Renewable Faith: Affordable, Renewable Energy
(Page 2 of 4)
November/December 2002
By Mike Tidwell
It then became plausible to meet at least part of our newly trimmed energy demand with our own solar generation. And here’s where we encountered the first of several pleasant surprises: We could go solar, in a big way, even on a budget. We quickly learned that the state of Maryland offers grants of up to $3,600 toward solar photovoltaic systems, plus a deduction of 15 percent of the cost of the system from your state income tax.
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With a hefty grant in hand, we went shopping for solar panels and got another big surprise: A local solar advocacy group—the Virginia Alliance for Solar Electricity—was heavily discounting the price of panels thanks to a subsidy from the U.S. Department of Energy. Taking advantage of both of these programs and installing much of the system ourselves, we were able to realize our greatest dream—thirty-six solar panels on our roof generating 70 percent of our electricity.
Feeling the heat
Having tackled the big hurdle of electricity, we had almost half of our original $7,500 budget still in hand to apply to our next big challenge: heating. We knew that a typical U.S. household spends 44 percent of its energy budget heating and cooling the home. As for cooling, we get by with ceiling fans. But in winter, we spend up to $200 per month heating with natural gas. We had to find a new source of heat.
But what? A small company in Minnesota answered the question. Twelve years ago, ex-farmer Mike Haefner, president of American Energy Systems, engineered the first-ever corn-burning stove designed to heat modern homes. Sales were flat until last year, when rising fuel prices and growing concerns about the environment increased company sales 500 percent. This small, easy-to-install stove easily heats a 2,000-square-foot home (ours is 1,600 square feet) and can accommodate a thermostat. The stove can store up to two days’ worth of corn in a side bin and self-loads the corn with a low-energy electric auger. All you have to do is set the stove to the heating level you want and enjoy the radiant heat.
Burning corn contributes almost nothing to global warming if the corn is raised responsibly through “no-till” planting and organic fertilization. Like all plants, corn absorbs CO2 as it grows, and with this stove, the corn burns so efficiently that the net CO2 released is negligible. Moreover, corn is cheaper than natural gas—we’ll save more than $200 per winter—and it’s easily purchased even by big-city dwellers at outlying feed stores. And studies show U.S. farmers can grow ten times more corn than is needed to meet all of America’s energy needs.