GRID TIED OPPORTUNITIES IN SUBURBAN WESTERN WASHINGTON: A TALE OF TWO SYSTEMS

摘要

"It rains here all the time!" With this as the initial response from many who have not considered solar power on the Olympic Peninsula, is there a viable market opportunity for promoters of grid-tied PV in Western Washington? Can suburban residential PV systems be a commercially viable product for a small solar specialty business in the Pacific Northwest without major government financial incentives, despite the numerous traditional obstacles? Power Trip Energy Corp and Puget Sound Solar are two small solar businesses that coordinated the installation of the first two net-metered systems in different towns on the Olympic Peninsula in 2003. Some of the traditional barriers are disappearing, some were overcome, and some reared their ugly heads as demonstrated by these two projects examined in this paper.