cost of solar

Solar Decathlon Features Affordable, Innovative Home Design

solar homeThe 2011 Solar Decathlon hosted by the Department of Energy ended last weekend in Washington, DC. The event featured 19 solar-powered homes designed and built by students and faculty from universities across the country and abroad.

Declining CSI Solar Rebates Offset Price Reductions

The California Solar Initiative (CSI) is now in its fourth year and is nearly half way through the 1,750 Megawatt goal. Earlier this month, the CSI released the 2009 Impact Evaluation Report, which provides a program update and analysis. According to the report, from 2007 to 2009, the cost of residential solar power systems have declined 5% annually.

Why is Solar Attracting Investors?

There is a popular saying in the in investing world, follow the money. If you follow the money lately you would find that some of it at least is flowing towards solar. This year alone we have seen PG&E create a $60 Million tax equity fund for SolarCity and then a $100 Million tax equity fund to finance solar installations through SunRun.

$5 Million in New Funding for GoSolarSF

The GoSolarSF program just announced an additional $5 million in funding for the July 2010 - July 2011 period. For those who don't know the GoSolarSF program is run by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) and was established to incentivize San Francisco residents to go solar.

Gulf Oil Spill Outrage - What About Coal?

gulf oil spillI like many others in the U.S. are watching on in horror as the Gulf oil spill saga continues. The public outcry has been immense - calls to boycott BP and cease off shore oil exploration are everywhere in the news.

Solar Production Continues to Exceed Demand

Cost of solarToday Greentech Media released their 2010 Global PV Demand Analysis and Forecast which as the title describes was packed with analysis of the development of the solar market over the past year and projections for the future.

The major findings of the report are as follows:

Understanding Tiered Electricity Rates and How to Size Your Home Solar Energy System

Have you heard someone mention tiered electricity rates and wondered what on earth they are talking about? Well read on and we will tell you all you need to know to understand what they are and how they work. First of all not every utility uses a tiered rate system in fact, California is one of the few states that has “inverted tier rates,” also called baseline rates. So let's take PG&E for example, they operate on a five tier system that ranges in price from $0.12 to $0.50.

Break Down of the Cost of a Solar Energy System

What's the break down of the cost of a solar energy system?

I've had a few people ask me about the breakdown of the cost of a solar system, so I wanted to write a quick note about it.  Here's a rough break down of the costs of a solar energy systems:

solar cost breakdown

Informative?