Wind & Solar Expo started today, runs the weekend
Dozens of area residents and business people filed into the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium Friday for the first day of the Solar & Wind Expo to get an idea of how much it would cost to install solar panels or wind turbines and how much it would save them on their utility bill.
The expo is the first kind, bringing together companies that offer all kinds of renewable energy for home or office, the sponsors said. They, the vendors and state officials on hand said they thought there was demand now that federal and state incentives and declining prices are making the switch affordable for many more people.
“The incentives for renewable energy have never been better,” said Malcolm Woolf, director of the Maryland Energy Administration. “We’ve seen exponential growth in the [state] program.”
Woolf said the state is getting 50-100 applications a month for solar, wind and geothermal grants, which are now backlogged as officials sort through which ones are for historic properties that require more paperwork. Much of the money comes from federal stimulus grants that will run out next year, but will partially be made up with money from utilities who will pay a fee for their carbon emissions.
He said the cost to install a major solar system on a typical suburban house was about $30,000, but could end up costing as little as $4,000 after federal, state and county tax credits and grants and selling energy credits to a utility. And the system could pay for itself with energy savings in five years.
That was good news to many who were trying to estimate what their costs would be for solar and wind systems.
“I’m excited to see what we could get,” said Barbara Lightner of York, Pa., who was especially interested in a backyard wind turbine. “We need to get away from Mideast oil.”
The expo will be in town until Sunday at the fairgrounds, with speeches and demonstration planned all weekend. And founder and executive director George Lopez expects it will be back next year, as well as in up to two other East Coast cities.
Wind turbine photo taken by me with my cell phone
