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Green Building and Solar Rebates Come to Bryan
By REBECCA WATTS

Spring in the Brazos Valley cloaks the local landscape in vivid greens, a showcase of nature’s simple beauty. But nature isn’t the only thing that turns things green in the area. One local home builder and Bryan Texas Utilities are making it possible for area homeowners to “go green” as well through environment-friendly building practices and by encouraging the use of alternative sources of energy.

Hugh Stearns, owner of Stearns Design Build, has begun construction on one of the first area homes that takes advantage of a new BTU incentive program that provides rebates for the installation of solar energy systems. Modeled after Austin’s highly successful energy program, BTU’s Green Plus Solar Photovoltaic Program is aimed primarily at reducing the peak electric load on the BTU grid.

BTU Key Accounts Manager Paul Hora said, “By rebating, we’re reducing peak load and not having to build coal fired or natural gas power plants. The bottom line is it’s cheaper for us to rebate these installations than build those power plants.”

The rebate offers a return of $4.00 per watt of solar electricity installed and maxes out at 3000 watts. The estimated $8 to $10 it costs to install a single solar watt is staggering, but when annual energy savings of between $100 to $140 per kilowatt and the rebate are taken into account, the system pays for itself over the lifetime of the home. These estimates do not include the positive environmental return in the reduction of carbon emissions the system creates.

Green building is the latest wave of eco-friendly practices the United States has embraced in an effort to reduce our carbon-footprint. According to the U.S. Council for Green Building, residential homes contribute to 21 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions. That number is expected to rise to 30 percent by 2010. However, by employing methods of designing, remodeling and constructing a home that uses natural elements, sustainable building materials, and alternative energy sources, carbon dioxide emissions can be substantially reduced.

Stearns uses green building methods that downsize the oversized homes currently popular. Using a concept outlined by Sarah Susanka in her book, The Not So Big House, Stearns incorporates the entire lot into the home design and includes outdoor living areas that he said often become the most used areas in the home. Including natural design elements saves energy, but more importantly, it creates environmentally conscious homeowners and consumers.
“Green building looks at the relationship to the whole environment. We feel like the most important relationship is between the homeowners and the environment,” Stearns said. “We know if we can get people to connect with their natural environment [at home], as consumers they are going to be more connected to the environment.”

For some homeowners, BTU’s rebate program could make that connection a little more profitable. In addition to offering a rebate, the program will provide “net billing” for solar energy customers. If in any given month a customer does not use all of the power generated by the solar system, BTU will provide credit for that power at the fuel charge, currently a little over $.04 per kilowatt-hour. However, Hora said this situation is not likely in a 3,000-watt system. He did point out that homeowners can take advantage of the rebate each fiscal year.

“If a person installs 3,000 watts each consecutive year, at 9,000 watts, that system will result in us paying for the electricity,” Hora said.

Solar systems must be installed by a BTU authorized installer and carry a five year warranty in addition to the manufacturer’s warranty in order to qualify for the rebate program.

Solar energy is not the only method of taking advantage of Mother Nature’s gifts. An integral aspect of Stearns’ green building methods is to maximize the placement of windows and shading when designing a home. Using a CAD system, the positioning of the sun on any given day during the year can be pinpointed and used to determine how low an overhang should be or where windows should be placed to maximize their potential for cutting energy costs. Designing a home around the sun may seem more like astrology than homebuilding, but Stearns said it is not a difficult concept.

“It doesn’t take a whole lot of work to make a house operate well by orientating it to the location of the sun,” Stearns said. “That investment pays back the whole life of the house.”