The California Solar Initiative offers solar rebates through the state’s investor-owned utilities. Currently, Southern California Edison (SCE) has the highest remaining rebate levels, at $1.90/watt (EPBB) for residential customers. To further facilitate solar adoption among its customer base, SCE announced today that it would be offering free educational classes on solar energy at locations throughout [...]

Being an effective solar home owner doesn’t end when the solar panels go on your roof: read below to find out how to make sure you maximize your investment in solar energy. If you’re just joining us in this series, brush up here on Five Things To Do Before You Get Solar and Five Things [...]

Congratulations, you’ve decided to make your home a solar home. You’ve reached the decision after careful thought and some essential first steps. The question is, what happens now?

Get competitive bids. This is a big investment. Be smart about it: comparing quotes may reveal differences not only among the companies in question, but in the total [...]

Solar installations can reduce your monthly electric bill, provide you with clean power, protect you from the rising costs of energy over time, and present a strong, reliable investment. But don’t just jump right in–make sure you’ve got your bases covered:

Reduce your energy consumption. Renewable energy is awesome, but it’s expensive. Reducing your consumption means [...]

Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett has been under fire for a home insulation scheme gone wrong in which as many of 400,000 properties may have received below-grade insulation-and three installers have died of electrocution. And now, the safety of solar panel installations in the country has been called into question as well.
The insulation initiative was [...]

For all you Phoenix-area customers of SRP, remember that the utility’s EarthWise Solar Energy Program’s excellent solar rebate is due to scale back at the end of April 2010. Right now, residential ratepayers can save up to $13,500 on the cost of a home solar installation. Also, the program offers strong incentives for commercial solar installations [...]

In an effort to spur home sales during a gloomy time for real estate, Michigan-based developer Pulte Homes has begun to offer residences with solar roofs at two of its Arizona developments, in addition to a few of its solar roof communities developed earlier elsewhere the country. Since the beginning of the new year, Pulte [...]

Customers of Arizona utility SRP were warned in December that the utility was planning to increase electric rates by 4.9 percent late this spring. This is a scaling back of SRP’s original plan to hike rates by 8.8 percent, a plan derailed by the economy, and should only add about $6 to an average electric [...]

Often, the first thing someone wants to know about solar is: How much does it cost? When I talk to people about their interest in solar power, I try to emphasize that this is not only a difficult question to answer, but often, it isn’t the correct one to ask in the first place. Having [...]

If there’s one thing that a first-time buyer of solar, a seasoned solar installer and we here at GetSolar.com all know about buying a solar system, it’s that solar incentives can be inordinately complicated and differentiated, with utility-, state- and sometimes even county-specific rebates and regulations unapologetically in place. Even the most experienced solar energy [...]