MILLERSBURG, Mo. - It's been five years since Leemer Cernohlavek had 14 solar panels installed on the roof of his garage, a decision he's been very pleased with.
"What sold me on it was the fact I wanted to economize on my electric bills," he said. "I also want to leave a small footprint when I leave (the planet)."
And he's done just that. Cernohlavek said the electricity generated by his panels supplies more than 4,000 kilowatts a year.
"It reduces my average bill about 30 percent," he said, adding he receives an analysis every month keeping track of the output from his 3.64 KW system. "The first year - 2014 - was my best year. I guess it was sunnier."
Cernohlavek said he would like to install more panels, but at age 78, it might take awhile to realize an economic benefit. He said his solar electric generating system cost about $15,000, but then he received a 30 percent rebate from the federal government.
"You don't get money back - you get a tax credit," he said.
The federal solar tax credit applies to both residential and commercial systems with no cap on its values. More details are available at energy.gov/savings/residential-renewable-energy-tax-credit.
With all-electric heat and air conditioning, Cernohlavek's utility bill for his 1,550-square-foot home was much higher before he had the solar system installed.
"My bill in the summer was between $160 and $180 a month," he said. "It now averages about $80 a month in the summer. I have all-electric heat; it's standby, and I burn wood in the winter time."
He also said his electric bill is lower in the winter than in the summer.
Each of Cernohlavek's solar panels has a micro invertor, converting the voltage from DC to AC. Then his electricity feeds into the "grid" via Callaway Electric, basically off-setting the cost of the electricity he buys from them.
"It's been a very positive move on my part and a good investment," he added.
A couple of years ago, Cernohlavek added a hot water collection system which included a second array of solar panels and a 75-gallon, coil tank system in the garage. A coil recirculates fluid up through the solar panels, heating the fluid, and then brings it back down to wrap around an interior water tank that feeds into the home's 30-gallon tank.
"If anyone is going to do a (solar) system, I would recommend they do that first," he said. "On a nice summer day, it's not unusual for (water) to get up to 170 degrees."
During the sunny summer, the Cernohlavek household basically has free hot water.
"I'm really thankful I put in the hot water system," he added.
His two-story house, too, was designed to take advantage of nature's free solar heat.
"It's a passive solar home - that means it was designed in such a way that it takes advantage of the sun," Cernohlavek explained. "I bought the plans from a solar (house) architect in New Hampshire. I bought the blue prints, adjusted for longitude and latitude, and I built it."
The house has a wide span of south-facing, ground-story windows under the slanted overhang of the second story. That overhang is designed to block hot sunshine as the sun moves north in the summer, but catch the same warm rays in winter when the sun moves south. The south side of his house also has a cozy solar sun room.
"So the winter sun heats the house," Cernohlavek said.
His 14-panel system was installed by Missouri Solar Solutions, headquartered in Columbia.
Net metering
Cernohlavek said he worries about being penalized by his utility company for feeding the power his solar panels generate into the grid, a process called net metering. Last January, state Rep. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, sponsored House Bill 340, legislation that would have allowed utility companies to charge additional monthly fees to customers with electric generating systems such as solar panels or wind turbines.
The bill would have permitted energy suppliers, such as Ameren, Callaway Electric and municipal utilities, to charge large fees (75 percent of the value of the energy sold to the utility) to people with home wind turbines or solar panels. If a homeowner "sold" $20 of energy to a utility, the utilities with the grid could charge that homeowner a $15 "grid usage fee."
Imposing large fees on net metering makes it impossible to see economic benefit from installing renewable energy sources, said James Owen, executive director of Renew Missouri, who visited with a small group of Callaway County residents last week.
He said the state's legislature adjourned without passing HB 340.
"I think you're going to see that legislation come up again," Owen added. "I think it's going to get pretty ugly in the Senate."
Eric Harmon, spokesperson for Fitzwater, said someone could reintroduce legislation similar to HB 340 in the next session.
"The potential exists for it to be filed again," Harmon said. "The (electric) coops will ask for it again, so the likelihood is pretty high."
If a bill is sponsored again, it might come from a different legislator.
"We haven't sat down and gone through out policy agenda for the next session," Harmon added.
He said HB 340 had problems, but bills are generally introduced and then discussed, thus smoothing out the problems and hammering out more acceptable details.
"The bill last year wasn't a perfect legislation," Harmon said, adding he agrees Missouri needs to discuss the future when it comes to renewable energy.
Jeremiah Strode, member service advisor for Callaway Electric Cooperative, said he has personal opinions about what net metering should look like and added renewables have a place in the mix.
"I'm not an expert in this," he said. "It gets real complex, and people get heated up about it."
Strode said he hopes people can sit down and have productive discussions about renewable energy in Missouri, the grid, and how everything works with energy sources already in place, including coal-fired plants and hydroelectric dams.
"People need to ask questions," Strode said of people considering buying solar and wind energy generation systems. "Make sure you're getting what you're paying for. Go into this with open eyes and know what to expect. The more educated you are, the better off you are."
Renewables in Missouri
Owen said in Missouri, there are investor-owned utility companies (regulated by Missouri's Public Service Commission), companies run by municipalities such as Fulton, and 43 electric cooperatives.
"Electric coops are run by boards and are deregulated," he added. "So we have to work very hard to work with a lot of people."
By 2020, a minimum of 15 percent of energy sold by every utility must come from every utility, according to Owen.
"We see that as the bare minimum," Owen said, adding 85 percent of Ameren's energy comes from coal and nuclear, "some of the lowest diversity in the country."
His organization isn't seeking to shut down utilities's coal and nuclear plants, but rather to educate utilities, organizations and companies about the benefits of renewable sources.
"Wind and solar are cheaper to use," he said. "It's an opportunity to be cleaner and be more affordable."
Owen said for example, 30 percent of the power sold in Springfield comes from renewable sources.
"They know it's good for the bottom lines," he said.
Owen added some corporations seeking to expand operations look for communities focused on renewable energy sources: corporations such as General Motors, Anheuser-Busch and Walmart.
Google, according to Owen and Google's corporate website, chose to expand its data center into Council Bluffs, Iowa, because it had the "right combination of energy infrastructure, developable land and available workforce."
The company plans to invest more than $2.5 billion there by 2019, and has awarded $1.1 million to local schools and nonprofits plus a free WiFi network for area residents, Google's website stated.
A Google representative declined comment.
On Aug. 24, Apple announced a deal to build two data storage centers near Des Moines, Iowa, joining Facebook, Microsoft and Google - all drawn, in part, by wind-generated electricity, according to Owen and other news and corporate sources.
"Apple has clearly figured out it makes money" by using renewable energy, Owen said. He added fast-growing new careers include trained wind and solar technicians. "These are data centers built for companies who want to run on renewable energy."
In March, Anheuser-Busch announced intentions to be 100-percent powered by renewable energy by 2025. Owen also mentioned Rock Port, a small town in Atchison County, that installed four wind turbines in 2008 to help supply electricity for its 1,300 residents.
A spokeswoman there said the town's turbines feed electricity into the power grid that then supplies the town.
Cernohlavek said he hopes people begin to have more productive conversations about the benefits of using renewable energy sources in their own homes.
"Basically, it's going to take education - and utilities making money," Cernohlavek said.
Correction: In the original version of this article, a quote attributed to James Owen should have referred to the impact of imposing large fees on net metering, not to net metering itself. The erroneous wording has been corrected in the text above.