A man in Orlando, Florida installed solar panels on the roof of his home, sold the excess power back to the grid, and then used that money to make a down payment on a new Chevy Volt, the plug-in car that gets 60 miles to the gallon.

Now he uses the energy from his solar panels to charge his new car.

Bob Stonerock has made $5,600 from selling excess power from his solar roof panels back to the grid over the last two years, the Orlando Sentinel reports, and used that cash to make a down payment on the Volt. The paper says Stonerock “estimates that he will be able to fuel the car almost exclusively from the electricity from the solar panels that power his vehicle-recharging station.”

But before you start attaching panels to your own roof, keep in mind that Stonerock’s solar success is in part due to some creative accounting.

He tells the Sentinel that he “thinks he has the largest residential solar plant in the Central Florida and one of the largest in the state,” with panels that cover all of his roof and even more in his yard. Those panels didn’t come cheap, and he estimates it will take 50 years for them to pay for themselves. So while he has made money from selling back to the grid, it will take decades for that money to cover the cost of his miniature solar factory.

While this option might not be for everyone, it clearly shows that that are ways to save money while using solar power down your carbon footprint.

Source: State Impact

A Seattle man is using solar power to save money on electricity.

Standing on the sidewalk in front of Eric Thomas’ modern, two-story home in Seattle, a visitor can see something unusual about its roof: 70 percent of it is covered in solar panels.
Those panels are capable of producing up to six kilowatt hours of energy.

The average Seattle household uses far less energy than what Thomas’ 28 panels in the city’s Ballard neighborhood are capable of producing. So, in theory, the house should be putting more power into the city’s grid than it is consuming, making it not only a zero energy house but an energy-producing house.

“The goal is for the meter to read zero by next October,” said Thomas. The three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,900-square-foot home shows to-date use of 343 kilowatt hours, as opposed to the 9,000 kilowatt hours the average Seattle home annually uses.

This week, the U.S. Green Building Council announced that green construction for both existing and new commercial buildings is surging as “the market is becoming increasingly aware of how building owners can get better performance through green operations and maintenance,” said Rick Fedrizzi, who’s president, CEO and founding chair of the council.

Now, homeowners like Thomas are blazing the next frontier in demand for green building in the residential home building market. That opens the door for suppliers, architects and custom green home builders such as Whidbey Island’s Ted Clifton, who designed and built Thomas’ home.

Demand For Solar Power in Seattle

Demand continues to strengthen in the Puget Sound area for green residential building materials, including wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, as well as energy-efficient appliances.
Use of solar panels in residential building remains a niche market, but it’s a growing one, according to CEO Jason McLennan of the local Cascadia Green Building Council.

The first solar-powered home was connected to the city power grid back in 2001, said Jack Brautigam, Seattle City Light ’s Renewable Energy Program manager. The number of these homes has swelled in the past three years and now totals about 500.

“But we’re going to start seeing solar energy more and more as people are offered different incentives; that tends to help offset the initial investment,” McLennan added.
As more people start doing it and costs come down, the solar panel route will be a no-brainer, he said.

Right now, most homeowners don’t see an immediate return on their investment -— an investment that can be quite intimidating up front.
Thomas, who is hoping to claim the title of owner of the first home in the city to produce more energy than it uses, understands the intimidation factor.

The solar panels weren’t cheap. The cost to cover the majority of the roof was about $30,000, said Thomas.

As with most green construction, the cost for solar power typically comes up front and tapers off later because of utility efficiencies.

And Thomas took advantage of the available incentives. He will soon receive a 30 percent federal tax credit (about $9,000) for choosing the energy efficiency route. In addition, a Washington state incentive program will pay him almost $1,000 for the next nine years, said Thomas.

“And that’s on top of not having to pay for energy use,” said Seattle City Light’s Scott Thomsen. “You’re using it and getting paid for it. It’s a pretty nice deal.”

Story originally posted on Biz Journals

Fed up with high energy bills, a New Jersey building owner installed solar panels to his roof and saved money.

HOBOKEN – Hoboken resident Jochen Spengler is determined to bring down the energy bills at his condo building even if it takes changing every hallway light bulb and installing a solar panel on the roof. And he’s done both.

“Seeing how humans are destroying nature with carelessness and reckless behavior, it hurts to see that, especially when you see how easy it is to change things,” Spengler, 37, said in a recent interview.

Four years ago, Spengler, who designs microprocessors for a living, purchased his apartment at the 20-unit condo building at Second and Bloomfield streets. When he saw that the bill for electricity usage in the common areas was $20,000 a year, he was flabbergasted.

Spurred to action, Spengler, who has been creating energy-conscious solar and water systems as a hobby for over 10 years, said he purchased $300 worth of energy-saving light bulbs to replace the less efficient bulbs the building had been using.

Just that change shaved $1,000 from the building’s yearly electric bill, Spengler said.

Furthering the savings with green energy

But he didn’t stop there.

He lowered thermostats in the building’s common areas, shut windows that had been left open, and put some lights on a timer so they wouldn’t come on during the day.

To conserve water, Spengler said, he convinced the homeowners association to install front-loading washers, which use 13 gallons of water per wash, compared to the top-loading machines that use 29.
These measures, he said, cut energy costs by 40 percent, for a savings of roughly $6,000 per year.

But Spengler wasn’t done yet.

After several failed attempts to partner with fellow homeowners or the homeowners association, Spengler said he invested $200,000 of his own money to install a solar panel system on the building’s roof.
He spent two years planning and getting permits for the project, two more months installing it, and waited another two months for all the necessary inspections to be conducted. The system went operational in October.

Since he fronted all the costs, Spengler said his fellow condo owners pay him a small fee each month for use of the lower cost electricity.

Given all the changes, Spengler says the overall cost for energy in the building should now be around $3,000 for the year.

Two “green” developers – Red Bridge Homes and Bijou Properties – have asked Spengler to help them install similar systems on their properties in the city.
“Someone needs to go ahead and push for environmental protection,” he said. “I am so passionate about solar . . . I want to help as much as I can.”

Originally posted at NJ.com

As we near the end of a tumultuous year for solar PV, the latest report from GTM/SEIA indicates there is more momentum that ever for residential solar. A number of factors – the growth in solar leases, the glut in global panel production, and the complex web of economic incentives – have already made this the strongest year in US history for solar PV installations. Much of the buzz around solar has focused on Solyndra and government loan guarantees, or Solar World and Chinese panel dumping. Despite the likely expiration of the highly successful federal 1603 Treasury grant, which has leveraged over $22 billion in private capital, there is much to be excited about looking forward for residential solar.

After two quarters of declining growth, residential installations grew by 21% heading into the final quarter of 2011. Even though this figure lags behind the overall market growth (38%), it is still an indication that the drop in costs of going solar has driven installations among homeowners. The average cost of residential installations has dropped from $6.41/watt to $6.24/watt in the course of less than one year, though residential systems in stronger markets like California and New Jersey dropped to or even below $5/watt.

Solar Energy prices getting cheaper

In these markets, the supply chain is maturing at a faster rate than other areas in the country. Panel and inverter prices have declined as foreign and domestic competition ramps up. Part of this increase in productivity and economic efficiencies is attributed to the anticipated expiration of the 1603 grant, which has driven a lot of large utility scale development that would otherwise not secure financing without the 30% cash grant. As the market continues in its current consolidation phase where smaller manufacturers, distributors, and installers cannot keep up with declining prices, it remains to be seen how some of the larger market players will begin to have a direct effect on the residential market. Though prices didn’t decline, nor installations rise, as drastically as the broader market, residential solar has noticeably benefited from the aforementioned market developments.

Lastly, as this blog has highlighted already, communities and the federal government are teaming up to target the last bottleneck in the process of installing panels: soft costs. To date municipalities and state regulatory bodies have had separate, often redundant and convoluted processes to receive land permits, utility grid connection, and system inspections. Depending on who administers these processes and when, fees for completing these certifications can add up to hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. The Department of Energy, solar advocates and local communities are now leveraging their funding and local resources to streamline these processes and save residential solar customers money.

As the year winds down, there are a number of positive takeaways based on the first 3 quarters. As we look forward to 2012, questions linger regarding the 1603 expiration, the panel dumping case, growth in solar leasing, fluctuations in state SREC markets, and much more.

Blog Originally Posted on The Energy Collective

We’re seeing a new trend in cash strapped states like California. Many state agencies looking at alternative ways to save money are going green. Once looked at as being too expensive, Solar Power is one of the more popular and cost efficient ways to cut cost.

In San Diego County on Monday, officials flipped the switch on a new solar installation that will provide 14% of the power needed for a major jail complex.

Similar efforts are underway at state prisons, schools, universities and libraries throughout Southern California, as well as other parts of the state.

“There’s an increasing investment by schools and other public agencies,” said Bill Kelly, a managing director of San Jose-based SunPower Corp. “Because the cost of energy from solar is getting increasingly competitive with standard power sources.”

The company has built solar installations at 90 schools so far this calendar year, including several Los Angeles Unified School District campuses.

Part of the reason it’s getting cheaper to install solar is that public agencies are increasingly turning to an unusual form of construction to build their projects.

Instead of putting the panels on the roof, an expensive process that is constrained by the size and shape of a building’s roof, municipalities are instead building what are essentially gigantic carports over their parking lots.

It sounds like a win/win. The state saves money, and helps the environment.

The San Diego installation, which is expected to save the county $1.4 million in power costs over the next 20 years, is built over the parking lot of the East Mesa Detention Complex in Otay Mesa.

“This used to be a bare parking lot, said San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox, whose district includes the jail. “Now it’s generating energy whenever the sun’s out.”

Source: NBC

A recent editorial written by Paul Krugman in the NY Times talks of the future of solar energy and the lowering of cost across the board. As technology develops it becomes cheaper, giving more and more people access to materials to make or purchase solar panels. Only thing currently standing in the way is politics.

The sources of energy, the way we move stuff around, are much the same as they were a generation ago.

But that may be about to change. We are, or at least we should be, on the cusp of an energy transformation, driven by the rapidly falling cost of solar power. That’s right, solar power.

If that surprises you, if you still think of solar power as some kind of hippie fantasy, blame our fossilized political system, in which fossil fuel producers have both powerful political allies and a powerful propaganda machine that denigrates alternatives.

Visit the NYT for the full article.

“Right now, I’ve got 132 degrees on the roof,” said Cindy Carusi, reading the temperature from her solar panels.

Since 2008, Carusi has used solar power for hot water, and she estimates that it saves her $1,000 per year.

Although it cost $11,400 upfront, Carusi was able to bring that down to about $7,000 with state and federal incentives.

As the cost of heating oil increases, Carusi estimated that her solar power investment will pay itself back in 4-5 years.

She said she doesn’t notice any differences in the quality of her power — so much so, that she forgets the panels are even on her roof.

Her decision to go solar was more about going green than saving green, but now, she’s doing both!

Source: WCSH6

Home furnishing superstore IKEA plans to install solar energy panels at three U.S. locations next year.

Pending governmental permits, rooftop installation of the nearly 10,000 total panels will begin next year, and should be completed in spring 2012. Using calculations from www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html, IKEA stated in a press release that the Utah store will generate 1.49 million kilowatt hours per year. That’s the equivalent of reducing 1,130 tons of CO2, which equals 202 cars’ emissions or 124 homes’ electricity.

The plans bring the number of IKEA locations in this country that will have a solar program to 23, more than half of the company’s U.S. presence.

“We are thrilled that the installation of solar panels at these three stores will continue our rollout of solar energy programs across the country,” said Mike Ward, IKEA U.S. president. “This initiative, part of the company’s never-ending list of sustainable activities, will lower the carbon intensity of the electric grid and the U.S. carbon footprint of IKEA.”

IKEA will own and operate each of its solar PV energy systems atop its buildings — as opposed to a solar lease or PPA (power purchase agreement).

There are currently more than 320 IKEA stores in 39 countries, including 38 in the U.S. IKEA incorporates sustainable efforts into day-to-day business and supports initiatives that benefit children and the environment. For more information, go to IKEA-USA.com.

Source: Desert News

Venetucci Farm , a nonprofit farm owned by the Pikes Peak Community Foundation, will be the site of Colorado Springs’ first community solar garden, with 2,500 solar panels going up on 2½ acres of land.

Members of the State Assembly were on hand Thursday to recognize the body shop for installing solar energy panels on its roof. Nick Orso’s is the first collision facility in Syracuse to harvest two-thirds of its required power from solar cells.

Company officials say their monthly electric has been cut by almost 110 percent. That’s right, they’ll eventually be getting a credit with that extra power being sold back.

“Well I think it’s the right thing to do. I think it was the right long term decision for, not only for our business, but for the environment. I think it’s time that we start taking advantage of all the resources that are available. Let’s face it, the sun’s not doing anything, might as well keep it busy,” said Mike Orso, President of Nick Orso’s Body Shop.

In all, the company installed 250 solar panels.

For Video and more info visit YNN.