Solar energy is 100 percent clean, and has the potential
to reduce dependence on oil and to shred electric bills,
allowing homeowners to receive checks from PSE&G – rather
than write them. But are roof-mounted solar panels a
blight upon the land?
The homeowners association at the Crossings at Grover’s
Mill in Plainsboro thought so, and tried to stop Manick
Rajendran from installing solar panels on his roof.
Rajendran is a technologist who owns Diverge
(201-349-0066), a medical records software start-up
specializing in getting doctors’ offices organized.
Formerly a vice president of Deutsch Bank, he is also a
dad and an environmentalist, and he was determined to use
the sun to power his home.
He and his wife, Raji, who runs an online store, are the
parents of two sons, a freshman at Georgia Tech and a
sixth grader at the Community Middle School. "We are
involved in conservation at home," he says. He wanted to
install solar panels because "we could save 300 hundred
trees a year, without even lifting a finger."
But when Rajendran went to his homeowners association, of
which he is the architectural chair, to get permission, he
got a swift turndown instead. The majority sentiment was
that the panels would be ugly, and would lower the values
of all of the homes in the neighborhood. His immediate
neighbors were on his side, but their opinion did not sway
the association. The rejection galvanized Rajendran to
action. He is convinced that solar power is good for the
planet, and, what’s more, he says, "my sons were
emotionally invested in the project."
Rajendran triumphed, and in doing so became the first New
Jersey resident living in a home controlled by a
homeowners association to install solar panels.
His house, which is located at 4 Briardale Court in
Plainsboro, is featured on a Green Buildings Open House
taking place on Saturday, October 7, from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. This is a national event, but local tours are being
coordinated by the Northeast Sustainable Energy
Association (www.nsea.org), and complete details on the
tour are available on its website. Central New Jersey
homes and businesses being showcased include properties in
Hopewell, Ringoes, Branchburg, Cream Ridge, Flemington,
and Englishtown.
Rajendran, whose panels were installed just about one year
ago, used a variety of tactics in his fight to be included
in a list of "green" homes. First of all, he polled
members of his older son’s class at West Windsor
Plainsboro High School North. The youngsters proclaimed
his proposed panels "cool."
"They are the people who will be buying your houses in 10
years," he told neighbors who were concerned about
property values.
Next he arranged a presentation in his home at which he
showed photographs of attractive solar installations in
California. "They said `that’s California, not New
Jersey,’" he says of the unenthusiastic reception his
show-and-tell received.
Then he went around the state, going through public
records to compare resale prices for homes with solar
panels to those for homes without solar panels. He found
that the homes with the roof-mounted panels were selling
for at least as much as the other homes in their
neighborhoods. To bolster his contention that the panels
would not lower values in his development, he met with
real estate agents, and quickly found three who were
prepared to appear in front of his homeowners association
to state their opinion that the panels would not depress
prices.
With the poll, the public records he had found, and the
comments of real estate agents bolstering his argument,
Rajendran went back to the homeowners association. He was
turned down again.
A calm, rational man, with a methodical approach born of
his training as an engineer, he nevertheless was not about
to take no for an answer. He consulted an attorney, and
was told that he was facing an "uphill battle" in going
against a decision of a homeowners association. But he
went ahead, and told his association that he was prepared
to sue. That did it. The association caved, and he got his
panels.
They were installed by GeoGenix (www.GeoGenix.com), a
Rumson-based company that specializes in geothermal, wind
power, and green planning and building as well as in solar
energy installations. Gaurav Naik, co-owner of the
company, will be at the Rajendran house during the green
building tour to answer questions on solar installations.
Naik, who studied solar energy technology at the
University of New South Wales and did his graduate work in
the science at the State University of New York at
Buffalo, has long had an interest in using the sun for
power. "During my sophomore year at New South Wales I sat
in on a lecture by an American, a woman from Delaware," he
recounts. "She said `50 percent of the people in the world
do not have electricity.’" Solar power is a way to bring
it to them, the professor, who had chosen to teach at New
South Wales because of its solar research program, was
convinced.
This galvanized Naik. His father was a lawyer and a
businessman in India, and, says Naik, had worked with
India’s largest car manufacturer to bring buses and trucks
to under-developed areas around the world. He hopes to do
the same with solar power, and thinks that the technology
to reap power from the sun at low cost will be here within
seven years. In the meantime, he set up shop in New
Jersey, becoming a co-owner of 30-year-old GeoGenix three
years ago.
The reason that he chose this state is simple. Thanks to
some of the most generous rebates in the nation, demand
for solar is booming in New Jersey. But his company, and
the 10 to 15 companies like it in the state, are running
into a serious problem. Rebates, set at 70 percent 18
months ago, are now down to about 45 percent of the
$80,000 that it costs to install a 10 kilowatt solar plant
like the one that is powering Rajendran’s Plainsboro home.
But, still, it’s a good deal, and so many New Jersey
residents are clamoring to go solar that it is taking
between 12 and 24 months to receive approval from the
state for a rebate. "We have 50 customers lined up and
waiting for approval," he says. "Three years back we did
not have enough customers."
The state set aside a fixed amount of money for solar
rebates, and that money is running out, which is why the
rebate was dropped from 70 to 45 percent. Naik says that
he is heavily involved in changing the state’s approach.
Rather than paying rebates, he says that the state should
be increasing Solar Energy Renewable Credits. This is
money that utility companies pay to homeowners like
Rajendran who sell back power that their solar panels have
pulled in, but that they don’t use. Naik is convinced that
the state will go to this approach within 18 months or so.
Meanwhile, Naik says that Rajendran’s victory will
reverberate in homeowner association-regulated
developments throughout the state. His company just
installed solar panels in such a development in Mansfield.
He says that the panels are more attractive and less
obtrusive than they were in the past, and are becoming
more so all the time. He used 52 panels on Rajendran’s
house, but says that a similar system would now use only
45 panels. "It looks just like a big skylight," he says,
"and skylights have been accepted for a long time." No
wires show on a solar-powered house. They are encased in a
conduit, which can be color-coordinated with the house and
behind the chimney. Conversion boxes generally go into
basement closets.
One year after going solar, Rajendran has reduced his
electric bills from $200 to $250 to zero in most months,
and he just received a check for $1,600 from PSE&G for his
energy credits. What’s more, he has received only
compliments on his panels from his neighbors, at least one
of whom has put in an application for approval for his own
solar array.
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