A push for green

A local solar and wind power contractor hopes to see an increase in public education and awareness of sustainable energy.

(Article by Monica Joseph, from The Goshen News, 2/27/09)

According to a local “green” contractor, education and awareness are the keys to moving toward a more sustainable society. It ia also going to take the cooperation of state government, utilities co-ops, businesses and individuals, according to Leon Bontrager, president of Home & Mobile Energy.

Bontrager started the business in 2000 focusing at that time on backup power generators. He branched into solar and wind power, before getting into power systems for recreational vehicles.

Since the business started, both aspects of this business -- backup and RV power and solar and wind power -- have served as backup for the company as a whole.

“One is always good while the other is down,” Bontrager said.

Another way the company has stayed viable is by serving customers across the United States and around the world, including Jamaica and Haiti. The contractors will travel long distances to install systems (one was recently built in Nevada) but also ships systems to other countries.

“There is a lot on the horizon (for sustainable energy),” Bontrager said. With the cost of utilities up and the ability of solar energy can do, it is a “very viable” source of power, he said.

While many of Bontrager’s customers are out of the area, one local company has been working on becoming a green business for about 10 years. Home and Mobile Energy finished installing solar panels on the building Feb. 13 and a public unveiling of the project will take place March 11 at 11 a.m.

McCormick partnered with a class at Goshen College to study the practical application of sustainable energy. Goshen College’s Merry Lea Environmental Center’s models and experiments with solar and wind power were instrumental in company officials’ decision to go green.

“What triggered my decision was looking at their data,” said Gordon Moore, McCormick vice president.

The company received a $25,000 grant from Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman’s Office of Energy and Defense Development to implement the costly process. McCormick funded the remaining 70 percent of the project, which is expected to pay for itself in 20 years.

Moore said the solar panel installation was a culmination of a decade of work, which started with energy conservation projects.

“Installing the solar panels is the last thing you need to do,” Moore said. He said working on energy conservation is the first step, which the company did in a variety of ways, including installing automated systems, energy conserving blinds and other projects.

Bontrager, agreed that McCormick went about the project in the correct way.

“The first step is conserving energy,” Bontrager said. “Then once you have conserved everything you can, you start producing,” he said. “If you are producing wasted energy, that is not sustainable.”

Energy conservation and sustainable power are only a part of McCormicks’ effort to be a green ompany. Implementing a comprehensive recy- cling program was also a big project for the company, according to its Web site.

“They are a very good role model for businesses in this area,” Bontrager said. The company not only benefited itself by going green, Bontrager said, but also benefited the community by partnering with the college for education purposes.

Moore said the design of the solar panels is also a way to bring awareness to sustainable energy and to be “a demonstration for the state.”

“They (panels) aren’t up on a roof somewhere no one is going to see them,” he said. “This is a very visible project. It was designed that way.”

And that, Bontrager said, is the key to getting more homes and business to go green -- public awareness and education.

“Solar is still a long-term investment. You are not going to install a system today so you can pay your car payment,” Bontrager said. “You have to look at the whole picture.”

What solar can do “is lock in your utility costs for 35 years (the systems have a 35 year-plus life span.) “If a utility company said you could lock in, you’d jump on it. We don’t know what utility costs are going to be in the future, but we know the sun is going to be the same as today,” Bontrager said.

However, said Bontrager, his customers are not installing their sustainable energy systems solely for financial reasons. In fact, he said finances are nearly always second.

“It’s responsibility first, finances second,” he said.

Bontrager said he is definitely in a niche market and the individuals and companies who call him are interested in doing their part to conserve the planet’s energy.

“We have a small clientele,” he said. He relies on word of mouth, training seminars, trade publications and the Internet for marketing purposes.

Bontrager believes that the biggest priority in his industry should be educating the public - “not to sell, but to teach.”

He said there is a lot of misinformation circulating, especially on the Internet.

“The Internet is one of the best tools out there, but can also be deceiving,” Bontrager said. He said a lack of support for customers who purchase solar or wind kits is a huge problem and can create negative attitudes toward sustainable energy.

He has seen first -hand evidence of a lack of education, including windmills on properties that could not possibly benefit from one. In those cases, Bontrager said, you have the owners telling people “wind doesn’t work,” when it was the installation, not the equipment that was wrong.

It is important that the customer have knowledge to make a decision,” he said. “Public awareness, public education, that’s what we need.”

He said he hopes to be able to launch public education efforts for the good of the green movement as a whole and that people need to know where to go to find a qualified contractor who will be up front about potential results of going green.

As for the immediate future of sustainable energy efforts, those in Bontrager’s industry are waiting to see what kind of incentives President Obama’s stimulus package will bring to encourage green homes and businesses. So far, that information has been “very vague,” Bontrager said.

One of the most critical keys to increasing the use of renewable energy, he said, is cooperation with the utility companies in the state.

Public utilities -- NIPSCO, AEP, etc. -- are federally regulated and subject to a rule that requires they “buy back” any excess power created by their customers’ solar/wind systems. Called “net metering” the buyback is in the form of credits, not cash, Bontrager explained.

Utility cooperatives, including REMCs and some municipal services, are not subject to those rules. Some cooperatives are “very progressive” and use net metering on their own, while others “will do anything they can to oppose solar power,” Bontrager said.

Economic Impact
According to a group of scientists dedicated to promoting green energy, renewable usage has economic benefits, along with the sustainability factor.

“It has amazing benefits for the economy, especially in northern Indiana in manufacturing,” said Kristen Graf, energy researcher for the Union of Concerned Scientists.

She said a recent study suggests if states would adopt standards requiring utility companies to use a certain percentage of renewable energy, jobs could be created, tax revenue could grow and landowners could benefit.

Those regulations, Graf said, would create demand for the components of wind and solar machinery, allowing for more sound financing opportunities for startup of those types of businesses.“It’s a way of showing a broad commitment to that technology and allows the developers to make the financial commitment to moving forward knowing they have someone to sell it to,” Graf said. “The big thing in the northern Indiana region is the potential for manufacturing,” she said.

For example, she said a New York Times article featured a former Iowa washing machine component facility that has since retooled and now makes turbines for wind power.

“Another side effect is the income to farmers and rural land owners who would have wind projects on their land,” Graf said. She added that onsite renewable energy would create millions of dollars in local tax revenue for towns. Individuals would also save money, Graf explained.

“In addition to the jobs benefits, increasing renewable energy in Indiana can also create cumulative consumer savings of $130 million by 2020 from lower electricity and natural gas bills, and that could grow to $420 million by 2030.” she said.