9/14/19 Bluebonnet "Solar Day" in Brenham

https://photos.app.goo.gl/C3axvG6GHMrHjPHK8
https://www.bluebonnetelectric.coop/Energy-Solutions/Eco-Home

The demonstration house is a few years old and not of great interest.  Unless, maybe, you are designing a new house.  Note that the Canadian Solar panels and M215 inverters are likely exactly what I am installing now.  The "two posts for ten panels" mounts are quite nice though expensive looking.  My mounts will certainly be higher maintenance but cost less than $2 per panel plus some labor.

Take aways:
1) Bluebonnet is eager to buy, and pay cash for, member generated energy.  "Someone that knows" expressed the desire to see members produce up to  50kw per meter.  I observed that it seemed that they are trying to restrict my production below 15kw per meter.
Bluebonnet has no generation of their own as Austin Energy does.  They buy all energy on the market to sell to their customers.
2) Bluebonnet just increased the pay rate for customer generation from just over $.06/kwh to just over $.062/kwh.  That price good for either 6 or 12 months.
3) The price increase was despite market decreases in energy prices.  Apparently, the transmission cost is significant makiing local energy more attractive than distant.
4) A presenter mentioned that Austin Energy meters customer generated PV energy, even that that is used on site.  I asked why.  "It is complicated".  Then alluded to the "from each according to his capacity" philosophy prevelant in Austin.
5) Again, I saw mention of the relative unimportance of panel pointing.  Optimal is 30 deg tilt due south.  Flat, pointing straight up, is 91% of optimal.  Even 30 deg tilt due north is about 60%.  I've previously read that any reasonable direction is 90% or better.   Though I have no data, I'm going with about 60-70 deg tilts both due east and due west.  That, I believe, allows me to produce more total energy while avoiding the peak power limit.  In addition, pairing east and west facing strings allows more efficient use of supply wiring.
6) I now, again, have high hopes of getting larger transformers.

9/17/19
Installation of my first larger (37.5 kva) transformer seems to be in progress.

I had the opportunity to examine an Austin Energy bill.  My conclusion was that a "tier 5" customer pays AE about $.01/kwh for any added PV production.  For lower tiers, AE does give semi-reasonable credit for PV production, though decreasing for increasing "consumption".  AE meters customer production and bases rates on total "consumption",  where "consumption" includes the customer's own production which is used on site.  This seems a very large disincentive to PV installation.  In contrast, Bluebonnet claims no interest what so ever in power generated and used on site.    Ancedotal evidence is that AE will never pay cash for customer generated energy while Bluebonnet will.