Library Patron via e-mail.