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Follow ‘SunBud’: A Live
Solar Power Readout
Refresh the page to update this 3.3-kW solar system's readout, provided courtesy of Fat Spaniel Technologies and the homeowner. Please click for weather and system details.

Information Sources
for Solar Consumers
Want to know what solar rebates or incentives are available where you live? How much solar power you could generate at your own home or business? Where to find a reputable installer? How to put up solar with no money down? One place to consider at the start is our Links page.

Mount Rainier

U.S. Parks to Install
Solar Coast to Coast
The National Park Service is planning to install solar photovoltaic arrays at numerous sites this year, from Alcatraz Island in California, to the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York, to Saipan in the South Pacific.

A Little Switch Is a
Hot-Button Issue
What's gray, half the size of a shoebox, costs under $100 at Home Depot and has the potential to impact both homeowners and the entire solar-electric industry to the tune of millions of dollars?

Minnesota Rebate
Makes Solar a Bargain
A new rebate program from Xcel Energy allows residents and businesses to lock in a decades-long supply of solar electricity at prices competitive with – or much less than – today's utility rates.

Exploring Money, Myths and Solar Power
Who says solar is too expensive? Investment returns for solar homeowners may be as high as 12 percent, at a time when bank interest rates range from 1 to 2 percent.

Will Electric Car Owners Get Paid to Plug in?
The possibility that owners of plug-in vehicles may be paid to dispatch electricity into the grid has drawn a flurry of attention. New ways of generating, storing and using electricity are in the offing, and are likely to be accompanied by new economic opportunities.

NEWS BRIEFS FROM THE
NATION AND THE WORLD

On and Off the Grid | Dan Fink
Getting a Charge Out of a Tesla

Tesla Roadster
PHOTO CREDIT: DAN FINK / SUNPLUGGERS.COM
Tesla's Roadster shows that electric-car technology is on the fast track.

It jumped off the line like a Learjet, pressing me hard back into the sculptured seat. Less than four seconds later, we were doing 60 mph.

But instead of the loud roar of a Ferrari Spider or Porsche Carrera accelerating just as fast, the only sounds audible in the Tesla Roadster cockpit were a gentle high-pitched whine from the electric motor and the wind trying to remove my hat. I could even hear birds singing as we ascended switchbacks on a tortuous canyon road west of Boulder, Colo.

I'm fairly sure I heard some snapping noises too, as the heads of drivers, bicyclists, hikers and deer spun at the passing of this mean-looking, nearly silent machine.

Please click to read the rest of the column

In Oakland, Empowerment Through Solar

Ironhorse Apartments, Oakland
PHOTO CREDIT: ERIN MILNES /
SUNPLUGGERS.COM
The Ironhorse development in Oakland
provides affordable apartments for families
earning less than half of the area’s median
income. And on every rooftop, solar panels
provide power.

By Erin Milnes

Oakland, Calif., a city that has long suffered from a shortage of housing for low-income families, now has 99 new affordable rental units – all of them solar-powered.

Developed by BRIDGE Housing Corp. of San Francisco with grants from the city of Oakland and other sources, the Ironhorse Apartments at Central Station offers one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments that families earning less than $50,000 per year – 50 percent of the area’s median income – can afford. The complex also includes a ground-floor garage, a community room, classroom and music space and a landscaped garden area and courtyard.

Please click to read full story

Solar Electricity for the Next Generation

Next on "Antiques Roadshow": heirloom electricity.

One aspect of solar photovoltaics that might surprise consumers new to the technology is that equipment purchased today may very well outlast the buyer.

The solar modules most commonly installed on residential and small-business rooftops are typically warranted to still produce electricity at a near-new rate 25 years down the road.

Research over the past three decades has shown that panels' power production, after a modest initial decline that manufacturers expect and account for, tends to degrade slowly over the years.

Please click to read full story

Latest Industry News | PR Newswire

Solar Experts Available for Comment or Interview on Energy, Environment, Costs

Reportlinker Adds Photovoltaic Solar Panel Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2010 to 2016

Solar Blooms in New Jersey: World Class Flowers Unveils 178kW Solar Energy System

More industry headlines

Sunspots comic 03-08-2010

A new Sunspots will appear every Monday.

Follow ‘SunBud’: A Live Solar Power Readout Refresh the page to update this 3.3-kW solar system's readout, provided courtesy of Fat Spaniel Technologies and the homeowner. Please click for weather and system details.

U.S. Parks to Install Solar Coast to Coast The National Park Service is planning to install solar photovoltaic arrays at numerous sites this year, from Alcatraz Island in California, to the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York, to Saipan in the South Pacific.

A Little Switch Is a Hot-Button Issue What's gray, half the size of a shoebox, costs under $100 at Home Depot and has the potential to impact both homeowners and the entire solar-electric industry to the tune of millions of dollars?

Minnesota Rebate Makes Solar a Bargain A new rebate program from Xcel Energy allows residents and businesses to lock in a decades-long supply of solar electricity at prices competitive with – or much less than – today's utility rates.

Exploring Money, Myths and Solar Power Who says solar is too expensive? Investment returns for solar homeowners may be as high as 12 percent, at a time when bank interest rates range from 1 to 2 percent.

On and Off the Grid | Dan Fink Getting a Charge Out of a Tesla