From 2007 to 2008, the total capacity of grid-tied California solar installations just about doubled, rising from 81 megawatts (mWs) to 160 mWs (see California Public Utilities report). Clearly, the demand for solar is rising. Since the value of solar lies predominantly in how much energy it produces — which translates into conventional electricity savings — it’s important to know exactly how many kilowatt-hours (kWh) your solar panels can crank out on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis. When you take your home or business solar, a professional solar quote will tell you how much energy you can expect your system to produce over time.

But once the solar installation is complete, how do you know you’re getting the most out of your system? How can you tell whether a solar energy system is reaching its energy production goal? Data tracking services provide an easy solution. There are now websites to keep you in the know, revealing live figures of how many watts your system is producing. If you want to get a little jealous, you can even check out websites that track production at utility-scale solar power plants. Here are few clear cut sites designed to help you stay attuned to your system’s production.

Solar Quest is an easy to understand site that features color-coded charts of the amount of energy produced by selected commercial systems. It also provides a glimpse at weather data for the next 48 hours. The site focuses on the Santa Cruz, Calif. area, and groups their monitoring into two groups: grid-connected systems and battery-backup systems.

If you don’t have solar but are thinking about a future installation, the California Energy Commission’s Consumer Energy Center offers the Clean Power Estimator, a tool that displays the cost and potential output of a given solar photovoltaic (PV) system. How does it work? Punch in your zip code and specify whether you are a commercial or residential customer. The estimator then takes into account local weather data, government incentives, average electricity prices and other known variables to give you your system’s potential internal rate of return and carbon dioxide emission reduction.

RMeter gives real-time info about your energy production and consumption using California Energy Commission certified grade meters. You can download rMeter’s second-by-second charts and graphs from anywhere and rMeter can quickly identify a system’s problems and help with troubleshooting from any web browser.

If you’re concerned about the performance of your solar hot water heater, WiredSolar has you covered. The site allows solar hot water owners to closely monitor their system’s operation with detailed graphs and reports to help you get the most out of your system. The information can also be accessed from any connected web browser.

Finally, the National Renewable Energy Laboratoy (NREL) has launched the Open PV Project, which over time may become the single most comprehensive resource for tracking solar installations and their energy outputs — in California and beyond. The project enables individuals to upload their own PV business or household data (Cost, Production, Consumption), thus creating a database of all PV installations. By gathering data, NREL is able to keep a running total of solar installations, installed capacity and average cost per watt.

Spring cleaning: it’s a perennial fixture in our lives as days get warmer and longer. Routine chores that fall victim to procrastination all year long should — and will — finally get checked off the list. But spring cleaning also offers a chance to consider something new, like solar energy products for gardening and other outdoor projects. What better time than spring to turn over a new leaf? Check out some of the solar home garden products below and see if they fit your spring planting plans.

Solar ground lights are an efficient way to bring glow to your garden. You can stake them into the soil beside your freshly grown buds, or blend them into the steps of your patio deck. There are even some lights that are mounted into hollow rocks, for a more natural look. Here are a few lighting products to look into:

• Solar Garden Spot Light
• Stainless Steel Solar Garden Light
• Solar Powered Accent Lighting Landscape

Solar powered flood lights tap energy from panels — usually rooftop-mounted — and convert it to LED lighting:

• Solar Flood Light SI7
• Concept SL-200

Another tool that’s ripe for spring is the solar water pump, which can be an energy-efficient and economical option for agricultural, recreational and residential projects. Battery-backup pumps are available for use when the sun doesn’t shine. There are surface, submersible and circulating pumps, usually sold separately from the solar panels. Look into one of each and decide what best suits your needs:

• Submersible Sun Pump
• Surface Pump
• Pulley Circulating Water Pump

Finally, give your garden some character with a solar fountain. The fountains have a built-in solar pump connected to a small photovoltaic (PV) panel. They do collect enough energy to power through the night, but they can flatter any home display and provide a soothing-sounding flow during the day. Interested? There are plenty on the market for all tastes:

• Portsmouth Bird Bath Fountain
• Smart Solar Pillar Fountain
• SouthWest Solar-Powered Fountain

See also: Low-Cost Solar Solutions.

Here’s the solar-energy skinny for this Friday:

Catholic schools across upstate New York are installing rooftop solar systems, according to The Buffalo News. A joint effort of NYSERDA, a private solar installation company and the Diocese of Buffalo, the solar installations will together represent 1.5 megawatts of capacity. Panels have already been installed at elementary schools in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Hamburg, Lancaster and Lockport. Want more solar-powered nuns? (Correct answer: yes.) Check out this post from the GetSolar archives: “The Vatican Goes Solar.”

The Harrah’s Rincon Casino has since January been powered partly by a nearby solar energy farm, reports the San Diego Union Tribune. Located about half-way between L.A. and San Diego, the casino draws electricity from a one-megawatt solar installation — the largest solar power system on a local Indian reservation, according to the article.

After days of wrangling, the Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power (LADWP) yesterday voted 4-0 to enact the first of four planned rate increases, via the L.A. Times. The vote will in effect add 0.8 of a cent for each kilowatt-hour (kWh).

Also in California solar energy news, construction of the country’s first concentrating photovoltaic (CP) solar power installation is underway, reports Green Inc. Silicon-Valley start-up SolFocus is building the one-megawatt for Victor Valley College in Victorville, Calif., just northeast of Los Angeles. In theory, CP technology generates more energy per square unit of area by focusing the sun’s rays on photovoltaic (PV) cells. In practice, high temperatures — a product of highly concentrated sunlight — tend to lower the operating efficiency of conventional PV cells. IBM, for instance, is developing a “thermal interface layer” — that is, a component that helps keep the cells cool. I’m not familiar with the SolFocus’ technology, but I imagine they address the same set of issues.

Atlanta may soon see an inflow of strong beer, frites and other Belgian specialities, as Enfinity Corp. — a Belgium-based solar energy — announced it will base its Americas headquarters there, via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The move is expected to create at least 30 jobs.

More solar IPOs than M&As in 2010? Morgan Stanley seems to think so: renewable energy companies are more likely this year tap equity and debt markets rather than pursuing mergers with utilities, via Bloomberg.

Also in solar-related investing news, SunPower Corp. reported a 70 percent fall in Q4 profit, mainly due to shrinking margins, via WSJ.com. Despite weak profits, the company’s sales were up.

Finally, don’t miss this plug for solar power by Rhone Resch, head of the Solar Energy Industries Association — it’s definitely worth a read. Not quite sure what’s he’s going for with his college basketball analogy, however:

Across the country, people will start tuning in today to see how well they’ve done filling out their brackets for the NCAA basketball tournament. President Obama bestowed the “First Pick” on Kansas, while I’ve got my money on Syracuse. I admit I’m biased; I have a degree from there. But the Orange look poised to make it to Indianapolis.

When it comes to making their picks for energy, three out of four Americans have solar going all the way in their bracket.

Huh?

Anyway, Resch then goes on to list a number of stats showcasing solar power’s myriad merits and, finally, pulls hard for The Solar Bill of Rights, an initiative that deserves everyones’ attention.

Have a great weekend. We’ll see you back here next week.

Industry cost leader First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) soon may face increased competition in the thin-film solar market in the form of GE, which is making the switch from traditional silicon to cadmium-telluride—the same material that First Solar uses—in its production of solar panels. Apparently following the same logic as the Arizona-based solar giant, GE’s research arm released on Thursday news about its activities in cadmium telluride, which it has deemed the most potentially cost-effective material to use in manufacturing solar photovoltaic cells.

“We think cad tel fundamentally has better cost structure than other thin-film technologies” [said Danielle Merfeld, the solar technology platform-leader at GE’s research facility in Niskayuna, NY]. “The combination of efficiency that we think we can get to, the yield of the manufacturing line, the cost of manufacturing, and the cost of raw materials–the combination gives us the best outcome for making electricity.”

GE’s thin-film solar cells will utilize technology from PrimeStar Solar, a Denver, Colorado-based company of which it was the majority shareholder in 2008, and will go into production sometime in 2011. While that’s still a long way off, GE isn’t letting its announcement go unnoticed by potential rivals.

In terms of efficiency, Merfeld said GE projects it can come to market with a solar panel that is more efficient than what First Solar already offers, which is about 11 percent.

As one of the two largest solar manufacturers in the world, First Solar is unlikely to allow GE into its space without a fight, particularly since the latter is targeting the utility market with its new panels. With its reputation for efficient manufacturing and its strong financial performance even in the face of economic crisis, First Solar has presumably long since begun to gear up for a fight.

A Home Energy Rating (HERS) is a key component of a home energy audit, a tool to help your home meet ENERGY STAR Efficient Guidelines. Why is this important for solar installations?

Going solar is an exciting decision to make, but you should take certain preliminary measures before you install a system. An energy audit is one of those measures and arguably the most important. Reducing your energy usage means that a solar energy system will offset a greater percentage of that usage: you’ll save more on electricity costs in the long run, and your home solar system will pay for itself more quickly. Some states even encourage energy audits by rewarding homeowners who do them with a higher solar rebate level.

The HERS rating is essentially a total analysis and diagnosis of how energy efficient a home’s construction plan is. What comes out of the HERS inspection is an index scoring, which is established by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET).

The index score (0-100) is given by comparing the inspected home to a HERS Reference Home: the HERS Reference Home has a score of 100 (least energy efficient), while a net-zero energy home has a score of 0. Each one point score reduction is equal to a one percent reduction in energy consumption compared to the reference home. For example, if a home receives a HERS score of 70, that means it is 30 percent more energy efficient than the HERS Reference Home.

An energy audit that gives your home a HERS rating is an important step to take before investing in a renewable energy system because once you receive your initial score, the auditor will work with you to make energy efficiency improvements–the lower your score after the improvements are made, the more energy efficient your house is and the better prepared you are for solar. And incidentally, a solar installation or other on-site power generation won’t reduce your HERS score.

To find out other steps you should take before going solar on your home or business, check out 5 Things To Do Before You Get Solar.

For some time now, we’ve seen American solar panel manufacturers struggle to keep costs low enough to compete with their Chinese and Japanese counterparts. Last year, Massachusetts-based Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: ESLR) had to move solar panel assembly to China (though retaining its manufacturing facility not far from Boston) in order to cut back on costs and please investors. But there has still been a certain sense of complacency about our R&D leadership: after all, industry mover and shaker First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) started out in Tempe, Arizona, and high tech solar products under development at research institutions like MIT get a lot of press.

But our complacency may be cloaking a a stagnating sector. We may be getting outpaced not just in manufacturing, but in R&D, a growing concern in the industry voiced today in  an article in the New York Times. Author Keith Bradsher writes about the first instance of a US solar company’s CTO making the move to China. Silicon Valley-based Applied Materials is moving some of its operations to China. The Chinese government’s generous financial concession have made it possible for the California solar component supplier to build what may be the world’s most cutting-edge solar research laboratories.

The CTO in question, Charles Pinto, says that Applied Materials isn’t giving up on America, but that China is (a) where the energy needs are, and (b) where the support is. The new labs are staggeringly huge–each bigger than two football fields.

Now, Mr. Pinto said, researchers from the United States and Europe have to be ready to move to China if they want to do cutting-edge work on solar manufacturing because the new Applied Materials complex here is the only research center that can fit an entire solar panel assembly line.

“If you really want to have an impact on this field, this is just such a tremendous laboratory,” he said.

Pinto’s obviously a little bit biased–one imagines it’s still possible to do cutting-edge work without these labs–but the mechanics behind the lab are what’s important. Why set up in China and not in the Mojave? Or Detroit? Because China is willing to put its money where its mouth is:

Locally, the Xi’an city government sold a 75-year land lease to Applied Materials at a deep discount and is reimbursing the company for roughly a quarter of the lab complex’s operating costs for five years, said Gang Zou, the site’s general manager.

Despite President Obama’s strong pushes for clean energy development, it’s still difficult to make projects cost competitive here. Cheap skilled labor combined with a national government desperate to solve the energy crisis it sees coming over the next few decades have combined to make a fertile field for expensive solar energy R&D and manufacture.

US solar companies are going to have to fight pretty hard to hang on to any kind of leadership position; yes, Applied Materials is still technically a US-based company, but what enormous employment, growth, and prestige potential just got bought by China? In this vicious economy, it’s going to be more difficult than ever to keep this kind of development on home soil, but simultaneously, it’s a time when creating (or retaining) American jobs is of the utmost importance. The problem is that someone has to foot that bill–and that’s something that in this country, we seem to have a hard time wrapping our heads around. We’d better figure it out soon. In the meantime, don’t act surprised as more talent and more jobs keep slipping offshore.

Today’s solar power rundown will be short and sweet, with a focus on: collective solar installations in Colorado and beyond; an aluminum giant’s foray into solar power; and a decent-size solar power project in California’s central valley.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo) announced yesterday that he will introduce a bill to extend the 30-percent residential solar tax credit to “community-based,” collective solar installations, via BusinessWeek. Dubbed the Solar Uniting Neighborhoods Act, Udall’s proposal would all homeowners to receive federal tax credits for solar panels installed elsewhere. Renters and people with shady roofs unite! See yesterday’s Rundown for more on solar energy gardens in Colorado.

Chinese solar-panel maker Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE:TSL) says it will offer 8 million American depositary receipt (ADR) shares, via Forbes. The company plans to use the proceeds for R&D and to expand manufacturing facilities for the production of solar cells and solar panels.

Another story comes out of Roseville, Calif.: Solar Power, Inc. announced yesterday they won a contract with Baldwin Park Unified School District to install a number of solar installations across its school district, via a press release on MarketWatch. How big are we talking? Eight projects that together comprise a solar system size of 2.24 megawatts.

Aluminum-making giant Alcoa (NYSE:AA) is piling into the solar energy sector, according to a press release. The company announced today it is jointly testing an “advanced solar technology” with the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). The aim? (1) Simply the design of parabolic reflectors, and — related — (2) drive down manufacturing costs to make concentrating solar power (CSP) technology more competitive. They’ll face stiff competition, as Google has in the paced placed bets on making solar thermal technologies cheaper and more competitive, too. And, as Todd Woody of Green Inc. points out, a solar + aluminum could be an interesting, if not ironic, mash-up, as the metal requires an enormous amount of energy to manufacture.

In California solar installation news, SunPower will build at 1-megawatt solar energy system for Yolo County, via PRNewswire. The system will be sited at the Yolo County Justice Center in Woodland, Calif., and will be made possible in part by energy conservation bonds available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It goes without saying that Yolo County — which incorporates Davis, West Sacramento, Winters and Woodland — gets a boatload of sunshine each year.

Related, a large California solar installation project is making progress, according to NYTimes.com. The planning stage has been something of a roller coaster ride for many observers. Like any major engineering project, large-scale installations face a rigorous review process, which typically involves environmental impact assessments and periods for public comment. For more, see these GetSolar tidbits:

• Mojave Solar Power Project Scaled Back
• San Bernardino Stalls Desert Solar Project
• Clashes Over BrightSource’s Mojave Desert Solar Project Result in Project Termination

That’s all, folks. Post your comments and suggestions below — and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Just as we did in January, GetSolar would like to remind Phoenix-area customers that the April 30 deadline is fast approaching for the SRP EarthWise Solar Energy Rebate Program. Solar installers in the area are willing to give quotes for home or business installation.

From now until the deadline, residents going solar can save up to $13,500 on installation. As far as commercial solar installations, systems smaller than 50 kilowatts (kW) receive a rebate of $2.25/watt (roughly 30 percent of the cost), up to a maximum cap of $112,500. Commercial installations of 50 kW to 300 kW in size receive a production-based incentive: $0.16/kWh for 20 years, or $0.214/kWr for 10 years.

Be sure to take advantage of these unusually high rebates before the scale-back kicks in at the end of April.

Alright, kids — Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We know you’re all itching to get off work and head for a pint, a plate of cabbage and some sweet St. Patty’s Day schwag. But bear with us, as there’s plenty of interesting solar energy news stories today, including: new developments in Colorado’s solar garden plan; plans for a giant solar power installation in Taiwan, courtesy of Suntech; and a new mash-up between a bix-box home improvement retailer and a California solar installation firm.

First up, in finance and investing news, Wall Street is these days favoring coal over solar energy, via Bloomberg. The metric? The world’s biggest coal producer, Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE:BTU), is rated a “buy” by 79 percent of analysts, while only 44 percent have a similar rating for solar thin-film maker First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR). With Congress bogged down in heated healthcare debates, the prospect of comprehensive climate bill is barely a pixel on the radar — especially ahead of mid-term elections in November. Seems we may have to wait a bit longer for a price on carbon. Thoughts?

PPL Utilities customers in Pennsylvania who want to buy solar energy system cannot combine the utility’s new solar rebate with the state’s Sunshine Solar Rebate program, according to a new decision by PA officials. Via Sunpluggers: “In some cases, the rebate and tax-credit combination could have made a solar-electric system virtually free. The state’s decision now sets up a situation in which consumers can choose between the two rebates, with most buyers of smaller systems benefiting more from the utility’s offer and larger systems from the state’s rebate.”

Colorado solar installers have misgivings about the state’s plan for community solar gardens, according to the Boulder Daily Camera. A bill, sponsored by Rep. Claire Levy (D-Boulder), would allow individuals who otherwise couldn’t install rooftop solar panels — like renters and people with shady roofs — to benefit from collective solar installations. What could possibly be wrong with that? It turns out that, as originally structured, the provision would classify solar gardens as a “community-based project.” Under Colorado law, such projects are granted a multiplier — that is, every 1 kilowatt (kW) of “community-based” solar energy is actually counted as 1.5 kW when tallying a utility’s renewable energy obligation. Other states, like New Jersey and Massachusetts, have used multipliers to incentivize the use of solar equipment that’s manufactured in state. Long story, short: some members of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (CoSEIA) worry that, as currently structured, the solar gardens plan would (1) favor large-scale projects, which are typically won by big, out-of-state installation companies, and (2) result in fewer installed solar kWs than might otherwise be the case. This difference could be as much as 30 mW over the next ten years, according to a figure cited by the Daily Camera.

Related to the above: Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in California offers a similar option under their Solar Shares program.

Suntech (NYSE:STP) will supply solar panels for what will be Taiwan’s largest solar energy plant, according to a press release. At 4.7 megawatts, the planned installation will double the island’s installed solar generation capacity.

In December we relayed news that Akeena Solar (NASDAQ:AKNS) will sell its solar panels at Lowe’s. Now, it seems, Akeena will also offer solar installation services for Lowe’s customers, via MarketWatch. The service will be available at 21 locations across California.

Vote Solar, an non-profit industry advocacy group, held their annual fundraiser last night in downtown San Francisco. Stay tuned — we’ll post links to any clips of the evening’s speakers.

Also in California solar energy news, University of California, San Deigo (UCSD) recently announced it will receive a $500,000 grant from the California Public Utilities Commission, according to LaJollaLight.com. The cash will be used to study ways to improve solar power in cloudy conditions.

And… that’ll do it. Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday. See you back here tomorrow.

All right, renewable energy lovers (you know who you are): why is solar so hot right now? Where has all the wind power love gone? Now, we’re not knocking wind energy–seriously, it’s a great technology and in many applications is more cost effective than solar. We just want to make it clear why solar has got everyone in a tizzy. Here are three major ways in which solar beats out wind:

1) More reliable. On a yearly basis, it’s pretty easy to predict how much sunshine will hit solar panels in any given location.  This means you can get a reliable savings estimate over the lifecycle of a solar PV system. Even in excellent locations for wind turbines, wind varies so greatly that it’s more difficult to estimate your energy production, savings, and ROI with precision.

2) Way less likely to give your HOA conniption fits. Are there small wind turbines available for residential use? Yes. Is it an enormous pain in the neck to deal with many local zoning regulations, not to mention the wrath of your neighbors over sight lines? Yes. On a commercial level, this can unfortunately even be true. Just look at Cape Wind, an amazing project concept with the potential to produce enormous amounts of energy in the wind sweet spot of Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts. The project has been under development for years and years now, blocked mostly by grumpy residents’ (some of whose last names may or may not be “Kennedy”) complaints about what the far-off turbines would do the look of the horizon. In computer mockups of the project, you can barely even see the turbines from shore; but the point is, it’s a hard sell. Solar isn’t. It looks all sexy and high-tech, blocks no one’s views of whatever, and ups property values. Win.

3) No moving parts. Solar energy systems last for decades with little maintenance (unless there’s a tracking system involved, but we’re not getting fancy here). Wind turbines, while the equipment keeps on ticking for a long, long while, need expensive and relatively frequent upkeep. It’s common sense–the fewer moving parts, the fewer things to break. The fewer things to break, the fewer things to fix. And while reports of wind turbines’ fatal effect on native avian populations are greatly exaggerated, accidents do happen. Unless a squirrel chews through a live wire on your roof and crispies itself, wildlife, children, and the supermodels at your amazing weekend rooftop parties are perfectly safe with solar.