More Affordable Solar on the Horizon?

Whether you’re motivated to join the “green” movement, envious of your neighbor or just simply excited by the thought of a $2 electric bill this summer, then you will be even more excited by recent news that “going solar” is predicted to get a lot more affordable over the next year or two.    

According to a recent article in USA Today, prices for rooftop solar systems, including installation, already have fallen 8% to 10% since October and are expected to drop another 15% to 20% this year.    Due to a surplus in supply from Solar Panel manufacturers, particularly overseas, it is predicted that prices will continue to drop.

In California, which accounts for nearly 70% of the U.S. solar market, a typical 4-kilowatt, $32,000 solar energy system cost a homeowner about $23,000 last year after state and federal incentives. This year, if prices sink as expected, that system is likely to cost $10,000 to $12,000.

Additional incentives are still available on both a Federal and State level which may make the dream of cheaper, greener electric a reality. 

For more information about solar prices, incentives and installation contact a local Solar contractor near you.

Federal: In late 2008, Congress extended the federal tax credit for solar systems by eight years, and waived a $2,000 tax cap in favor of a 30 percent tax credit. For most consumers, this makes putting a solar photovoltaic system on their roof thousands of dollars cheaper.

State: Incentives from the California Solar Initiative decline as the number of installed megawatts grows. Its residential incentives began at $2.50 a watt and have dropped several times since. Customers scrambled to get the $1.90-a- per watt rate before it fell to $1.55 a watt on Dec. 1. Other incentive programs are available for new homes, low-income housing and nonresidential systems.

California Conservationists Weigh In on Obama’s Energy Plan

In a recent MSNBC story California conservationsist weighed in our their thoughts about Obama’s goal of doubling the country’s alternative energy in just three years .  This plan could have a big effect in California.  Is it possible or just another impossible idea?  A top expert at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, a leader in renewable energy and conservation, said he thinks it is.   To read more about this story click here.

Weapons Station to Clean Water Faster and Cheaper

SEAL BEACH, Calif. — A cutting-edge treatment of contaminated groundwater at Naval Weapons
Station Seal Beach will save the Navy more than $3 million and cut cleanup time by two-thirds.

In the largest use of bio-augmentation to date, a bacteria culture will be used to treat chlorinated solvent contaminants in the groundwater beneath the base in an area about two-thirds of a mile long, half of a mile
wide and 180 feet deep.

“We are injecting emulsified vegetable oil (EVO) and a bacteria culture called KB-1 that is capable of degrading the solvents in the ground,” said Pei-Fen Tamashiro, installation restoration program manager at station.

Researchers believe that the water was contaminated in the 1960s when the facility was used to manufacture the second stage rocket of the Saturn V launch vehicle for the Apollo space program. Although the contaminated plume is not used as a drinking water source, if it is not treated it could eventually contaminate other aquifers in the area.

Tamashiro will supervise the injection of EVO and KB-1 in more than 200 injection wells around the contaminated area to form six bio-barriers. From there, the contaminated water will flow through the barriers encountering the microbes that will treat the solvents.

If the Navy were not to employ this program, the water would have to be pumped to and treated on the surface.  Doing so takes longer to treat the site and would cost the Navy more money. With the bioremediation process the cleanup will take 15 years, instead of the 50-plus years it would take using the traditional pump-and-treat method.

The microbes used at the Seal Beach site are a natural culture the area lacks.

For more news from Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, visit  http://www.navy.mil/local/sealbeach

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