Sunday, November 06, 2005

Going Solar

If you have ever wondered how much it would take to go solar, FindSolar is a site that will give you a rough estimate (for US residents).

If you are in the mid west, the cost to install a roof mounted photo voltaic (PV) would be typically around $40,000 - $50,000. A solar water heating system would be around $3000. These states provide no rebates or incentives.

New Jersey appears to be the most solar friendly state. The state provides rebates to the tune of $20,000 (and more) !. Cost of a PV system is also slightly lower.

The blue states in the Northeast, West and NorthWest all seem to have state rebates upto $10,000. Almost all the red states I checked, did not offer any state rebates.

The numbers I have listed in this post are just estimates at best. The site will give you a county and utility company/usage specific figures. You can even get a list of the local contractors. The feature I liked was the break-even and ROI analysis. A New Jersey resident can have a break-even in just 1 year. If you are in a red state, chances are the numbers are not pretty!

3 comments:

Chris said...

I'm in a very red state, and one that gets sun all year long. But if electricity keeps going up in price, pretty soon even without incentives, we will all have to get up and do something. Some folks out here set up windmills to supplement power.

Jennifer said...

Yikes! That is a heft price tag. (I'm in Ohio) But like Chris said, we will all have to be doing something soon.

Crystal said...

Solar is the way of the future, but most people won't bite until pushed. Eventually, once it becomes to expensive to use electricy, I'm sure we'll see more widespread use of solar power.