prices for LED bulbs dropping like a rock

Your electric bills are raising on the other hand the prices of LED bulbs such as the EarthLED ZetaLux and EvoLux are falling. EarthLED has made bold price reductions to make LED light bulbs make more financial sense for you. The price of the ZetaLux has dropped down $10 dollars, now costs $39.99 and the EvoLux has dropped down $30 dollars to only $49.99 LED light bulbs have an extremely long lifetime, most will last over 10 years since they are solid state technology.

A typical LED bulb would break even in two years when you factor in the incandescent bulb replacement cost and energy savings, if your cost for electricity is 10 cents per kWh (kilowatt-hour) I think EarthLED is making some game changing moves to accelerate the adoption of high efficiency light bulbs, this is great news for customers because now you will even break even faster as the price of LED bulbs continue to reduce.

stopping solar panel theft dead in it's tracks

Solar panel theft is a growing problem in the solar power industry. This is a problem is currently being addressed through lockable clamps that hold solar panels down to rails, although thieves can still cut through with the right tools. Lockable clamps are just one line of defense you can use to protect your investment.

Gridlock Solar Security, a start up company is taking solar panel theft deterrent to the next level by using electronic technology. The company is producing a wiring system that would be installed on your solar panels, if the solar panels were removed without authority, bright lights and sirens would go off. Also the system would send out an alert to your cell phone and even call the law enforcement. All this protection at the cost of 1% of your solar electric system.

I think this is a pretty neat solution to a problem that is quite new, people want to steal solar panels more than ever. And this is great time for companies to create solutions that are going to make the process of going solar less risky for the customer. What do you think?

Sanyo N Series Complete Systems

I wanted to let you know that we now have complete solar electric systems with the brand new Sanyo HIT 215N high efficiency solar panels. The complete solar electric systems with Sanyo HIT 215N solar panels generate even more watts per square foot and cost less than the older Sanyo HIT 200BA19 solar panels which are being phased out.

The great aspect of purchasing a complete system versus sourcing all the parts yourself is that these packages are permit-ready and include an installation manual, very useful for people who are installing solar panels for the first time. Residental solar electric systems traditonally require design, drawing out single line diagrams, and buying all the little parts that make up a solar electric system. With pre-package solutions it's much easier to get started with solar power since every compotent you need comes in a kit.

QuantaSol breaks efficiency record

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At the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition QuantaSol announced their world record breaking solar cell that is 28.3% efficient. Founded as a spin off from Imperial College in London, the company started in 2007 to focus in commercializing the solar technology developed at the university.

QuantaSol not only claims they have developed the most efficient solar cell on the market but they say the manufacturing process is an ease. The company's secrete sauce to their highly efficient solar cells is the nanotechnology behind their products.

This is good news for mass market customers because the trend of the solar industry is more highly efficient at lower costs, this is the perfect recipe for solar power to go mainstream, wouldn't you agree?

SMA Sunny Tower Inverter System

SMA is well known for residential grid tie inverters, but how about commercial solar electric systems that need larger inverter capacity? Meet the SMA Sunny Tower, offered in a 36kW or 42kW models the Sunny Tower groups 6 inverters into a single tower enabling the grid tie inverters to handle commercial scale applications.

The advantage of using a Sunny Tower in a commercial application versus one central inverter is the increased reliability since multiple SMA inverters are linked together to increase capacity. Therefore if one inverter goes down in the Sunny Tower the entire solar electric system does not fail.

The unique design of the Sunny Tower requires less installation space which is a big plus when you encounter a project site with limited space to install the inverter. SMA claims the Sunny Tower offers the lowest cost per watt for a commercial solar grid tie inverter solution. What do you think about the Sunny Tower?

a new Declaration of Independence

On July 4th, 1776 our great nation declared Independence from England, this day marked a significant shift in world history. One of the most famous phrases in the Declaration of Independence was "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness", which is a phrase honored by many countries around the world.

To this day Americans, continue to protect to live life protecting the values set by the founding fathers, "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". Although today we face another challenge that can disrupt the way we enjoy our freedom.

When gas prices go up, people start to cut back on the things they enjoy to do, they cut back on their freedom. Energy has a python like grip around our lifestyle, we make adjustments in our lives based on the cost of energy. Wouldn't you agree the people who supply our energy are controlling our freedom?

Today, we aren't fighting for freedom from England but we're fighting multinational corporations for Energy Independence. Let's face it, as a country we're addicted to energy and we depend on the hand that feeds us energy everyday. It's time we write a " Declaration of Energy Independence", a vision that preserves our right to purse Life, Liberty and Happiness by empowering you to control your own energy destiny through solar energy, wind power and renewable fuels.

Happy 4th of July!

printable batteries, wave of the future?

The Fraunhofer Research Institution in Germany is developing the next generation battery, currently batteries are heavy and depending on their capacity can be very large and not portable. Similar to silk printing, the new battery technology being developed can be printed which is revolutionary in terms of battery manufacturing.

The battery shown in the picture above is not only small, thin but weighs only 11.5 grams and can produce up to 1.5 volts, which is unlike any battery on the market. Since the battery can be printed, the manufacturing costs are intended to be very low thus reducing the cost for batteries to customers. I'm glad to hear about advancements in battery technology because I think battery technology is not good enough yet, there is a lot of room for improvements with batteries. What do you think about printable batteries?