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For Electric Cooperative Members
May 2008 Letters

TCP Talk

Letters and comments from our readers

Country Doctors the ‘Best’
I look forward to receiving Texas Co-op Power because I have come to expect at least one article in each issue to inform and delight me. The February issue is no exception. In fact, for me, the article by Sandy Sheehy, “Country Doctors,” is the best of the best. It makes me want to load up my trailer and move to Weimar. More important, it fills me with hope and thanksgiving that rural physician programs exist in Texas medical schools and that doctors opt to embrace this gift. Thanks for the good work your magazine does.

Harold Hollis, Navasota Valley Electric Cooperative

Solar Systems Expensive
The two primary issues in developing and integrating alternative energy are seamless, ease-of-use reliability and cost factors. As an example, current market for an installed, turnkey photovoltaic (PV) system is around $9 per watt generated, so a 5-kilowatt home system would be about $45,000 before rebates, if any. This assumes a six-hour-a-day average, and such a system would generate about 10,950 kilowatt-hours a year, $1,095 at 10 cents per kWh, which works out to a 41-year payback. But that energy is generated almost entirely during the so-called “peak” hours. The two main factors to consider with self-generation are: What do you pay now? And how long do you expect to live where you are?

Daniel Lea, Cedar Park, Pedernales Electric Cooperative