Hippy Green

The demand for solar engery has been growning expotentialy in recent studies. The solar equipment industry will grown from $20 billion last year to a predicted $90 billion in 2010. The falling cost of solar panels have also raised the demand and help the average houseown setup and install his own source of “free energy”.

I know this summer I was thinking of building a solar panel array and start selling power back to the grid. I did some research and tax credits and time and found The Solar Center posted some great figures and seem to be on the ball with going green. For example , in Connecticut you can get $5/watt of solar power. So if you build and buy a 5000 Watt System for $45,000 you can write off $25,000 come tax time and only spend $20,000. Yes I know that sounds like a lot, but there is additional $2,000 in federal credit and you should be saving about $1,077 a year on electricity. Thats a 6% Rate of Return. So if your living in the tri-state area and want to install solar panels, give them a call at 888-SOLAR-05. Some of you must be saying but its a tax credit. Well yes, the idea of going green does appeal to rich folks and is nice minus on what you own the state.

If solar energy is not your thing or you live in Seattle, you should also look at wind power. Depending on your state there are also tax credit available for the about of energy the wind turbine produces. Unfortunally this tax credit does not apply to DIY like antics over at tearsoffire.org who has built a wind turbine with his brother and a nice windmeter project with our Avroincs Board. I know we should start selling this as kits but time, life, and job are and have been getting in the way. Anyway, wind turbines are great and in some cities if the turbine is below 30ft you don’t even need a permit! This comes in hand when you happen to place it outside your neighbors window.

The final idea for my little talk about alternative energy is thinking about investing in a coop. In Europe its common to invest money into alternative energy and have the energy your coop produces subtracted from your currently electricity bill. It blows my mind when I go out to Arizona and see that no one has any solar panels on their roof. Scottsdale alone has almost 300 days without rain. The last time I was out their they were hopping it rained due to the fact they had not gotten any in 180 DAYS! I will be going back down to Scottsdale the end of April and hope to see or get at least 1 person to install some solar panels on their roof.