NORTH HILLS - "I seriously started doing the calculations," saidDickinson, "and it finally financially made sense, especially withthe tax changes."
In the San Fernando Valley, homeowners like Dickinson and hiswife, Sara, a jewelry designer, have become the unwitting faces ofthe solar energy movement - residents who didn't set out to be greenactivists but for whom going green makes sense now more than ever.
The Dickinsons are getting a 23 percent discount on solar panelinstallation arranged by One Block Off the Grid, an Internet-drivengroup that in a year has become the nation's largest solar-buyingcollective. In its short organizing campaign in Los Angeles, thefirm has already assisted 102 clients.
"They were able to negotiate a much better price than anything Ifound on my own," Dickinson said.
With David Dickinson's exorbitant monthly electric bill to chilltwo wine cellars, run two refrigerator-freezers and heat a pool athis 2,000-square-foot ranch house, it long made sense to go solar.
"But the upfront cost was just too high," said Dickinson, 57, aCanoga Park manufacturer's controller.
That was even with a 30 percent federal tax credit offered thisyear, a California state rebate of 10 percent and additional cityincentives.
Then Dickinson heard about a San Francisco-based firm that poolshomeowners who want energy-saving solar panels on their roofs intolarge communities that can get better rates by buying in bulk. Thecompany then
brokers significantly lower prices from local installers.Substantially lower cost
This past week, workers began installing 34 photovoltaic panelsto the roof of the Dickinsons' 1960s style four-bedroom ranch house -and put the Dickinsons on the solar energy grid.
Dickinson said the deal negotiated with regionally basedSolarCity by One Block Off the Grid will cost him about $6 per wattof power capacity. According to the California Energy Commission,the average total cost of a solar photovoltaic system is almost $8per watt.
Even after customers like Dickinson pay for an inverter toconvert the DC power the panels generate into the AC powerappliances use, the deal negotiated by One Block Off the Grid issubstantially lower than the average in Los Angeles.
"We wanted to create a group purchase program that makes iteasier for people to get into solar energy - one that makes themmore comfortable with the process," said Dave Llorens, co-founder ofOne Block Off the Grid.
The group's name comes from its goal of removing one averageblock's worth of electrical usage each time it runs a communitysolar purchase campaign in a city.
One Block Off the Grid, according to a spokeswoman, makes itsprofit through finder's fees paid by local installers.
Since its founding in June 2008, the company has mountedcampaigns in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, New Orleans,Phoenix and Denver.
In its Los Angeles campaign, which began last week and runs intonext year, the solar-buying collaborative has been assistingpotential clients through its Internet site,www.solarlosangeles.1bog.org. The Web site uses an online toolallowing homeowners to call up a satellite-generated image of theirroof and find an estimate of solar rates and costs.
The Dickinsons also benefited financially from the overallreduction in the cost of solar panel installation - a price dropbrought on by the recession, according to Lyndon Rive, chiefexecutive officer of SolarCity, the largest residential solar panelinstaller in the country.
Solar demand still high
"Solar has reduced in cost because the panel manufacturers had(manufactured) overcapacity, and that dropped the price," Rive said."Eighty percent of all solar (panel installation) is financed, sothe manufacturers (were) expecting there would be financing beforethe financial collapse.
"The financial collapse didn't hit the demand for solar. Thedemand for solar is still extremely high. But the ability to financethings was reduced dramatically."
In California, since the energy crisis of 2000-2001, demand forsolar power has increased by 2,800 percent, according to theEnvironment California Research & Policy Center. Yet, solar powertoday makes up less than one half of 1 percent of the state'selectricity supply.
Two years ago, California established a $3.3-billion campaign toincrease the use of solar statewide, employing rebates and taxcredits as incentives to consumers who install energy systems.
Since then, the number of homes and businesses using solar energyhas more than doubled, growing from 23,000 in 2006 to 52,700,according to the California Public Utilities Commission.
But though the solar energy business is a $40 billion-a-yearbusiness worldwide, it remains far from fulfilling the futureenvisioned by green activists, with California still well off thepace of its goal of adding 3,000 megawatts in solar panels by 2016,enough to power 600,000 homes.
For the Dickinsons, the savings will mean that going solar - aproject originally priced at more than $40,000 for their home - willcost them in actual out-of-pocket expenditures $12,000 to $14,000.
That's possible, Dickinson said, because of the One Block Off theGrid pricing, an almost $20,000 rebate from the city's Department ofWater and Power and a $7,500 tax credit from the Internal RevenueService.
And that's just the beginning of his savings, according toDickinson's calculations.
Saving about $2,000
He estimates his annual electric bill savings will be about$2,000 and that, at current rates, his new solar system will havepaid for itself in eight years, after which time the energy for theDickinson home will be free.
Add to that the Dickinsons' smaller carbon footprint. Accordingto solar energy estimates, during its lifetime the average solarsystem cuts 36 tons of carbon dioxide - a key pollutant in globalwarming - or the equivalent of not driving 227,733 miles.
"I believe there is a problem with global warming and energy - Ibelieve it," Dickinson said. "It was financially feasible now. I hadthe money to do it (and) with the tax credits it really made sense.
"I wish everyone had solar panels in their house. I think itwould make a big impact."
tony.castro@dailynews.com
818-713-3761
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