S-RECs -- best way to use `em?

[kbsparky]

For all you solar guys out there, I need some more information concerning SRECs: Solar Renewable Energy Certificates.

In most states in the Mid-Atlantic region, and a few other surrounding areas, SRECs have become a commodity that can be sold to the highest bidder -- usually a utility that needs to have its "Green" energy source percentages beefed up.

In places like New Jersey, investors have taken to buying up the rights to several years' worth of SRECs by subsidizing the initial cost of installing solar arrays on household rooftops. A typical homeowner can get a $30,000 solar array system installed for an upfront cost of $5000.

This can greatly reduce the payback time of a solar system's initial investment outlay, and make for positive cash flow in a few short years.

So my questions here are (not in any particular order):

1) How does one go about declaring the availability of their SRECs, once a system has been installed?

2) Is there some sort of certification process that has to be followed and implemented in order to be able to have SRECs in the first place?

3) Is it more advantageous to sell them directly on the open market, or through a broker?

4) Are SRECs determined based on the size of the array, or the actual amount of energy produced?

Accounts of your experiences and comments welcomed.

 

[tallgirl]

1). You need to have a revenue-grade meter that is properly configured to capture the PV-produced energy. There are a wide variety of approaches, but they all involve one or more new electric meters. My company supports the Shark 100, which is a really popular "smart meter", but even dumb meters work Just Fine.

2). More or less the answer is "Yes". What this involves depends on whoever is certifying the S-REC. Typically it involves identifying the system that produced the S-REC and the date during which the power was produced.

3). Depends on who is offering the best price It also depends on how many you have to sell.

4). Actual energy produced, as measured by a revenue-grade meter. Guessing is useful for any initial funding, but sooner or later the watts gotta be produced and properly measured.