Wednesday, October 31st, 2012
After every recent emergency or disaster, our customers call and ask us what off grid solutions might help them prepare for the next event, whether it is here in the U.S.or somewhere else. The short answer is that solar energy products can be part of your emergency preparedness plan. Just ask Haitians who were able to cook their food on solar ovens after the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Or you might want to talk with relief workers who are able to maintain vaccines in a solar refrigerator in Africa. We are supplying the U.S. armed forces with portable solar modules for power of small equipment in combat zones.
Tags: emergency kits, emergency preparedness plan, Portable Solar Modules, Solar Energy Products, solar modules, solar ovens, solar power products, solar radios, Solar Refrigerator, solar shower
Posted in Solar Energy Products | Comments Off
Monday, August 27th, 2012
As most loyal SolarTown customers know, we try to get you the best guidance on selecting solar energy products from our selection of home solar panels to solar water pumps and other products. We recently played with the idea of doing the same thing with our selection of solar inverters, but came to the conclusion that the inverter market may not have as many objective standards or features to make that kind of comparison as useful as with solar modules. Some excellent brands, like Outback, don’t stack up in the numbers because they are specialized in other areas like being installable in almost any tropical or harsh environment or switching between on and off grid mode. That said, sometimes the numbers have a point, and we want to share that point with you so at least you have some information on which to base your decision of which solar inverter to choose for certain size solar panel systems. So here is our first rundown of Solar Inverters: Best in Show!
Tags: home solar panel, home solar panels, Solar Energy Products, solar inverter, solar inverters, solar modules, solar panel system, solar water pumps
Posted in Solar Energy Products, Solar Home Panels | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
A couple weeks ago, I spent a lot of time overheating in my dark, humid house with fond memories of air conditioning to to keep me company. Ironically, this year’s Independence Day reminded me of just how dependent I am on grid power. Without it I lost AC, water, and several hours of each day. I know I wasn’t the only one this happened to. This year’s power outages affected hundreds of thousands of people and in Virginia almost one million households lost their power. My home does not have a backup generator and, until recently, was only stocked with just one flashlight. In hindsight this was not a good decision. Since we as a nation probably won’t upgrade our infrastructure, power outages are going to continue to happen. This is especially true considering that some scientists have linked extreme weather last year to climate change. In order to be more prepared for the next outage I’ve decided to get a backup system. I have two main choices: diesel and solar.
Tags: backup systems, diesel generators, home solar panels, solar backup system, solar batteries, Solar Energy Products, solar modules
Posted in Solar Home Panels | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 15th, 2012
The two major impediments to homeowners installing solar panels on their roofs are financing and aesthetics. We have talked with a lot of homeowners and the discussion always seems to revolve around these two issues. A homeowner has applied to install a system on a sloping roof from which the solar panels would be partially visible from the street. The historic preservation board voted down the plan to install the panels on the 1906 home. Much education has to be done on both sides and with increased understanding, solar designs can blossom in historic districts.
Tags: BIPV, historic preservation board, home solar panels, Solar Energy System, Solar Energy Systems, solar modules, thin film panels, thin film solar panels
Posted in Solar Home Panels, Solar Policy & Incentives | Comments Off
Friday, April 13th, 2012
Natural gas, Chinese manufacturing and austerity programs were the themes at a solar symposium yesterday in the Nation’s Capital. The GW Solar Institute brought together teachers, students, policymakers and the president of SolarTown to take on the subject: “Solar Energy: A Path to Energy Significance.” No one seemed to suggest that it was going to get any less dull in the solar market in the coming year, but the forecasts were few and far between as the solar market continues with its fits and starts.
Tags: GW Solar Institute, home solar panels, investment tax credit, natural gas prices, price of natural gas, renewable energy technologies, solar energy, solar institute, solar modules, zweibel
Posted in Solar Events, Solar Policy & Incentives | Comments Off
Monday, January 30th, 2012
One of our primary goals at SolarTown is to educate consumers on solar energy in general and solar energy products in particular. We know that you have perused the over thousand solar energy products that we are selling. We hope that you have also spent some time at SolarTown’s Learning Center to learn about solar power products. We know that our customers like our Learning Center, but as the number of articles has ballooned, it has become more unwieldy to navigate. We have put in a new interface to allow you to click on the category that you are looking for.
Tags: solar backpacks, Solar Energy Products, Solar Energy System, solar modules, solar ovens, solar panel, solar panels, solar power products, Solar Refrigerator, solar showers, SolarTown
Posted in Solar Energy Products, SolarTown Current Affairs | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 5th, 2011
My family installed a solar energy system in rural Brazil twelve years ago. A little bit of social consciousness and a lot of economic reasons persuaded us that solar energy was the way to go for our home in Minas Gerais in the interior of Brazil. This is our first-hand account of how and why we went solar. Access to the house was and still is restricted to one dirt road. At the time, there was no electricity, since power lines stopped several kilometers away from us. For the first two years, kerosene lamps lit our lives at night. The electricity grid was not and has not been extended, despite our good efforts. In 1999, we decided to buy the property and install home solar panels to replace the kerosene lamps, radically transforming our electricity consumption there. For twelve years, solar energy has provided us with reliable electricity in the temperate rainforest in Brazil. Lack of infrastructure, a need for electricity and a desire to do the right thing toward the community convinced us to install solar energy in this rural and remote place…and the cherry on top is that we have never and will never receive an electricity bill in the mail.
Tags: home solar panels, off grid home, off grid system, rural electrification, solar batteries, solar energy in Brazil, Solar Energy System, solar modules
Posted in Solar Around the World, Solar Home Panels | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 19th, 2011
The loud sucking noise you hear is the sound of solar manufacturing going overseas. If it were not clear before this month, it is now abundantly evident that manufacturing of solar panels that you may want to put on your home in the United States are not going to come from the US anymore. The trend of manufacturing of solar panels in China is only accelerating as the news in the past few weeks has shown. The evidence is plastered on every news release—we surrender and are leaving town fast. BP Solar hammered shut its operations in Maryland. Evergreen Solar filed for bankruptcy. And now Solon is closing its US plant. Solar panels are not like nails or screws, but more akin to refrigerators or dish washers—consumers pay more for quality and features. We still hold that view and will advise our customers to shop wisely and look at various criteria to rate solar modules, and of course one of those is cost, but that should not be the end all. The market, as shown by the flight of solar manufacturing, is going elsewhere. Thinning margins means a commodity market and the Chinese are willing to tough it out in the long to capture the lion’s share of the business. The future for manufacturing of solar panels in the United States is bleak.
Tags: bp solar, evergreen solar, solar industry, solar modules, solar panel, solar panels, solon
Posted in Solar Home Panels | Comments Off
Monday, August 15th, 2011
Starting this week, SolarTown will offer a discount solar panel of the week. Every week on Monday, we will post a solar panel that offers great savings. This year, our distributors and vendors have been offering huge savings on solar modules as prices have continued to fall. And they offer to SolarTown discounts, which we are able to pass on to our customers. Some of our customers are most interested in the least expensive solar module that they can purchase. For those installers and contractors who are ready to purchase immediately, the discount solar module of the week will allow them to take advantage of deep discounts that are available while supplies last.
Tags: Discount Solar Modules, Discount Solar Panels, solar module, solar modules, solar panel, solar panels
Posted in Solar Home Panels, SolarTown Current Affairs | Comments Off
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
BP Solar is not actually going out of business, but according to BP Solar’s CEO, “BP Solar will shift its strategic direction to focus on large-scale project development activities.” In other words, you won’t be able to buy BP Solar solar modules at SolarTown or anywhere else unless you have a very large project. BP Solar is closing its facility for good, leaving behind unfulfilled promises. BP Solar was a name in U.S. manufacturing. Now its solar headquarters will be relegated to the dustbin of the history of U.S. manufacturing. We are sorry to see you go.
Tags: bp solar, frederick maryland, module manufacturers, solar modules
Posted in Solar Events, Solar Home Panels | Comments Off
