Breaking Utility Company Dependency

It’s convenient being connected to the utility grid. Most of us never question it. We just accept the merging of our homes to the wires of a nearby power plant as a fact of life. After all, the home needs electricity and the utility company is the way it happens, right? We grow up taking this fact for granted and just carry on with our lives. But how does that utility company grid operate? Where does it get its power from? What is the utility company’s incentive for selling us electricity all of our lives? Is there a better way for homeowners to power their home ? What if there was a way we could not just power our homes, but own the means to do so? These are questions generations in the past seldom, if ever, asked themselves. But times have changed and with the advancement of...

If you ever thought about going solar in Georgia, the sun is on your side. With a population of 10.7 million and all the sun exposure a state can ask for, there are many great advantages to going solar in "the Peach State." Below we take a look at the federal as well the state incentives that help making the switch to solar the best option for Georgian home and business owners.

FEDERAL SOLAR INCENTIVES

The Federal Tax Credit , also known as the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), is a federal-government sponsored tax credit of 26% which lasts until the end of 2020. This credit applies to all states and is counted against your paid-in federal taxes throughout the course of the year.

Claim your solar tax credit when you file your annual tax return...

After all the battles that have been fought and won in the solar war , renewable energy advocates are finally bringing solar energy to the forefront of mainstream discussion. And with the recent advancements of solar photovoltaic technology, going solar is cheaper to the homeowner than ever before—even outpricing coal! This is allowing homeowners to find all of the long-term financial benefits to going solar more immediately achievable.

Having said this, there is still a qualification process that is necessary to approve residential and commercial solar projects. Below I will break down all of the basic qualifications that must be met in order to move forward with a transition to solar energy.

REQUIREMENTS FOR GOING SOLAR

Be the...

Having attended the Solar University for a few years, I have come across many working terms of the solar industry. As fortune would have it, this includes words and phrases pertinent to solar which are often misunderstood, miscommunicated, and misused.

In this blog, I will break down five of the most common solar misnomers, providing correction and elaboration as to their proper usage and phraseology. If you are a homeowner interested in solar energy, or if you work for the solar industry—even if as a Green Solar Ambassador —and would like to revisit your unchecked solar photovoltaic vernacular, read on and share this with your friends. Misnomer: Solar System = Solar Panel Array

Correction: Solar Photovoltaic or Solar PV System, Solar Electric...

There are many utility companies that resist the current public shift to embrace green energy alternatives, but it's no wonder. Ever since the 19 th century, utility companies have held an unchallenged monopoly over the Energy Industry, deriving all or nearly all of their power generation from limited fossil fuel resources. The past decade however has brought on the rise of renewables, with advances in solar photovoltaic technology in particular, making harnessing the power of the sun more feasible and sustainable for everyday homeowners.

This poses an existential threat for utility companies built on generations of infrastructure to service the population with coal, oil, and natural gas. They are being forced to either modernize their business models to remain relevant to the future, or go the way of the dinosaur....

There are solar companies out there who will tell you that when you go solar, you can crank the AC whenever you want. They will suggest that you have 40 electronic devices running all at once and buy a second fridge for the garage. They’ll even claim it doesn’t make a difference if you shut the lights off or not because your solar panels will produce more energy than you will ever need. These are all actual claims taken directly from a real solar advertisement, word for word. Could they be telling the truth?

I posted a blog a while back talking about Solar Spam . That is exactly what this is.

So can your solar panels produce more energy than you’ll ever need? The answer is yes, they hypothetically could, but naturally you will have to pay for the number of solar panels that will...

The Trump Administration is slated to approve the soon-to-be biggest solar power plant in the United States. The Gemini Project is a 690-megawatt power plant will be even larger than the 579-megawatt Solar Star power plant currently holding that record in Rosamond, California.

Plans to build the Gemini project are already in motion and it is expected to be fully operational by December 1, 2023. It will be built in the Mojave Desert along Interstate 15, approximately 25 miles northeast of Las Vegas and will cover 7,100 acres of federal land. Berkshire subsidiary NV Energy will be using the electricity it generates. The $1 billion Gemini project also will come with 380 megawatts of four-hour lithium ion battery storage, providing a reservoir during the evening hours while it’s not producing electricity. Solar Partners,...