As an owner of residential or commercial properties and lessor, you are doubtless regularly looking for for strategies to lower your operating and maintenance costs. So have you carefully reviewed your clean energy options? It may interest you that China leads the world in the use of solar heating tubes for heating domestic water. Several roof spaces in China are used to supply residential properties with most of their heating needs. In China, there is an estimated 30 million solar heating systems, currently in operation. This has significantly lowered not only electricity charges for residents and tenants, and operating expenses for commercial building owners, but the level of pollution in China too.
Previously, many of us have thought that solar energy applications for residences and apartment buildings were limited to producing solar electricity. Now, more people are becoming informed of its other real estate applications, such as heating water. Moreover, even national governments have realized the environmental burdens that could be lifted from their shoulders, if more and more consumers began implementing clean energy solutions. Hence, attractive financial incentives were made available for those who use solar water heaters and PV panels in their residential properties and commercial office buildings.
These days, the common homeowner or landlord can receive federal, state, and local tax incentives. They can also enjoy accelerated depreciation. This means that they won’t have to wait for several years to get the financial incentives of using solar electric power and solar hot water equipments. In fact, most apartment building owners and commercial office landlords are able to get a payback on their invested capital in as little as two years, with most property owners getting a total return on his or her investment in five years.
However, it is essential to keep in mind that the latest clean energy sources, like wind energy and solar electric power are still not capable of supplying the complete electric power required by the property owner. Improvements are still needed on the efficacy of the following solar technologies: conversion rates of solar to electric energy, heat storage, and solar cells. For example, a common photovoltaic panel will lose efficacy when temperatures surpass 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Additionally, some of the solar technologies, like the amorphous panels, can actually only convert seven percent of the energy they collect from the sun. And with wind energy, at a minimum a ten mph wind is essential in order for electricity to be produced.
The installation of clean energy through ‘net metering’ can also provide resident and commercial property owners the side-business opportunity to earn extra credit or money by feeding their excess stock of electricity into the electric public grid. For example, a landlord sets-up a couple of small wind turbines on his roof space, and because of 3-4 of great weather conditions, he produces a greater quantity of energy than his tenants require. The landlord can then send into the public power system, his excess or unutilized energy for this period. And in return, the property owner will receive a check or credit by their public electric company.
Therefore, with clean energy there are plenty of ways and means that property owners can apply ‘clean energy’ to have extra income. It may require some work and research and initial outlay of cash, but the return on your investment can be realized in a short amount of time; and most siginificantly, positive effects to our natural environment are more than the value of your investment.
Craig Axelrod is VP of Business Development for Emmy Energy, a NY clean energy company installing solar heating tube systems & solar electric systems in the North East.