San Francisco-based 1 Block Off the Grid (1BOG) announced today that it is teaming up with Real Goods Solar for a 100-home solar campaign in the city. 1 Block Off the Grid is an initiative set on driving renewable energy adoption for residential use through the use of education, private finance, and community purchase programs.

Essentially, the organization uses the power of community as a bargaining chip to make solar more accessible to homeowners.

With this initial solar campaign, 1BOG was able to negotiate up to 48% off 2 kW solar systems from the market price for its participants. According to 1BOG Founder and Managing Partner Sylvia Ventura, 2 kW is the average size of a home-based solar system in San Francisco.
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U.S. schools spend more on utilities than books and computers combined.

Public schools spent $8 billion on utilities in 2002, up by $2 billion from 2000. When taking diesel costs into account for school buses, the recent spike in energy costs is more daunting.

“Electricity is up approximate 12%, heating oil is up 65%, and natural gas is up 40%,” said Supt. Dr. Patricia Grenier of Barnstable School District. “This is nothing that anyone has done, but this is an impact that must be addressed.”

Some school districts are cutting staff or increasing taxes. Others are even considering a 4 day school week to save on fuel costs. No matter how the budgets are ultimately balanced, it is hard for anyone to get excited about paying more for energy. (more…)

BuildingGreen.com features a story on the value that renewable energy can add to a home. Amy Levin, a realtor who completed a LEED platinum registered gut rehab in Washington, DC, had her home appraised at 10% higher value than comparable properties. Interested buyers made offers that exceeded her green investment costs, even though the house wasn’t listed. People wanted to rent her house, even though she built it for her own residence.

The solar panels on the roof heat the water (and they seem positioned to shade the air conditioner, another energy-saver). An article in Kiplinger.com summarizes “sunshine economics”: (more…)

A note from the editors: Installing solar panels is not for the inexperienced. It’s a serious and potentially dangerous process that involves both handling live power generators (how do you turn off a solar panel?) and climbing around on the roof of your house. We here at Renewzle recommend that you talk to a professional (and if you live in California, you can use our solar calculator and get matched with local installers!)

That said, for those of you who want to find cheap or free solar panels, you couldn’t find a better intro than Michelle Bennett’s below. Enjoy!

My cousin mentioned to me that her family wanted to install solar panels on their roof. She said it was a huge disappointment because it was far too expensive. It would take twenty years for them to regain the cost in energy savings, even with state solar initiatives! I decided to do some digging and came up with a handy solution to help reduce the cost:

Find used solar panels. Maybe you can get them for free. (more…)

[social_buttons]Buying a solar system is similar to going to Cosco and buying a 30 year supply of a staple. It will have a large upfront cost, but will result in long-term savings in states with good solar energy potential. What if you could lease a solar system and have the savings outweigh the monthly cost?

SolarCity is changing the landscape of the residential solar market in California and the Phoenix metropolitan area by offering solar leases, which significantly reduces the upfront cost of going solar.

“Customers have called for alternatives to solar purchasing, and our innovations in financing will allow them to get the benefits of renewable energy quickly, easily and affordably,” said David Arfin, Vice President of Customer Financing at SolarCity.

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Florida this week boosted its supply of renewable energy when its largest solar power array went online.

The Sunshine Energy Solar Array was dedicated Monday by Gov. Charlie Crist and Florida Power & Light (FPL) officials. The facility is located on a former landfill in Sarasota County.

The Sunshine array is not only Florida’s largest, but the second largest in the entire Southeast U.S. The array of 1,200 solar panels covers more than 28,000 square feet of Rothenbach Park, and is expected to generate about 250 kilowatts of electricity.

That’s enough to power 55 homes and prevent the annual release of more than 654,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air, according to FPL.

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Going solar is like purchasing your electricity upfront for the next 20 years with a one-time payment. Yeah, you may save money in the long run, but the upfront payment is no joke. Currently solar photovoltaics cost about $8 per watt (installed), so a four kilowatt system will set you back about $32,000 before state and federal incentives.

Photo credit: Pete Beverly, NREL/DOE

A new model of solar purchasing appears to be coming of age: community solar purchasing programs. Last month, two colleagues in the Local Clean Energy Alliance and I carpooled to a workshop by the Downtown San Jose Solar Project about their experiences setting up a community purchasing program.

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Recently, a neighborhood group - the Downtown San Jose Solar Project - banded together to purchase solar in bulk and find their own solar installer through a competitive bidding situation. They put their collective requirements for three solar systems out to bid by several solar companies to get the best price, equipment, warranty, and service.

As of February 20, the project included 24 San Jose homes producing 99kW of electricity. The 24 systems in San Jose will produce 3,560,000 kWh over the systems’ lifetime and will eliminate, according to today’s current fuel mix, about 5,055,861 pounds of carbon dioxide. The community group wants to see this program spread across the Bay Area and held a training for people interested in setting up their own community discount programs.

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Orlando, Florida, recently became one of 12 cities across the U.S. chosen as a federal Department of Energy (DOE) “Solar America City.”

Each of the dozen cities will receive $200,000 to advance the use of solar technologies in their communities. All the cities were selected for “their commitment and comprehensive approach to the deployment of solar technologies and the development of sustainable solar infrastructures,” according to the DOE.

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Everyone knows we need green energy to fight global warming. But there’s another big reason to tap renewable power sources –- not enough water.

Large swaths of the Southwest and Southeast are in the throes of debilitating droughts. North Texas and Oklahoma’s recent dry spell dragged on from 2003 to the spring of 2007 (more on U.S. droughts). Droughts have even wiped out entire civilizations like the Anasazi (see Jared Diamond’s Collapse and Eugene Linden‘s Winds of Change).

But today’s water problems are far more profound than those of the Anasazi. The huge quantities we use — unprecedented in human history — make us more vulnerable to drought. Our water woes stem from an ever-increasing demand for water to slake the thirsts of a growing population on the one hand and to irrigate crops to feed that same population on the other.

Few people appreciate that yet another sector is clamoring for more water — the power industry. Fortunately we have the technology to wean this one from our dwindling supplies. (more…)