City to consider the sun as an energy source

Right, solar water-heating panels could become a common sight in Fort Myers if city officials adopt a plan to make them affordable. Fort Myers' city leaders are contemplating making solar power a public utility. But before your blood starts to boil with thoughts that government might be taxing the air we breathe next, this idea may have some benefits to consumers.

The proposal City Council is listening to would let a California-based renewable energy company install solar water heating systems, at no cost to homeowners in the city, and charge a monthly fee for the energy used to heat the water. Company officials said the fees would roughly be equal to the electricity needed to heat the water. It wouldn't save consumers money, but it would reduce the need for energy produced by fossil fuels.

Regenesis Power - which deals in renewable power sources such as sunlight and wind - has asked to work with the city's utilities department to make solar thermal energy a citywide option.

"Your choice is really whether you want solar powered hot water or fossil fuel powered hot water," said Dell Jones, vice president of the Renewable Project development for Regenesis. "It's a simple proposition - green power or brown power."

COURTESY PHOTO A solar water heating element takes up little room on a residential roof. Currently the only option for heating water in Fort Myers is electricity powered mostly by natural gas. Using solar thermal energy would reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, which destroy the ozone layer and reportedly cause climate change.

If the city went forward with the proposal, it would be following other cities such as Lakeland, which adopted a similar plan in 1998. Regenesis, which installs large scale commercial solar energy systems, would purchase the solar thermal energy boxes to replace electric hot water heaters. They would be installed on rooftops and look like big, flat solar panels.

The Fort Myers' utilities department would maintain and operate the boxes. How much solar thermal energy you use would be recorded on a meter, read on a monthly basis, and added to your water bill.

Dell Jones Of course, homeowners can always purchase a solar water heater on their own and bypass any fees the city may charge. After all, energy from the sun and wind is free.

"It's just such a simple task and elegant solution," Jones said. "It's not that complicated. Sometimes it's the most simple things, the most obvious. I mean, we live in the Sunshine State."

City Councilman Warren Wright, who put the solar thermal utility option on the agenda for consideration at a recent city council meeting after talking with Jones, said Miami had the utility in the 1920s.

"It's important to point out that this is not newfangled technology," he said. "It's tried, trued and tested…I think the idea is that one, we as citizens of earth need to think about ways to reduce our carbon output.Two, I think it's a fantastic opportunity to create green collar jobs. And thirdly, if handled correctly it could be a money making opportunity for the city."

Jones said that currently, about 50 percent of your electric bill leaves the local economy, because it goes back into buying, transporting and burning foreign sources of fuel used to make that electricity.

C. Newcomb-Jones With solar energy - which requires no transportable fuels (and has a limitless supply) - your payments could go back towards city projects. However, most of the initial eight to 10 years worth of the city's solar energy utility payments would go to the cost of setting up the program and installing the solar thermal boxes.

The boxes cost as much as $4,500 each, but less for Regenesis, who buys them in bulk from various manufactures, including two in Florida. (Jones said homeowners who buy and maintain the boxes themselves can get up to $2,000 in tax rebates from the state and federal government.)

He also noted that solar thermal energy is a relatively simple technology akin to water getting hot inside a garden hose; it is not to be confused with more pricey solar electric panels, or photovoltaic energy - which convert the sun's energy to electricity - and could be used to power an entire home.

Jones and his wife,

Carol Newcomb-Jones, do just that. They live in a house in Fort Myers powered entirely by the sun - air conditioning, pool pump, lighting and all. Their electric bill was negative $22 last month because of power they had stored up.

"How can people say no to this," said Newcomb-Jones, who is a director in environmental planning for Babcock Ranch development. She presented the plan to city council on Monday. "You are being proactive to help with climate change and global warming - it won't cost you any more and it could cost you less. We're utilizing a little patch of each person's roof to help with the environmental crisis we're facing."

Newcomb-Jones was an adjunct professor at Florida Gulf Coast University for nine years, where solar thermal energy was only one component in the course she taught on sustainable development.

"There's a lot of great renewable energy technologies," she said. "The sun, the wind, even currents offshore.

"Off the coast of Florida actually, they're figuring out how to put a very slow moving paddle wheel in the Gulf Stream to make electricity using the current of the ocean."