Milwaukee Homeowners Get Together To Go Solar

The Obama administration is making a big push to reduce climate-affecting carbon dioxide emissions from coal burning power plants. Toward that same goal, some Milwaukee homeowners and others are trying a group approach to adding solar energy to their houses.

Sixteen homeowners in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood worked with their neighborhood association, the Midwest Renewable Energy Association, and the city of Milwaukee to get one company to install solar panels on all their houses.

Homeowner Juanita Ellias said buying as a group saved her thousands of dollars and got her better service.

“We got contractors who actually paid close attention to what we wanted, and that was a good thing,” Ellias said.

Dan Folkman, Ellias’ husband, said one of the things they wanted — and got — is a monitoring device.

“And it’s live, so I can actually look at this on the Web and watch my house generate and use electricity by the second,” he said. “It’s really quite phenomenal.”

Folkman said they haven’t paid an electric bill since the solar energy system started operating last October. He said he is no longer relying on coal-fired and carbon-dioxide generating electricity from the local power company.

Amy Heart, the city solar program manager, said that before the Riverwest effort wound up with the 16 participants, 200 had showed interest.

“What a solar group buy actually helps on the front end is doing that education, working with homeowners and saying, ‘Does your roof face south? Do you have good access to sun?’” she said. “(For) a lot of people, that eliminates them right away.”

Heart said another Milwaukee neighborhood, Bay View, is currently enrolling people in a group solar buy. She said some environmental groups have also set up group buys for their members.