Living Green Expo in Plano, TX

[mkjayakumar]

http://learn2livegreen.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So here in Plano today (Apr-14) there was a Living Green Expo in which companies that make products or provide services on saving energy were represented.

Couple of things:

- Green Mountain Energy provides a full 100% buy back on solar power produced at home at the same rate of 10.5c they sell to their customers. The last time I checked last year none of them offered any netmetering, but now Green Mountain Energy and I am sure others may also join the fray in the future.

- There were no Solar panel companies. Atleast I couldn't see, nor listed in the brouchure, which I thought was strange. I really wanted to have a serious dialog with them, but there were none.

- Blink had a stall and the rep had parked his own Chevy Volt in display and explain how the charging works. That guy told me that $1500 EVSE rebate is for Volt only and not for LEAF, which I thought was pretty dumb and unfair.

- One of the GM dealers had a stall with two Volts in different colours in display. Lots of curious visitors asking questions.

- No Nissan stall and no LEAF to be seen, which gives me the impression that none of the dealers around here really care, nor believe it is worth their trouble to spend time and effort on these things.

So with 100% Netmetering now available in TX, I will now start investigating Solar panels.

 

[Cheezmo]

My electricity is like 7.5c from Pennywise. Can I sell that back to Green Mountain? :lol:

How much solar panel would you need to sell enough back to Green Mountain to make it competitive with the lower cost energy companies?

 

[Stanton]

http://learn2livegreen.com/

- One of the GM dealers had a stall with two Volts in different colours in display. Lots of curious visitors asking questions.

- No Nissan stall and no LEAF to be seen, which gives me the impression that none of the dealers around here really care, nor believe it is worth their trouble to spend time and effort on these things.

I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. Translated: GM has LOTS of Volts to spare, so dealers are being more aggressive. There are very few Leafs to spare even if a Nissan dealer wanted to show them. FWIW, I've been to a couple of (smart grid) trade shows the last few months and see the same thing: plenty of Volts and no Leafs (same story). In fact, they even GAVE AWAY a Volt at a trade show in San Antonio. It's all about available supply (or lack thereof).

I know for a fact there will be a couple of Leafs at the "Earth Day" event in Fair Park (downtown Dallas) in a couple of weeks.

 

[shay]

So with 100% Netmetering now available in TX, I will now start investigating Solar panels.

I will be interested in your findings.

 

[mkjayakumar]

What I heard from the Green Mountain Energy rep and what I am now reading from their website below are different

http://greenmountainenergy.com/texas-oncor/oncor-renewable-rewards" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The website tells me that:

- The selling rate will be a month to month contract of 11.3c Per Kwh. It is not clear if this rate will fluctuate over the period of the year.

- a buy back of excess energy at the same rate is only for the first 500 Kwh per month. After that it is at only half the rate. This is in contrast to what that guy said that all of excess energy will be at the same rate as what they sell to the customer.

I haven't spoken to any solar panel installers yet.

 

[Pipcecil]

Makes me wish I was in an Oncor area. My electricity is from a co-op which basically means its shoved down my throat at whatever rate they want to. To top it off, green energy is too expensive and we don't care about it. That pretty much sums it up. So until the finally force co-ops to share and consumers to make a choice in those areas, I will be stuck...sigh

Also, can you give some more information about the blink EVSE and the $1500 for volts? My wife is about a month away from getting her volt (now since the volt plant is back operating again). It would be nice to get a low cost EVSE.

 

[mkjayakumar]

Send an email to [email protected] the Blink Rep who spoke to me at the event.