The SMUD PV Pioneer Program is an alternative energy buy-down program designed to provide technical and monetary assistance to homeowners in the Sacramento region interested in purchasing solar powered photovoltaic systems. These systems are designed to generate pollution free electricity while reducing homeowners' electric bills in the process.

A 2000 watt pv system would provide about 3600 kwh of electrical power per year, about half the consumption of the typical single family home in the Sacramento area. On sunny summer days, when more energy is being produced than consumed, the household would actually be adding electricity to California's power grid and being credited for it in a system called net metering

The cost of a typical system is about $10,000 dollars, of which half is picked up by SMUD, so the end cost to the homeowner is $5,000. With electricity prices of around 8 cents per kwh in the district, the savings total about $288 per year and, assuming no rate increases and minimal maintenance fees, the pay back period on the initial system cost would be approximately 17 years.

Hardly seems worth it...but...over the life of the system, 62,500 kwh of clean power is produced. A generating plant burning fossil fuels and producing that amount of power would throw out about 38 metric tons (84,000 lbs) of carbon during that period of time. Assuming carbon emissions are a bad thing, that's a lot of pollution being eliminated, not to mention the reduction in load on the state power system...

Currently there are about 700 rooftop solar units at times feeding over 2 megawatts (1 megawatt = 1000 kilowatts) of power into SMUD's grid, not a tremendous amount when peak demand in California is over 50,000 megawatts, but worth something when rolling blackouts are threatening. Visit their website to find out more information about the SMUD Pioneer PV program.  A similar program is also available through the California Energy Commission.

If one of these photovoltaic systems was set up in every single-family home in California how much of a difference would it make to the state's energy situation? Here's the numbers on a not so modest proposal:

Visit A not so modest proposal

*SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utilities District)