Well-heeled home buyers with environmental concerns are giving more than lip-service to the growing energy crisis. In greater and greater numbers, they are willing to pay for clean, alternative, self-generating sources of power for their homes.

Three quarters of affluent households surveyed nationwide by RKS Research & Consulting advocated the use of renewable energy resources to produce electricity. Six in ten favored self-generated clean power.

"The highest score was for solar panels. After that came fuel cells and a third is the micro-turbine (generator) the size of a dishwasher, powered by natural gas or oil," said Dick Claeys, a spokesman for North Salem, NY-based RKS.

Between July and September 2000, RKS interviewed 838 heads of households nationwide earning $50,000 or more and found 31 percent of them expressed interest in depending less on utility companies and more on personally financed energy supplies. That's up from 27 percent in 1999 and 24 percent in 1998.

The interest in alternative fuels is largely centered on solar energy. Photovoltaic systems, for example, generate 95 percent of the residential and commercial applications for rebates from California's Emerging Renewables Buy-Down Program. Under this program, consumers can get rebated for as much as half the cost of installed renewable energy systems.

Photovoltaics, popularly known as "solar electricity" employ solar cells comprised of silicon wafers or some other semiconductor material to convert sunlight into electricity. The technology is perhaps the most promising renewable energy source for home grown power.

With 408 photovoltaic tiles on the main roof of their 3,200 square foot Palo Alto ranch-style home and 12 photovoltaic panels on a smaller roof, Herman Gyr and Lisa Friedman use a $26,000 solar power system to generate 80 percent of the electricity they need for their household of six.

The solar system includes emergency back-up battery power and the home remains tied to the city's power grid for daily back-up juice. The home uses fluorescent lighting, skylights to cut electric light use and a new low-energy Danish refrigerator, but the family operates six computers and all the other electronics and appliances found in a typical home of its size.

"We've been interested in alternative energy for a long time. It's the right thing to do," said Gyr.

Households like the Gyr-Friedman's, that generate their own power and remain tied to the local utility system, use a "net metering" system which turns their electric meter backwards and credits their utility account when they generate more power than they need or can store. The credits can be used on cloudy days and during less sunny seasons and help offset the high initial cost of such systems.

"We can size it to achieve zero dependence on the utility company," said Peter Carrie, president of Eco-Energies in Sunnyvale, CA.

High-end photovoltaic systems can include mechanized panels or arrays that pivot to follow the sun for maximum solar energy gathering. Cheaper systems with fewer photovoltaic panels can be installed to provide supplemental or back up power. Any system can include a bank of back-up batteries for storing unused power.

The most technologically advanced systems use photovoltaic roof tiles, like the Sunslates brand used on most of the Gyr-Friedman home. The tiles work like conventional roofing to shelter the home from the elements while also reducing energy costs.

The systems work best on unshaded, south-facing roof slopes with lots of solar exposure, but east or west facing roof lines are only marginally less effective.

"The only PV maintenance is with a lead acid battery you top up the water. The rest is all solid state technology with 20 to 25 year warranties. Most today use sealed batteries so it all just sits up there quietly providing electricity," Carrie added.

The Gyr-Friedman system costs half what a sophisticated system would have cost 10 years ago, but to provide all the energy your home will need, you'll have to spend from $30,000 to as much as $100,000 for photovoltaic extravagance, according to Carrie.

"They've come down by a factor of 10 over the last 15 or 20 years," says Carrie.

Solar energy isn't new. Using the sun to heat swimming pools and household water is decades old technology and remains the solar industry's leading solar energy application.

Mass Produced Solar Electricity

The key to even lower prices is mass production -- incorporating solar systems or offering the option for solar in new production homes as they are being built.

New home buyers Tom and Doris Day, added only about $5,000 to the cost of their new home when they opted for a combination solar water heater and photovoltaic system that will generate 30 to 50 percent of their electricity needs.

Shea Homes, a Scripps Highlands development of $400,000 to $600,000 homes in San Diego includes 293 homes with solar water heaters -- 100 of them offer the photovoltaic option.

"The current energy situation made it very attractive. I don't want to say I'm a gadget freak, but I'm warm to the idea of renewable energy," said Tom Day, a business development manger for a company that embeds software in appliances and non-PC devices.

"Having useful, high tech equipment as part of the house is fun and even if we have high electricity rates this will pay for itself," Day added.

The Shea homes are 38 percent more energy efficient than the minimum levels required by California's strict Title 24 guidelines.

"It's like buying a car that makes its own gas," said Mark Brock, Shea Homes' San Diego president.

If only 10 percent of the homes built in San Diego in the next 20 years were as energy efficient as the special homes Shea is building, the savings would be enough to power more than 15,000 homes, according to Scott Anders, project manager of the San Diego Regional Energy Office.

In partnership with Delaware-based solar provider AstroPower, consultants CONSOL Energy of Stockton, CA and solar hot water provider Sun Systems of Scottsdale, AZ, Shea Homes is the first large California homebuilder to build many homes with renewable power options.

In addition to the expense hurdle, those who live in common interest developments governed by a homeowners association may need association approval before installing photovoltaics.

And if the power crisis continues, finding qualified installers will get tougher.

"We are booked through June," Carrie said.

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