Thursday, August 25th, 2011
If you are looking for activities to do with your kids—when they are home because of the snow, or earthquakes, or just for a weekend activity, then you may want to check out our new sister site meant just for kids, parents and teachers. SolarTownKids is meant for kids who want to teach their parents a thing or two about solar energy. SolarTownKids introduces the basics of solar energy for kids and explains why and how we should use solar power. Many schools throughout the country are putting solar panels on their roofs, and these solar arrays are great learning tools for kids to understand the power of solar energy. As our kids are getting back to school, we encourage you to visit this special site for solar kids.
Tags: photovoltaic panels, solar activities, solar arrays, solar energy, solar energy for kids, Solar Forum, solar kids, solar news, solar panels, solar power
Posted in Solar Kids, SolarTown Current Affairs | Comments Off
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
Last week, I took my kids to watch the shuttle launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The launch was supposed to be the final launch of Endeavour and the second to last launch of the shuttle before the fleet is retired this summer. Mindful of the vagaries of the weather and the unpredictability of technical problems, we waited until the last minute to make our non-refundable reservations. We may not have seen the shuttle launch, but we did see some pretty impressive displays of how NASA is using solar energy here on EarthWe did not hide our disappointment at not seeing the Shuttle blast off into the cosmos. By all accounts, that is a remarkable experience for those who have had the privilege of watching men and women reach for the stars. We may have to settle for the next generation of space shuttles. We were pleased, however, to see how NASA is utilizing the rays of the sun not only in the cosmos, but here on Earth. And if it is good enough for NASA, then solar is good enough for the rest of us.
Tags: congresswoman gabrielle giffords, endeavour, international space station, kennedy space center, shuttle launch, solar energy, solar panels, using solar energy
Posted in Solar Around the World, Solar Home Panels, Solar Kids | Comments Off
Thursday, April 28th, 2011
We have had some false starts but the cherry blossoms finally bloomed in the Nation’s Capital and spring has finally arrived, and so has the surge of interest in and orders for solar powered lights. Most of our customers who are interested in solar lights are newbies to solar energy, and indeed there is no better wait to start down the road to solar energy with some solar lights. You don’t need a solar farm to get into the solar business. You can start with some simple, inexpensive solar lights. And springtime has brought the customers to SolarTown who want to see solar technology in action.
Tags: Gama Sonic Solar Lights, Maxsa solar lights, Smart Solar lights, solar energy, solar lamp post, solar lamp posts, solar lighting, solar lights, solar powered lighting, solar powered lights
Posted in Solar Energy Products | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
An investment analyst calls SolarTown, inquiring about trends in the solar panel market for 2011, particularly the supply of modules. It reminds me of the study I heard about in business school that if you ask 100 of the leading economists whether interest rates will rise or fall, 42% will get it right. You can pay a lot of money for analyst reports, but with the solar energy market expanding rapidly and incentives seemingly changing day to day, it is hard to predict supplies. That has been a challenge for us, especially last year, but we think that we did well by our customers to secure modules at good prices.
Tags: buy solar panels, Discount Solar Panels, energy market, excess supply, home solar panels, solar energy, solar industry, solar modules, solar panels
Posted in Solar Home Panels | Comments Off
Monday, March 14th, 2011
For those who want to move more quickly with renewable energy and energy efficiency, the prospect of a nuclear energy disaster spells a clear path to a renewable energy clean solution. Solar farms and solar panels on homes are not going to spell disaster in the event of an earthquake in California. But the calculus for renewable energy just got a lot more complicated as the tradeoffs that Obama can offer have now significantly narrowed.
Tags: energy portfolio, nuclear power plants, nuclear precipice, renewable energy, solar energy, Solar Energy Industry
Posted in Solar Policy & Incentives | Comments Off
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
Solar Champion Felled by Would-Be Assassin. Like many others, I was riveted by the news over the weekend that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords had been shot at close range at a meeting with her constituents. My initial reaction was that this was news you would expect to come from Kabul, not Tucson. But as the news came in, it became clear that the senseless violence commonplace in war zones had invaded the quiet streets of one shopping center in Arizona and almost claimed the life of solar champion Gabrielle Giffords.
Tags: congresswoman gabrielle giffords, gabrielle giffords, solar car team, solar community, solar energy, solar industry
Posted in Solar Policy & Incentives | Comments Off
Friday, December 17th, 2010
These are some of the highlights of the year gone by and an outlook of things to come for 2011. The solar industry has waited to find out what would be the fate of the Treasury Grant program. If you haven’t tuned in for this debate, this development is very good news for the renewable energy industry. The solar industry had another stellar growth year. A recent report predicted that the industry will grow as much as 22% in 2010, when all of the numbers (modules) have been counted. The one gnawing issue is that the solar industry is quickly becoming a Chinese industry, as even today the Chinese own 66% of world production. It was a better year to put home solar panels on your roof than investing in solar stocks. Morningstar says that solar investors “could be in for a rude awakening come 2011.” The biggest change in the industry came with the micro-inverter. Sure, solar panel efficiencies improved, which means more output for the buck, and the price of PV came down, but the biggest change in the industry came with the industry acceptance for residential PV installation of the micro-inverter. Enphase is no doubt the market leader, but there are many, many wanabees and the competition for micro-inverters will heat up in 2011. The other major shift we saw in the industry is that regardless of whether the homeowner gets a micro-inverter, the homeowner almost invariably wants to get monitoring of the solar energy system.
Tags: Discount Solar Panels, Financing Solar Energy Systems, grant program, home solar panels, pace programs, renewable energy industry, solar energy, Solar Energy Systems, solar industry, solar installations, Solar Leasing, Solar Loan Program, Treasury Grant Program
Posted in Solar Home Panels, Solar Policy & Incentives, SolarTown Current Affairs | Comments Off
Friday, October 29th, 2010
The solar homeowner has enough challenges at his or her doorstep without yet another obstacle. Some utilities have welcomed solar as a growing part of their energy portfolio—and yet still others see solar as a threat, to be stopped at any cost. This blog entry is about the latter sort. You probably have a hard enough time in reading your electricity bill—do the utilities do that on purpose? Try finding the average rate utility customers are paying in your region. You may be lucky and the utility may provide good access to that data—or not. If they can obscure the information and get away with it, who wants to sift through all of the arcane data? And that is the backdrop to the new net metering battles playing out throughout the country.
Tags: Maryland Solar Energy, Net metering, solar energy, Solar Energy Industry, Solar Homeowner, solar news, use of solar energy
Posted in Solar Policy & Incentives | Comments Off
Friday, October 22nd, 2010
We went to a reception by the Clean Economy Network last night—we had a chance to meet with lawyers and lobbyists, financial analysts, and even a few solar energy installers. We got a good review of industry trends and some of the upcoming challenges from Reed Hundt, CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital and Ethan Zindler, Head of Research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. There is obviously keen interest in renewable energy these days. Take a look at the news article we posted today on some of the latest optimistic trends in the solar industry. Support for solar energy is up—right across the board, regardless of party affiliation or geography. Some want to reduce the threat of global warming, and some want to create jobs, and still others simply want to do their part to save energy. The solar energy industry is optimistic that the residential PV market will continue to expand. At the reception, despite some of the hopeful signs, there were some long faces in the room.
Tags: clean energy, solar energy, Solar Energy Industry, Solar Financing, solar industry, Treasury Grant Program
Posted in Solar Events, Solar Policy & Incentives | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
The death of the energy bill has left a lot of people pointing fingers at each other, and a lot of people wondering if we cannot now take action on climate change, then when—and by whom? A Washington Post article today identifies some very unhappy House Democrats who went out on limb last year to support the energy bill and combat climate change. They now understandably feel hung out to dry. I think that the New York Times columnist Paul Krugman best summarizes the events of the last few days: “Greed, aided by cowardice has triumphed.”
Tags: Climate Change, energy bill, energy legislation, renewable energy, renewable energy standard, solar economic incentives, solar energy
Posted in Solar Policy & Incentives | 1 Comment »
