Austin Energy has decreed that 30% of their power mix will be renewable energy by 2020. To address this requirement they’ve recently set up a land lease in west Texas to build a solar power farm. While I am wildly excited about this development, it’s not something that goes far enough in my opinion. Part of the problem with the west Texas solar farm installation is that transporting that electricity to the major cities costs about one (1) million dollars per mile. Given the size of Texas, that’s real money. Another major aspect to this situation, very substantial tax incentives are available for taxpaying companies to leverage solar power installations on or nearby their properties. Austin Energy doesn’t pay taxes… so it doesn’t make economic sense for them to pursue it – just political and environmental sense. They are getting around this by leasing land and having a company build the installation. They then purchase the energy from the company and transmit it to the big cities.
However, Austin Energy’s loss is our gain. Those tax incentives are there for residential customers as well (though not to the same degree). Taking advantage of those incentives and at the same time addressing and mitigating the demand side of the energy equation is part and partial to my plan: Having solar power and other renewable energy capture systems on every property in the Austin and extended central Texas area. That way we eliminate the transmission costs and simultaneously reduce the load on our centralized generation systems.
One of the roadblocks to having this happen is my very own Home Owners Association. The Deed restrictions have limiters and restrictions that while not explicitly against solar power installations could very easily be used to deny a home-owner the ability to install them on their roof or in the back-yard. My planned effort is to lobby the home-owners and HOA governing body to either remove these restrictions or introduce specific clauses that define allowable renewable energy capture systems, specifically solar electrical and hot water generation in our neighborhood.
The Nitty Gritty Details
In my HOA, the governing body that approves or denies planned upgrades or even changing the paint color is the Architectural Committee. While this body isn’t very active in my HOA – it still rests solely upon their personal interpretations of the Deed Restrictions. There are somewhere between 2-3 active members at any given time; though ‘active’ isn’t saying much. It’s these people opinions that I need to mitigate or eliminate from the decision making process. Usually there is some overlap with the Board members as well. My HOA is only 80 houses… and given the percentage of people who are actually interested in the governing of so small a body that leaves about 2-3 people total who are actually active at any given time. Unfortunately, those people are typically wanting to uphold their definition of ‘perfect’. Several years ago I served on the board and even became the Architectural Committee chairman. However after seeing the very nice improvements that were being denied; I was disgusted and very annoyed. At the time, I didn’t put effort into changing the by-laws. This time I’m going to.
In the bylaw definitions, several clauses stand out as primary roadblocks: In the General Restrictions sections Antennae and Tanks are the primary offenders; under the Use and Construction Restrictions the building materials section has several exclusions that could easily be applied to the typical materials used in solar installations. Antennae isn’t a big deal except that it addresses things that ‘stick up’ and the AC usually goes by the ‘spirit’ of the law rather than the letter. The primary issue is that photovoltaic solar cells usually need to be at a specific inclination to the sun – which may or may not be the same slope as your roof. If they are pointed in the wrong way or even off by a few degrees – the effectiveness of the solar installation drops dramatically. So, we have the issue of things ‘sticking up’ off the roofline- typically something that bothers a HOA.
Under the Tanks section the problem comes from this sentence: “No elevated tanks of any kind shall be erected, placed, or permitted on any lot”. The elevated clause is the real problem. In a solar hot water installation you put a large black flattened box in a sunny place – typically on a south facing roof. This box has many small pipes running through it with water circulating from it to a hot water tank nearby. Sometimes that tank is located right there on the roof (typical in commercial installations) and therein lies the problem. I think an appropriate modifying clause would allow the elevated tank to be screened from public street view if not able to be installed in the attic. The following sentence “All tanks shall be screened so as not to be visible from any other portion of the property” allows for this screening. The issue is the complete exclusion of any elevated tanks.
In the Building materials clauses there are several things that would cause the AC to deny a solar installation. Building materials like “exposed metal roof decks which reflect light in a glaring manner… are specifically prohibited.” This is primarily used to deny home-owners installing galvanized roofing materials (happened during my tenure) but could easily be used to deny a solar electric installation. Most current solar panels are highly reflective given that they are glass backed with silicon and metal surfaces.
Da plan
There are specific clauses that state that the HOA is totally in control of changing its bylaws. So my effort has to be towards convincing the current board to bring this to vote at the next annual meeting in January. Asking the board to bring something to a vote isn’t hard – I just have to write them a nice letter asking for it and probably attend the next board meeting in June to explain what I want. Once that’s done, there will be necessary legal work to do in order to change the by-laws to something that allows for solar installations. I’ll offer to the board to work with the lawyer (providing they help fund the effort) to outline the requirements and ensure that alternative energy installations are not only allowed – but encouraged. Once the lawyers are done, we’ll need to get the new bylaws put to a vote by the whole HOA.
However, getting a quorum at the HOA meeting is typically difficult, especially for things as important as changing the by-laws. To do this, I’m putting together an education campaign including writing articles in the HOA newsletters, a web site & community forum and door to door fliers. Given that there is a proxy capability for homeowners to have their vote counted even if they are not present, I’ll actively seek to gather proxies ahead of time so that my personal voting power is amplified. Yup, I’m going to be a politician :-)
Things I plan to highlight as benefits include reduced electric bills, carbon offsets and the greenhouse gas / global warming impacts, reduced electrical bills, increased home values, and reduced electrical bills. With photovoltaic systems in place it is possible to reduce the average home’s load to zero in the hottest and most expensive summer days.
Finally, I will be negotiating with power utilities and contractors to create package installation deals and loan packages for the neighborhood. By getting multiple homes to put the installations in place at the same time we can leverage efficiencies and reduce installation costs; ultimately reducing our collective energy bills. Unfortunately my neighborhood is outside the city of Austin area and we aren’t actually part of the Austin Energy district. This means it’s going to take working with the Well’s Branch MUD, local banks or credit unions and other local electrical carriers like Green Mountain Energy to create comparable packages.
My ultimate goal is to have the deals with the electric companies to contain buy-back clauses that provide credits or even cash to homes and other installations that generate more electricity than they use. Make solar installations an income source rather than a bill – that will alter the Central Texas electricity generation and load dynamic in a hurry – and all for the good of our planet and my pocket book!
Using my neighborhood as a pilot project for the future of distributed electrical generation, I plan to continue revolutionizing the way people live and even work – focusing always on a greener, more synergistic environmental interaction than Texans have historically employed.
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