Small Town News

The states role in greening Delawares electricity

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Phil Cherry, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Delaware Energy Office policy administrator, said staff with years of experience review grant applications.

He said some confusion has been created by the energy office's web page, in that "It's giving folks the impression that there's one fund, it's statewide and it's operated by DNREC. That's simply not the case."

He said the site would be changed to show Delmarva Power and Delaware Electric Co-op monitor their own grant programs as do municipalities such as Lewes.

Cherry acknowledged that it could take a municipality five years to accrue enough money to pay one geothermal grant of $15,000, the maximum allowable.

He said ratepayers fund the programs through a portion of the bill called the system-benefit charge. He said Delaware's system-benefit charge is one of the country's lowest.

'We do that to mitigate impacts on ratepayers. But the downside is that we don't generate as much money as some programs might in other states, or as much money to meet the needs," Cherry said.

He said agencies such as the Lewes BPW could also pay residents for electricity they produce.

"It's going to take some time to transform from a grant-based program to one based on the market," he said.

Cherry said the department of energy doesn't handle payments for electricity produced by residential systems. "We just provide the technical service in reviewing applications, but the Delaware Municipal Electric Corp. issues the

checks.

"We don't collect their money. We don't hold their money. All we do is look at their applicants to make sure they meet some minimum standards," Cherry said.

He said although geothermal systems are expensive up front, the return on the investment is excellent.

"We're seeing a tremendous increase in the number of geothermal systems that are installed, because they can pay for themselves in a short period of time," he said.

In Lewes, homeowners have requested grants for only two types of systems - solar photovoltaic and geothermal heating and cooling. But grants are also available to reduce the cost of a small wind turbine, solar-thermal or fuel-cell systems.

Cherry said geothermal and solar photovoltaic are by far the most popular systems in the state.





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