By Arlene Martinez

Morning Call- July 1, 2007

In an idyllic neighborhood, in front of a colonial-style home in Doylestown, a garden created haphazardly of Spiraea bushes, Oriental grasses and weeds blends seamlessly together.

Trumpet vine entices hummingbirds while the quaint house's warmly painted red front door calls to visitors to stop by.

The house is so charming, in fact, one could easily miss the roofs newest addition: 14 solar panels expected to generate enough electricity to cover the home's power needs.

Having the new energy source placed homeowner Elisabeth Beuttas in a highly exclusive club, one that's harder to get into in Pennsylvania than many other states.

The reason?

With solar photovoltaic systems ranging from $18,000 to $35,000, the cost is simply out of reach for most Pennsylvanians. And while solar-interested households in, say, New Jersey, can recoup half that cost, in this state residents receive nothing.

The federal government helps, but local solar businesses say the $2,000 maximum tax credit doesn't do much to persuade interested homeowners to cover the difference.

"People are waiting for the state to do something ... and I don't blame them," said Charlie Reichner, who owns the Heat Shed, a solar installation company in Revere, Nockamixon Township. "You hate to spend $10,000 when you could have spent $3,000. I mean, people have to put their kids through college."

Gov. Ed Rendell wants to make better use of the free energy source; he'd like Pennsylvania to join the 33 other states that offer some type of residential rebate including California, where on top of state programs many countriesties offer more incentives to go solar.

If Rendell has his way, and the Legislature approves part of his energy plan, residents could see the costs of solar energy cut in half.

The Pennsylvania Sunshine Solar Initiative would give money to solar equipment manufacturers to drum up Pennsylvania's solar equip-ment needs and offer rebates of up to 50 percent to resi-dents to install home systems.

As in New Jersey, the program would be paid for through a $.0005 per kilowatt- hour charge on electric bills. Based on the U.S. Department of Energy's estimate that a typical household uses 10,000 kilowatt hours per year, the charge amounts to $5 a year.

For some of the thousands of Lehigh Valley residents who have inquired about solar but balked at the price, this could be the break they were looking for, particularly with significant energy price increases looming.

By 2010, thanks in part to electricity price caps coming off, residential customers of PPL Corp. could see their monthly bills climb by more than 50 percent over what they paid in 2005.

"We see lots and lots of interest. We have hundreds of inquiries a month. But people find out how much systems cost," said Catherine Neil, Reichner's wife and Heat Shed co-owner. "But we do anticipate a lot more business when rates go up because people see how much they can save with solar."

"The expense cannot be absorbed in my lifetime anymore," said Beuttas, who's 82. "I really do it because I believe in the principle of energy conservation and using the free energy there, which is the sun and the wind."

Beuttas was lucky, she could afford to pay for her 3-kilowatt system, which does not cover her home heat, which is from gas.

But the Heat Shed has a list of hundreds of people who can't, so the couple gathered 30 of them willing to shoulder half the cost of installing solar panels and applied for a grant through the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority to cover the rest.

Allentown resident Don Nelson, one of the 30, has long wanted to install solar paneling. As a senior on a fixed income, he can't afford the $23,000, 2.9-kilowatt system that would just about meet his entire electric usage, which doesn't include heat. Half that, though, he can manage.

"If they pay for half of it I'd be in good shape," said Nelson.

Global warming, energy costs, peace of mind, all are reasons Nelson wants to go solar. "This is a cruel world, believe me. We have to get away from the use of oil."

Most of the Heat Shed's clients opt to install a system which will generate 5 kilowatt hours per year. At the company's rates — $7 per watt, 1,000 watts in a kilowatt — you've hit $35,000. Panel sizes by manufacturer vary. Each of Beuttas' panels is 2 1/2 feet by 5 feet. How many a customer gets depends on things like roof size and sun exposure.

Such a system reduces an average monthly energy bill from 20 percent to near 100 percent, said Reichner.

A fully sustainable home, however, is rare. The average American household uses 10,000 kilowatt hours per year, which Reichner said could take 45 panels, expensive and space consuming — Reichner estimates 600 square feet.

The payback time varies, explained Reichner, but at today's rates he estimated anywhere from 10 to 20 years.

The high costs are due in part to a shortage of polycrystalline silicon, the key ingredient in the photovoltaic panels — solar cells. And nearly half of all the cells and modules produced in the United States in 2004 and 2005 went abroad, according to the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration.

The cells are the key component in trapping the sun's energy and converting it to electricity. On cloudy or sun shortened winter days, when the system may not produce enough energy of its own, it automatically retrieves power from the public utility's electric grid.

To help persuade lawmakers to pass Rendell's energy bill, Reichner and his wife joined a group in Harrisburg two weeks ago. But with so much going on as the budget deadine approaches, Reichner isn't sure how many people they reached.

In the meantime, he'll continue doing most of his work in New Jersey, save for the odd Pennsylvanian, like Beuttas.

Beuttas was so delighted with her new energy source, last Sunday she hosted a Solar Panel Party. She and a dozen friends chatted, ate and topped off the day with a champagne toast, in honor of friendship ... and photovoltaic panels.