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[Kathyann Natkie <knat AT sprintmail.com>]

Wendy wrote:
  It seems though,
> that your RE plan is state funded. What state do you live in?  What is a 
> "bundler"?  Is that the guy who collects green credits from conscious 
> people and sells them to polluters so that they can legally continue to 
> pollute?
We are NJ. Federal funds allocated to each state and must be returned if 
not spent. This year is the first time demand exceeded supply. 
Additionally the utilities have to fund clean development for 2 reasons 
public & private. Each tax break that goes thru for them to develop 
opens more opportunity to sell them "alternatively produced" electricity 
and the market demand is growing fast. Each unit I produce has 2 values. 
1) The value of the electricity for resale- fluctuating market traded 
like a copmmodity exchange. 2) The value of "alternative production." As 
people become consciencious (corporations too) they require their 
supplier to supply them with alternatively produced power (ala Green 
Mountain.) So the sun source is also a commodity to exchange. A 
"bundler" aggregates from little folks like us and markets the cleanness 
to caring individuals and companies. So building costs get written off 
in the tax break for alternative development but the electricity itself 
also sells for a commodity value. Example- We sold ours like mineral 
rights. (Tvo helped me calculate if it was worth it.) What it produces 
over 16 years in exchange for installing, maintaining, replacing 
anything that breaks down (including transformers,) taking it down and 
up once if I need to reroof or down and pack if I move and want to take 
it, plus some$. I can end contract anytime if it becomes worth it to 
sell them myself.

We have had a problem with the school I built this year. People noticed 
the Fed/NJ rebate structure and the Green Building Fund for Schools 
could be combined so a school could have no cost PV electric installed. 
The alternative development funds were instantly grabbed up and they 
froze all schools to figure out how to fund anyone except schools when 
every school wanted to do it. They haven't figured it out yet but just 
unfroze our school because we are charter and not eligible for Green 
Building Fund. The regs have delayed us a year! All other schools are 
still frozen. The trick now is getting the panels. US production cannot 
handle demand so Germany is making most of US development money. Our 
school has chosen to queue for US made instead but they say we will be 
up by July.

Kathyann