Comments on: What would it take to convert a housing community from fossil fuels to solar energy in the home? http://www.eblips.net/solar-energy/what-would-it-take-to-convert-a-housing-community-from-fossil-fuels-to-solar-energy-in-the-home/ Helping Relieve Poverty Though The Provision of Solar Energy. Join Us! Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:11:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Paul http://www.eblips.net/solar-energy/what-would-it-take-to-convert-a-housing-community-from-fossil-fuels-to-solar-energy-in-the-home/#comment-1654 Paul Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:31:59 +0000 http://www.eblips.net/solar-energy/what-would-it-take-to-convert-a-housing-community-from-fossil-fuels-to-solar-energy-in-the-home#comment-1654 First of all, look for existing incentives from the federal and state government. Federally, there is a 30% tax credit and some states offer as much as $5.00 per Watt rebates. You can get more information here: http://www.desireusa.org Secondly, there are some up and coming technologies that will offer better economics than PV panels in the near future. Check out http://www.infiniacorp.com/ http://www.sandia.gov and http://www.nrel.gov Third, for the kind of project you describe, it really comes down to financing. This will be easiest if you are planning to build a new community. Find a lender (bank or government) that will allow home-buyers to roll the solar energy system into their mortgage. This practice, along with a healthy rebate, helped to make Japan the PV capital of the world a few years back. On a larger scale, many states are enacting renewable portfolio standards which legally require utilities to generate a certain fraction of power from solar, wind or biomass. RPS programs are also described on the DSIRE website listed above.<br><b>References : </b><br> First of all, look for existing incentives from the federal and state government. Federally, there is a 30% tax credit and some states offer as much as $5.00 per Watt rebates. You can get more information here: http://www.desireusa.org

Secondly, there are some up and coming technologies that will offer better economics than PV panels in the near future. Check out http://www.infiniacorp.com/
http://www.sandia.gov and http://www.nrel.gov

Third, for the kind of project you describe, it really comes down to financing. This will be easiest if you are planning to build a new community. Find a lender (bank or government) that will allow home-buyers to roll the solar energy system into their mortgage. This practice, along with a healthy rebate, helped to make Japan the PV capital of the world a few years back.

On a larger scale, many states are enacting renewable portfolio standards which legally require utilities to generate a certain fraction of power from solar, wind or biomass. RPS programs are also described on the DSIRE website listed above.
References :

]]> By: campbelp2002 http://www.eblips.net/solar-energy/what-would-it-take-to-convert-a-housing-community-from-fossil-fuels-to-solar-energy-in-the-home/#comment-1653 campbelp2002 Fri, 25 Dec 2009 06:49:59 +0000 http://www.eblips.net/solar-energy/what-would-it-take-to-convert-a-housing-community-from-fossil-fuels-to-solar-energy-in-the-home#comment-1653 It is really hopeless unless solar cells get much cheaper or fossil fuel gets really expensive. Your second source says solar panels costing $4 can make one watt of power, so $4,000 dollars worth of cells can make 1000 watts, or one kilowatt. If they get sun for one hour they would make one kilowatt-hour of power. The average home electricity rate is about ten cents a kilowatt-hour. So the $4,000 solar panel saves ten cents an hour on your electricity bill. And that does not include the cost of the electronics to run the system and especially not the cost of batteries to run it at night. To run a typical 3,500 watt central air conditioner would require $14,000 worth of solar cells. As I recall when I looked into putting solar panels on my roof, a $25,000 system would have saved me about $1 or $2 a day.<br><b>References : </b><br>http://www.econsci.com/rates/residential.html http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html It is really hopeless unless solar cells get much cheaper or fossil fuel gets really expensive.

Your second source says solar panels costing $4 can make one watt of power, so $4,000 dollars worth of cells can make 1000 watts, or one kilowatt. If they get sun for one hour they would make one kilowatt-hour of power. The average home electricity rate is about ten cents a kilowatt-hour. So the $4,000 solar panel saves ten cents an hour on your electricity bill. And that does not include the cost of the electronics to run the system and especially not the cost of batteries to run it at night. To run a typical 3,500 watt central air conditioner would require $14,000 worth of solar cells.

As I recall when I looked into putting solar panels on my roof, a $25,000 system would have saved me about $1 or $2 a day.
References :
http://www.econsci.com/rates/residential.html
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html

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