Only yesterday, I called a local company here for quotes on solar lighting for our farm.

They want us to estimate how many bulbs etc, wattage etc, before they can give us a quote. I’ll be submitting this after my next visit this Sunday.

As the farm expands, we’ll be expanding the solar energy capacity.

Kudos. I’m glad to see more people doing these things. Sometimes it is good to pay more for something ;)

I’d appreciate it if you’d post any follow-ups on what “Jesse” is talking about which seems non-sensical to me. There is no more need to store wind power than coal or nuclear power and considering the cost and current backlog of turbines, which are hard to build, I don’t know why any company would put them in areas where they’re going to not be running 99% of the time.

Curtis – I checked out CitizenRe a while back before they’d rolled out their service and meant to check back. I think it’s an awesome business model and was considering trying to roll it out for our rental properties–I have this dream of clean energy rentals, you see.

Mrs. Micah – I know I’ve seen windmill kits online, I think at Gaiam. Aha, found it: http://www.gaiam.com/category/solar-living/wind-power.do Maybe I’ll try my own solar or wind project and post how it goes.

Aryn – I’ll check out that book, and look in the near future for more on the ethical consumerism movement.

Sara and Stephanie – Thanks for your positive feedback!

Jim – what a stroke of luck to lock in a rate in these times!

Ken – I’ve read some great things about Texas and the shifts in its energy paradigm, especially around Austin. A number of wind energy companies do provide electricity from a blend of cleaner sources. Solar is a great option (what else to do but harness all that sun!) and I too am amazed by all the advances I’ve seen in photovoltaic technology. Your conservative approach to usage is sound regardless of your power source. If you’re interested in solar but worried about cost, you could always start small–they sell small do-at-home kits at sites like Gaiam which could power your electronic devices with minimal setup. It’s a nice savings because those are the sorts of things that sit and leech energy. Also, I saw some extremely cool solar water heating technologies at the Builders Conference in FL a few months back. There were nice savings to be had and systems were inexpensive to set up.

Due to an offer my utility had I am getting 100% wind AND saving money. When I signed up it the cost was about 10% higher than normal service. But they offered to fix the price for 5 year period and guaranteed not to increase the rates. Since I signed up they raised normal rates 6% one time and then 13% another and they’re currently seeking another 8% increase. So I’m already ahead of the game and its fixed for another few years. If anyone else sees an offer from their utility to fix rates for 5 years for a 10% premium then I’d encourage you to take it cause you know utilities love to raise rates.

Jim

Also, we’ve considered it for our house as well. I ran across renu.citizenre.com that offers solar power at your current electric utility rate, locked in for up to 25 years. They take care of installation, permitting and maintenance of the system, you pay them for power. They are just getting started, but sounds like a GREAT deal. Now if only I could get solar panels mounted gingerly to my 85 year old slate roof!

If you are already in a home and it is not sited correctly for panels (or you are not willing to increase your output by making modifications – like cutting down a tree) then solar panels likely will not be a good fit. However, if you are thinking of buying a new home in the future, keep solar panels in mind when shopping – look for homes with good southern exposure and think about panels as a possibility.

New Jersey has one of the more generous rebate programs available – I am not sure how much capacity you were looking for to get a price quote of $20,000 – that seems like a lot of KW for a “small ranch” house. My small ranch in Boston will be getting panels and the cost will be less than half your quote – and Massachusetts rebates are not as generous as New Jersey…

So you might have been getter off shopping around for quotes. As for the 15 year repair comment – not sure what panels you looked into getting. Mine have a 20 year warranty guarantee – which I believe is more standard for panel manufacturers.

Ken, the idea is not necessarily to make sure that green energy is pumped to YOUR house, but to (by your payment) get more green energy in the system in general. Sasha’s bathtub analogy explains this pretty well.

Assume that your house is the drain in the bathtub – where the water (energy) comes out. Right now, the water is really dirty. But you can pay to have some clean water dumped in the tub on your behalf, rather than the dirty water you usually pay for.

Now, in this analogy, you have to imagine that the tub has hundreds and hundreds of drains. Will all the clean water you paid for come out of your drain? No, you’ll get water that’s a tiny percent cleaner.

For the final part of this analogy, you have to assume that you have no idea how clean or dirty the water is when it gets to you. You can’t tell the difference when it comes through your drain, so it doesn’t matter to you! All that matters to you is that the water in the tub is a bit cleaner because of your payment.

I hope this makes sense! Every bit of “clean water” helps!

I live in Texas, which I believe gets about 3% of its power from wind. I also believe I read recently that this is more than any other state, and turbine deployment is also growing at a faster rate than any other state. In about 10 years we are estimated to get 15% of our power from wind. Several utilities offer programs similar to the clean power program you mention. You pay extra to get only some of your power from wind.

I do not participate in that program because I feel it’s kinda shady. How do I really know that any of my power came from a wind turbine? It is all blended together, isn’t it? Furthermore, I don’t believe any program (at least in Texas) implies that you’d get all of your power from wind. The impact seems minimal at best and unverifiable.

I choose to buy energy efficient appliances, compact fluorescent bulbs, set my thermostats a bit higher, and use fans. I’m using less energy and saving about $25 per month. That’s verifiable.

The other thing I’m extremely interested in is solar power. Current technology is too expensive and cumbersome, however. My employer is willing to subsidize residential solar systems on top of whatever subsidies the utility or government offers. Using the savings calculator however makes it a non starter. It projects I would have to pay $200 a month for the solar hardware, and it would only save me $40 a month in electricity.

But here comes the nano science. New solar panels are coming to market that claim to lower the cost of a system by an order of magnitude. NanoSolar is one company bringing this to market. there are others as well. I am keeping an eye on this new technology. The panels are less obtrusive, some of them are simply paint that can be sprayed on glass. Cost is much less, and efficiency is as good or better than current technology.