Tag:

Arizona

Best Arizona Solar Installers

by Aisha Abdelhamid September 11, 2017

It’s hard to keep solar down in the sun-loving state of Arizona — folks are happy with their bright spot in the sun and more homeowners than ever are harvesting that golden energy hitting their roofs. Surmounting some of the worse political challenges to residential solar, Arizona still stands tall among the top US states with the highest solar capacity per capita. So, if you are among the many folks still looking up at your roof and dreaming of clean solar energy powering your home, read on. The following article will help you understand your state’s brilliant spot in the sun and find the best Arizona solar installers to harvest the rays hitting your roof.

arizona solar installers Image by MariaGodfrida

US & Arizona Solar Industry Data for 2017

Topping all other power generating technologies across the US for the first time ever, 39% of all new electric generating capacity was provided by solar energy in 2016. Data for the first quarter of 2017 continued this trend, with 30% of all new capacity installed in Q1 2017 coming from solar energy.

There are now nearly 1.4 million solar installations nationwide, representing nearly 45 GW of total solar capacity installed, or enough electricity to power more than 8.7 million homes. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) predicts this number will reach 2 million solar installations by 2018 and 4 million by 2022.

Accompanied by stiff competition and economies of scale, SEIA reports that the cost of installing a rooftop solar system in the US has dropped by more than 70% since 2010. Over the past decade, the average annual growth rate of solar in the US has been 68%, largely spurred by the mobilizing effect of the Solar Investment Tax Credit passed initially in 2006.

Arizonans are among the earliest pioneers in the nationwide transition to solar power. With sunshine accompanying Arizonans for about 85% of the year, the huge popularity of solar energy in the Grand Canyon State is clearly a no-brainer.

However, joining this long history of solar power uptake in Arizona has been a lot of utility-sponsored pushback, filled with public battles over the value of rooftop solar power generation, the rate (and fate) of compensation for excess generation, and a big fat FBI investigation of APS, the state’s largest power provider, for suspicious political contributions.

In spite of all the public turmoil, over $1,109 million was invested in solar over the course of 2016, for a cumulative (and cool) total of $7,777.92 million invested in the Arizona solar market. Fueled by this generous influx, solar installations surged strongly, with Arizona rising to number 3 in the nation, up from 7th in 2016. More than 656 MW were added in 2016, bringing the total installed solar capacity in Arizona to 3,151.3 MW. Nearly half a million homes (469,000) in the state are powered by solar and 5.11% of Arizona’s electricity is “currently” (couldn’t resist) generated from solar energy.

Arizona also ranks in the top tier for solar employment, with 7,310 people employed in solar jobs. A statewide total of 432 companies support the solar market, comprised of 223 Arizona solar installers/developers, 74 manufacturers, and 127 other solar-related businesses.

arizona solar installers

Arizona solar companies map — screenshot from SEIA.org

Among the notable solar installations in Arizona, 100 MW Mesquite Solar 2 in Tonopah, completed in 2015, has enough capacity to power over 14,995 homes. Solana, completed in 2013, has 280 MW of capacity, enough power to plug in over 41,652 homes.

Planning a solar plant since 2014, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority inaugurated the 27.3 MW Kayenta Solar Project in June 2017. This is the first large-scale solar power plant built on the reservation, bringing electricity to many residents for the first time ever. The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, an entity of the Navajo nation, is now planning additional solar power plants to be constructed on the 300 acres of land under Navajo jurisdiction in Arizona.

Joining such large retailers as Albertson, Body Sculpting Center, and Bookmans Recreational Exchange going solar, Macy’s tops the list with 3 MW of solar capacity installed on the roof of its logistics and operations center in Goodyear, Arizona.

Macy’s Solar Rooftop Installation at Goodyear, Arizona — screenshot from Google Maps

Best Tips For Contacting Arizona Solar Installers

With a 70% decline in cost since 2010, rooftop solar is cheaper than ever and finding the best Arizona solar installers is easier than ever, too. There are a few considerations to keep in mind, however, when you are contacting installers to get a solar quote. The following tips will help guide you to get the most efficient harvest of solar energy for your home.

Gather your past utility bills to know how much electricity your home used in the last 12 months
Consider the likelihood of your family growing, putting in a pool, hot tub, etc. to gauge your future electricity needs
Consider installing an EV charger with your rooftop solar if you have or plan to purchase a new EV
Consider any time constraints you may be facing over the next 12 months — a solar installation can potentially take a while to complete
Consider your budget constraints — explore owning/leasing options with all Arizona solar installers you contact to find the right fit
Consider higher quality hardware to get the best harvest of solar power — the lowest price tag is not necessarily the best choice

Keep in mind that labor and “soft” costs take up about 50% of a solar installation price tag. Larger solar companies typically spend more on “soft” items, such as major advertising campaigns and other marketing costs, with their customers footing the bills.

Also, the installer you choose must be completely familiar with all of your local, state, and federal incentives, as well as local permitting and other utility-related rules and regulations. Choose carefully between local and out-of-town solar installers, since local experience, ongoing support, and the honoring of warranties offered can be crucial in both the near term and the future.

Every rooftop solar installation is unique, but no matter how you get it done, going solar is a rewarding decision. Harvesting clean, free solar energy to power your home brings a huge sense of satisfaction, knowing that you are part of the renewable energy revolution and doing your part to help protect the environment.

Image by David Crummey, Flickr of Tuscon, AZ homes with rooftop solar (CC BY 2.0)

Best Arizona Solar Installers for 2017

The list below is hand-picked to give you a list of the best Arizona solar installers for 2017. Every situation is unique, so this list is not in order by ranking factors which may or may not apply to your case. Listed alphabetically, the following Arizona solar installers represent the best in the market based on reviews and rankings from such sites as solarreviews.com and solarpowerworldonline.com.

American Solar & Roofing
1230 W 23rd St Tempe, AZ 85282

Argent Solar
671 N 137th Ave #105, Goodyear, AZ 85338

Arizona Energy Pros
20801 N. 19th Ave., #10, Phoenix, AZ 85027

Arizona Solar Wave
2812 N Norwalk, Mesa, AZ 85215

Black Platinum Solar
1505 W Cloud Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85086

Cool Blew Solar & Electric
8927 W Bloomfield Rd #135, Peoria, AZ 85381
15911 N 174th Ave, Surprise, AZ 85388

Custom Solar and Leisure
3941 E 29th St #601, Tucson, AZ 85711

Elevation Solar
2168 E Williams Field Rd #210, Gilbert, AZ 85295

Energy Solution Providers
111 North Main Street, Florence, Arizona 85132

Harmon Electric
945 W. Deer Valley Rd., Suite #100, Phoenix, AZ 85027

Mohave Solar
1849 W Acoma Blvd #110, Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403

Net Zero Solar
101 W. 5TH STREET, TUCSON, AZ 85705

PEP Solar
20819 N 25th Place, Phoenix, Arizona 85050

Premier Solar Solutions
16807 N Cave Creek Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85032

Pur Solar, Inc
1505 Cochise St., Cottonwood, AZ 86326

SOBHM
10632 N Scottsdale Rd #266, Scottsdale, AZ 85254

SolarCity
7880 N Glen Harbor Blvd, Glendale, AZ 85307
3834 E Roeser, Phoenix, AZ 85040
1725 West Williams, Building E, Suite 60, Phoenix, AZ 85027
5401 South 37th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85040
3600 State Route 69, Dewey, AZ 86327
3016 E 33rd Place, Suite 1, Yuma, AZ 85365

Solar Solution AZ
2521 N Fairview Ave, Tucson, AZ 85705

Solar Topps
102 S. 28th Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85034

Solar Universe
1565 W University Dr, Suite #103. Tempe, AZ 85281
4959 East 29th St, Tucson, AZ 85711
9324 E. Cooper Place, Tucson, AZ 85710

Sunbright Solar
4366 E 28th St, Tucson, AZ

SunHarvest Solar
2717 W Dunlap Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85051

Sunny Energy
2720 South Hardy Drive, Suite # 4, Tempe, AZ, 85282

The Solar Store
2833 N. Country Club Road, Tucson, AZ 85716

Vivint Solar
236 S Mulberry #102, Mesa, AZ 85202

Yuma Solar
1161 E. 21st Street Unit C, Yuma, AZ 85365

September 11, 2017 0 comment

Market Research PV Rooftop Solar Solar Research

Social Theory Suggests Solar Power Is About To Explode

by Steve Hanley October 3, 2016

written by Steve Hanley

Solar power stands at the precipice of explosive growth, according to Brewster McCracken, CEO of Pecan Street, a research institute located in Austin, Texas, that focuses on the utility industry. He bases his prediction on the economic theories of Everett Rogers first published in 1962. Rogers postulated that when 15% of people accept an innovation, it will quickly spread to 60% of the target population. McCraken says that in some markets — like Hawaii, California, and Arizona — residential solar power has already achieved that 15% level of acceptance. He thinks that means it is about to see explosive growth.

rooftop solar system installation

“The first people who line up outside the store to buy the newest thing, they typically don’t have (a lot) of influence, but they do feed the education level of the next group,” McCracken says. It’s what that next group does that makes the difference. “If they say something’s good, or if people learn about it through those forums, they are more likely to get broad penetration.”

If you are a utility company, mass adoption of rooftop solar power is a problem. Part of it is that electrical grids — the collection of poles, wires, transformers, and sub-stations — will always be necessary. They take a lot of money to build and maintain. The other part of the problem is that if people make their own electricity, utility companies will see a sharp decline in income. Uh oh. Less income means less profits and that means less money to pay utility company executives. It also means less money to pay investors and bond holders.

Utility companies have trillions of dollars invested in the grid. That money came from investors who thought they were guaranteed a stated rate of return. If utilities are suddenly unable to repay investors, a lot of people stand to lose a lot of money. No wonder utility companies are nervous and want to restrict the proliferation of rooftop solar.

Suddenly, a company that thought it had a monopoly finds itself in competition with its own customers. It’s as if people could suddenly start building their own cars. What would happen to the auto industry if that was the case? The problem for utilities only gets worse as people start adding battery storage to their rooftop solar systems.

As the percentage of people with solar panels on their roofs increases, utilities will be under tremendous pressure to adapt. “The grid will still be necessary, but you’ll be making a lot less money and you’ll be creating a lot of havoc from an engineering perspective,” he said. “It does create a lot of havoc, but it’s coming anyway.”

Source: Forbes | Photo credit: CoCreatr via Foter.com / CC BY-SA

October 3, 2016 0 comment

CPV

Big Wins For Solar Power In Arizona & New Mexico

by Steve Hanley August 13, 2016

written by Steve Hanley

Solar power disrupts the business of existing utility companies. In exchange for being granted a monopoly to generate and distribute electricity in a given geographic area, utilities are guaranteed a certain rate of return. That gives them an incentive to spend more money on power plants and grid expansion. The more they spend, the more money they are allowed earn. That’s how the power game is played in the US.

solar power

August 13, 2016 0 comment

PV Rooftop Solar

SolarCity Lawsuit Against Arizona Utility Can Proceed

by Jake Richardson November 11, 2015

written by Jake Richardson

The Arizona utility Salt River Project wanted to charge a fee to customers who installed solar power on their rooftops since Dec. 9, a charge that could cost them $50 a month or more. This type of fee could discourage Arizona residents from getting their own solar power systems. It could also be described as damaging to the whole solar power industry there.

SolarCity filed a lawsuit against the utility calling the fee anti-competitive behavior. The solar power company wrote this on its blog: “SRP’s stated reasons for the new plan don’t hold up. What SRP claims now is inconsistent with years of the utility’s own policies regarding the solar industry and its own investments in solar power. Just as importantly, SRP cannot justify the elimination of competition and the denial of Arizonans’ choice in electricity service. We understand that SRP does not like the choices its customers are making. SRP does not want to lose customers, and revenue to solar companies.”

The Salt River Project requested that the SolarCity lawsuit be halted, but a judge denied the request. SolarCity is arguing that the utility has acted in ways that are consistent with the behavior of a monopoly.

SRP, as a publicly owned utility, might sound like it is anti-solar but it just started constructing a 45 MW solar power plant in July. Currently, SRP appears to have about 92 MW of solar power. So, SRP does not seem to be saying, “We can have solar, but you can’t.” It seems to be more like, “We can both have solar, if you agree to pay us an unreasonable fee.”

We Energies, a utility serving Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, tried to implement a similar solar fee for its customers, but was not allowed to do so.

SRP might find itself in the same boat soon. If this does come to pass, SolarCity would have acted as an effective advocate for Arizona homeowners who want to invest in solar power.

Image Credit: Dominic, Wiki Common

November 11, 2015 0 comment

Activism Rooftop Solar Solar $Solar Policy

Arizona Utility Charging Solar Homeowners $50 A Month Beginning In April

by Christopher DeMorro March 20, 2015

written by Christopher DeMorro

If solar power makes sense anywhere, it’s in always-sunny Arizona, where record numbers of homeowners are buying or leasing PV systems to offset their energy bills. Unfortunately, a new surcharge on solar panel owners amounting to about $50 a month, regardless of how much energy is fed back into the grid, basically offsets much of the savings homeowners gain from going solar, reports ThinkProgress.

The surcharge will affect customers of the Salt River Project (SRP), one of the country’s largest public utilities, and despite over 500 protesters showing up in opposition to the surcharge, 12 of the 14 directors voted in favor of the surcharge and a 3.9% rate increase. SRP did agree to grandfather in some 15,000 existing solar panel owners for 20 years, keeping their bills surcharge-free for the next couple of decades. But with an estimated 500 installation requests per month coming in for SolarCity alone, clean power advocates are up-in-arms over a proposal that ensures higher profits for utilities, while stifling solar power adoption.

SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive wrote a strongly-worded letter regarding the new surcharge, saying the fee is “unsupportable by any economic analysis” and that the “fundamental purpose of the plan is to undermine solar leasing companies in SPR territory.” SolarCity is suing over the fee, though it may have little or no affect. A similar measure was proposed by Arizona Public Service (APS), and while the proposed $50 fee was dropped to just $5, APS is now pushing for a $21 monthly fee.

The battle over rooftop solar is just warming up, and while SRP’s new fee is a setback for new solar customers, clean energy advocates are more than ready to fight back.

March 20, 2015 5 comments

Activism

Arizona Public Service Attacks Solar Power Again

by Christopher DeMorro March 18, 2015

written by Christopher DeMorro

One of the most-watched battles between solar power proponents and of conventional utilities played out in Arizona, where Arizona Public Service (APS) attempted to add a $50 monthly fee to customers with solar panels. Solar advocates won out, reducing the fee to just $5 a month and getting APS to promise to hold off on the issue until the next formal utility rate hearing.

Unfortunately, holding a utility to its word is easier said than done, and APS has gone to the Arizona Corporate Commission, asking to hike the solar panel surcharge from $5 a month to $21 a month. APS claims that without these fees, the utility faces a projected loss of over $40 million in the next fiscal year.

The utility claims the fee is a fair assessment of what solar customers share in maintaining the power grid, but solar panel owners and installers and understandably outraged, as such a heavy fee would drastically reduce, or even eliminate any potential energy savings offered by going solar. After settling for the $5 fee after a lot of political wrangling, APS repeatedly promised to not address the solar surcharge until the next formal rate change meeting. Elsewhere in Arizona, another utility called the Salt River Project (SRP) won approval for its own $50 solar surcharge, which seems to have emboldened APS. APS just couldn’t wait any longer, despite allegations of corruption directly relating to the solar surcharge issue. Political action group Tell Utilities Solar won’t be Killed (TUSK) isn’t taking the news laying down though.

TUSK Chairman Barry Goldwater Jr. said, “Rooftop solar provides savings to thousands of customers, it provides energy choice to utility ratepayers, and it provides jobs for thousands of Arizonans. The quickest way to kill a thriving industry is to tax it and over-regulate it. Sadly, that seems to be APS’ objective.”

Utilities are going on the offensive against solar, but solar advocates are hitting back just as hard, and this pitched battle is far from over. Gee, maybe if utilities like APS and SRP just installed more solar capacity themselves, instead of punishing their customers for doing so, maybe they wouldn’t be tens of millions of dollars in the red?

Image: welcomia / Shutterstock

March 18, 2015 2 comments

Community Solar Going Solar Investment PV Rooftop Solar Solar $Solar Policy Startups

Peer-to-Peer Financing For Residential Solar Rolled Out In Arizona

by Jake Richardson December 17, 2014

written by Jake Richardson

American Solar and Roofing recently launched a partnership with Mosaic, the “peer-to-peer solar financing platform for solar power.” American Solar is based in Scottsdale, so Arizona residents can get help when they decide to go solar.

“We love the peer-to-peer lending model for solar. Providing an easier way for people to save energy is a true win-win, and why our partnership with Mosaic is a real added value to our customers. Also, it’s a perfect time to offer this before the summer bills start to hit,” explained American Solar & Roofing President & CEO Joy Seitz.

Mosaic makes it easier for homeowners to get their home solar loans processed and for investors to put their money into solar projects that often help communities, like installations at schools.

Arizona has plenty of sunshine and open space, so large-scale solar is a good choice. Home and business owners too can take advantage of all the sunlight. Arizona historically has done fairly well in terms of home solar power systems, but recently utilities there have been very resistant to more growth.

For example, a utility in Phoenix has proposed rate increases that could do significant damage to solar power prospects there. “While these proposed changes are complex, this may be the most regressive recent move by a utility to kill solar in its service territory, which includes nearly one million customers in metropolitan Phoenix.”

To say a utility’s plan could kill solar power in its service area is strong language, but how else might you say it?

The Phoenix utility has a very high rate of residential solar adoption, so it at least appears the utility wants that to be reduced substantially or even eliminated.

American Solar and Roofing is located in Scottsdale, which is near Phoenix. Scottsdale is within the service area for the Salt River Project. So, it isn’t clear yet what will happen, but there are two competing perspectives. One is a utility that seems to want to curtail solar and the other is an emerging solar industry represented by organizations like American Solar and Roofing and Mosaic. They are trying an innovative partnership to get new, clean technology in the hands of citizens.

Salt River Project is one of Arizona’s largest utilities. Of course, one can understand how a utility would want to continue operating in a way that is beneficial or lucrative to itself. However, technological changes have clearly caught some utilities off-guard. For those utilities, one response has been to resist the change even if change benefits its customers.

But this attitude seems to be un-American, because it restricts consumer freedom regarding a viable energy alternative. A wave of residential solar power is likely to grow because of the dramatic drop in solar power costs. Mosaic makes financing easier, and finance was one of the barriers previously. Now that solar costs have dropped, for some homeowners going solar is a slam dunk because they could save tens of thousands of dollars over the life of a home solar system.

December 17, 2014 2 comments

Going Solar PV Rooftop Solar Solar $Solar Incentives Solar Policy

Arizona Not Accepting Solar Well

by Jake Richardson December 16, 2014

written by Jake Richardson

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear someone say Arizona?

Heat? Sunlight?

Well, apparently some of Arizona’s leaders don’t want solar power, even though there is plenty of sunlight year round.

If you live in the Phoenix area and want to take advantage of all the sunlight with solar power, the local utility might be against you. Reportedly, the Salt River Project has a proposed a new rate plan that increases consumer costs by $600 per year, if you have your own solar power system.

Part of the plan is to decrease the amount the utility pays when home solar systems are feeding excess electricity back to the grid. Home owners get credits when this happens that reduce their bills. If the rate is decreased, homeowners won’t get as much back and so will pay more on their utility bills.

They also want to charge a flat fee to access the grid, but all homeowners are already connected to the grid, so home solar power owners don’t deserve to pay extra. There is no point in punishing them for investing in clean, renewable electricity. Actually, they should be supported and commended.

One issue with utilities is that they have had dominance over consumers in the past and have made a lot of money due to it. Now, when solar power comes along and homeowners start acquiring the capacity to generate their own electricity, the utilities can’t be expected to like it, but some of them seem to want to preserve the status quo by hurting their customers.

Discouraging homeowners and business owners from investing in solar power — especially since the costs have dropped so dramatically —is essentially blocking progress itself. Such measures also reduce individual freedoms.

Arizona is typically a Republican state and Republicans often rail against any reduction in personal freedoms and interfering with the free market. That is exactly what some utility companies are doing when they punish home and business owners that want to generate their own electricity with solar power. At one point in the past, Arizona seemed more open to solar power and investment, but that receptivity seems to have waned.

Florida is another Republican state that is resisting solar power even though it has plenty of free sunshine. What is going on?

Image Credit: George Miquilena, Wiki Commons

December 16, 2014 0 comment

Activism How Solar PV Works Jobs New Technology PV Rooftop Solar Solar Projects Solar PV Manufacturing Startups

Solar Man’s Solar Wonderland Crowdfunding Campaign Aims For $5,000,000

by Cynthia October 14, 2014

written by Cynthia

“Solar Man” is aiming to build education as the cornerstone of his new recreational venture, Solar Wonderland. Solar Wonderland is a “gigafactory” and much more. This gigafactory is for building lightweight carbon fiber solar panels as the Lotus product line expands.

Students, children, and others will enjoy a hands-on educational experience in this Energy Amusement Park. They will learn about forces of energy — electric, magnetic, gravity, strong, and weak. They will learn about forms of energy — light, heat, pressure, kinetic, and chemical.

Joe Hui calls himself the “Solar Man.” On Solar Man’s Indiegogo campaign page, Hui explains and promotes his aspirations and plans:

I am Solar Man. My passion is to help people all over the world live a comfortable yet sustainable life through the use of my inventions

Why do we want to build a Solar Wonderland? First, to meet your demand for our carbon fiber panels, we are designing a low-cost Giga-factory to build these panels. Second, the factory is going to create jobs, hundreds in manufacturing and thousands in the installation and services supported. Third, the energy amusement park can teach our students about the Physics of energy. Fourth, you can also donate solar panels to US veterans so that they can enjoy free solar electricity and hot water.

Hui’s company, Monarch Power, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to construct this GW-scale manufacturing facility and “energy amusement park” in Arizona. This is clearly an exploratory solar venture. Hui’s company manufactures “Lotus solar products,” which include a 2.4 kW portable solar flower and combined PV and solar thermal awning.

“Help Solar Man Build Solar Wonderland” shares more of this unique awning:

I am introducing the Lotus Awning, a light weight carbon fiber composite solar panel that runs a coolant through carbon fiber tubes. Cool panels give you more electricity and collect heat to give you hot water. It is not grid tied so you don’t need utility approval. If you add battery storage of electricity, you can save electricity when the sun is not shining. Better, you can save the day when natural disaster strikes. Think Super Storm Sandy.

We also plan to open an exhibit called the Circle of Energy by early next year. The exhibit hall covers a floor space of 4000 square feet. There you enjoy a 3D video called “What’s the Matter with Energy?” that explains solar power in terms of the relationship among matter, energy, space and time; all in the context from the Big Bang till the birth of our sun.

The Pima native tribes are going to lease a 5+ acre piece of land to Monarch for Solar Wonderland. The design is an 80-foot-tall Solar Pyramid topped with a Golden Sun made to rise by solar-heated air. And there is so much more….

Jobs are another important plus of the venture, clean energy jobs. Hui projects the following job needs: “The production facility will hire about 100 workers. The marketing, sales, installation, service, and applications of the Lotus line of products will create thousands of jobs.”

Incorporating education into recreation comes naturally to Dr. Joe Hui, the mastermind behind a 3D theater showing the movie “What’s the Matter with Energy,” which will be on top of the theater on the third floor in the Circle of Energy exhibit; and “Gravity,” a free-fall ride. He got his BS, MS, and PhD degrees from MIT.

Check out more details on the Indiegogo campaign page, such as rides called “Maglev Back to the Future,” “Doctor Frankenstein in the Tesla Tower,” “Alice in the Optics Wonderland,” and “The Heat is On.”

While it all looks like fun, Hui has sat an extremely ambitious target of $5,000,000. With 54 days left in the campaign, $1,120 has been raised. It is a Flexible Funding campaign, so anything raised will be collected, but it’s not clear what Hui would do with just a few thousand dollars.

October 14, 2014 4 comments

Monthly Rooftop Solar Fee Rejected In Utah

by Sponsored Content September 8, 2014

written by Sponsored Content

The Utah Public Service Commission said no to a monthly fee for rooftop solar on homes and other structures in Utah. The proposed fee was an idea put forth by Rocky Mountain Power. “This victory belongs to the tens thousands of rooftop solar owners, community councils, faith communities, businesses, and Utah citizens who stood up for the freedom to choose clean solar energy,” said Christopher Thomas, executive director of the Commission.

utah

The decision does not only protect current rooftop solar users in Utah, but future ones as well. Fence sitters that are considering solar power might have been discouraged if a new monthly fee was added to the cost of installing and operating a home solar system. The cost of solar panels has been dropping steadily for some time so the current period we are in seems to be much more favorable to solar power. At the same time, there still is resistance. Adding barriers to the utilization of solar would most likely slow some of the current momentum solar is experiencing.

As more systems are installed, there might be even more interest generated. Also, greater sales can translate into still lower prices as volume grows. Public perception of solar power also seems to have shifted, at least slightly. The falling costs at least suggest that the affordability issue is decreasing.

The rise of EVs and consistent press related to the hazards of climate change and fossil fuels also appears to be making solar panels more palatable for consumers and businesses.

As researchers are able to make the technology more efficienct, solar power should only become more attractive.

Public policy decisions that remove or prevent barriers to an emerging technology are very important because they offer breathing room.

There is some conflict between fossil fuel-based industry and clean energy because of the huge amounts of money involved. A Utah homeowner who recently had solar panels installed said, “I think with the majority of power from Rocky Mountain Power coming from coal-fired power plants, it is not right for someone who is putting clean power back in the grid to have to pay extra, bottom line. To charge people extra who are producing clean power is just wrong.”

If it does not seem that a monthly solar fee would be much of a deterrent, consider that Arizona does have such a fee and reportedly it has had an impact, “Since November, when Arizona started charging $5 a month to people who have rooftop solar, new solar installations have plummeted in Arizona Power’s service area, while they keep growing elsewhere. Only 280 solar systems were added in January, down from 583 a year ago.” With the issues associated with the fossil fuel industry, it makes both economic and ecological sense to switch to more sustainable options, lest Salt Lake disability lawyers need to be called in for health concerns.

Image: Pasteur, CC BY-SA 3.0

This post was retroactively sponsored by Nifty Marketing

September 8, 2014 0 comment

Newer Posts

Older Posts