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After further review I decided not to go with solar living in Greer.
The main reason is that Greer gets 100% of their electricity from the nuclear plant, so you aren't saving any carbon emissions installing solar if you live in Greer.
The second reason is that no, Greer absolutely does not allow net metering. (Aside: They also don't allow residential time-of-day metering, so you can't save money charging your electric car at night. Greer CPW seems really well run and has outstanding service, but I wish they would get with the times on these policies. )
Recent news articles talk about legislation currently being debated in the SC legislature to allow for more solar. Currently it is capped at 2% of state energy production, though I don't understand how this "cap" is enforced.
After further review I decided not to go with solar living in Greer.
The second reason is that no, Greer absolutely does not allow net metering. (Aside: They also don't allow residential time-of-day metering, so you can't save money charging your electric car at night. Greer CPW seems really well run and has outstanding service, but I wish they would get with the times on these policies. )
I did some calculations and found out that even with net metering and getting federal and state credits there is still substantial number of years before payback is achieved. If there is no net metering then that will never occur. No way I am paying that much for so little return.
Instead I went with geothermal because the federal and state credits are the same as for solar and after those credits it is not substantially more than a conventional HVAC system. I don't have to depend on stupid outdated Greer CPW policies. And the underground pipes are rated for 50 years and will add value to the house.
I spoke recently to a Greer city council rep on the subject of net metering and specifically asked as to why that is not available to customers. His response was that when they negotiated terms of the contract for supply of electricity to the city, one of the stipulations was that they would not buy power from any other source. That "any other source" includes from folks with solar. As I remember from our conversation the contract is effective for another couple of years. I told him that I hope that the city would not make that same contractual mistake again and if they did, I was sure that the citizens would hold them responsible at the next election given that Greer is an outlier in net meeting programs by not offering it to their citizens as most areas around us do. I would suggest that Greer city folks interested in net metering discuss this matter with you council reps directly and remind them that this is something you are very interested in when they again negotiate for utilities supply for the city.
Hey if you are in Cpw area the best option to go solar Is if you use a battery and have it wired for time of use. This way you won't have to send power to Cpw and now you will be able to get the full benefits from solar. By the way I sell solar and just had to do this for a family I just helped. If you have questions ask away I may can help.
I’m the Senior Market Manager for a solar company in Greenville...I advise against solar for CPW customers. I’ve had some clients very adamant about solar and even batteries to “cheat the system”. But that’s very risky. We don’t refuse to do business with CPW customers because some people strongly believe in producing their share of energy even if they have to pay twice for it. We make it very clear the panels benefit the power company not your wallet because the homeowner pays for the panels AND a “discounted” energy bill.
I’m the Senior Market Manager for a solar company in Greenville...I advise against solar for CPW customers. I’ve had some clients very adamant about solar and even batteries to “cheat the system”. But that’s very risky. We don’t refuse to do business with CPW customers because some people strongly believe in producing their share of energy even if they have to pay twice for it. We make it very clear the panels benefit the power company not your wallet because the homeowner pays for the panels AND a “discounted” energy bill.
As the OP who posed this question 3 years ago, it looks like nothing much has changed since then. I went to the CPW office twice earlier on to meet with the person in charge of solar panels. They took my contact info and promised he would call me. He never did. Greer is still in the 19th century.
Luckily use of geothermal heating and cooling does not depend on the whims of CPW and with the tax credits, it made more sense to me than solar panels.
So many solar companies are riddled with complaints and bad reviews - leaky roofs, closing issues, lying salesmen - that we’ve decided to hold off until that’s no longer the case.
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