www.TriCities.com - by Nate Morabito Date: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 JOHNSON CITY, TN -- Between his framing business and his art gallery, Dick Nelson spends roughly $6,000 a year on electricity. However, by the end of 2011, he could make money. "My goal is for at the end of the year for the power board to send me a check,” Nelson said. If and when that happens, he’ll have the 63 solar panels on his roof to thank. After last year’s oil spill in the gulf, Nelson started thinking about solar energy. "I believe in being a good steward of the environment,” Nelson said. "There's no danger in mining solar energy. A lot of people forget there were 11 people killed in the oil spill." A Tennessee Solar Institute stimulus grant and federal tax credit paid for two-thirds of the project. Nelson paid for the rest. "It will take about five years to pay for itself,” Nelson said. “It just kind of makes sense. 93 million miles away, we have this burning star of our sun and it’s producing more electricity every second than we can possibly use.” The downtown business owner is now creating energy for the Tennessee Valley Authority. In return, the TVA is selling him electricity at a discounted rate. Nelson is just the latest to join in on the solar craze. 14 others are also participating in the same program through the Johnson City Power Board. “13 of those customers are residential customers and two are commercial customers,” Johnson City Power Board Chief Public Relations Officer Robert White said. “We have five more contracts pending. It's a program that continues to grow. We actually have several of those participants right now who actually are able to generate some credits on their account. They're actually generating more electricity than they're using." LightWave Solar Electric installed Nelson’s solar power system. Although it’s the largest the company’s installed in the region, it’s not the first.