Solar panels can do a lot of things. They can significantly reduce — and in some cases eliminate — your monthly electricity bill, saving hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year. They can add real value to your home. They can reduce your reliance on dirty sources of energy, like coal. They can even make your home look pretty.

But there’s one thing solar panels can’t really do — at least not right now. They can’t reduce our reliance on foreign oil.

How can this be?

As explained nicely by Eric Rosenbaum,

[o]il is not what developed markets use as an input for power generation. In some developing markets, like India and Kenya, diesel is used as a source of power generation. Indeed, solar is expected to grow as an alternative for mini-grid community power solutions in India, and as a replacement for diesel fuel, but that’s on the margins and not relevant for solar…

Translation: as a general rule, we don’t use oil to generate electricity. We use it to fuel our cars and trucks. So, no matter how much electricity we generate using solar panels, we won’t reduce the amount of oil we consume on a daily basis driving to work or shipping boxes across the country.

I’d argue that, as Americans, we don’t settle for the status quo. If something’s broken, we (eventually) figure out a way to fix it. In a way, high oil prices are a reminder that something needs to be fixed. Recall that in July of 2008, when the price of oil touched $147 a barrel and we were facing the prospect of $4- or even $5-a-gallon gasoline, everyone was buzzing about energy conservation, alternative fuels — even carpooling was on the table.

Now, with turmoil in Libya and the price of oil creeping up again, it appears there’s renewed interest in preventing the same old story from playing out again. Luckily, there’s good news.

While solar panels can’t reduce our reliance on imported oil today, they can — and will — do so in the future. Consider two scenarios:

1. We drive more electric vehicles (like the Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt)
2. We put more natural-gas vehicles (particularly long-haul trucks) on the road

In the first scenario, our total consumption of gasoline goes down as more and more electric vehicles hit the road. If at the same time we’re able to increase the amount of electricity generated from solar resources, we’d effectively be powering a portion of our transportation fleet with solar energy. Outcome: solar power could reduce our consumption of imported oil.

The second scenario is a little less straightforward. First, it’s worth noting we have vast natural gas reserves that, thanks to recent advancements in extraction technology, are readily accessible. Powering more of our trucks with domestically abundant natural gas would, all else equal, reduce our need to import oil. If at the same time we’re able to increase the amount of electricity generated from solar resources, we could free up more natural gas for use in the transportation sector. (About 20 percent of our electricity comes from natural gas, nationwide.) This scenario is akin to the plan hatched by Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, although he envisions replacing natural gas electricity generation with wind power rather than solar. Outcome: solar power could reduce our consumption of imported oil.

In sum, solar power can in the future play a key role in reducing our reliance to imported oil, provided a few tweaks are made. High oil prices serve to remind us that these tweaks should be made sooner rather than later.

What’s better than producing clean energy using nothing but the power of the sun? Using that energy to power the cleanup of a federal superfund site that for years has been polluted by pesticides, herbicides and fertilizer runoff.

It’s enough to make any environmentalist giddy.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Jared Blumenfeld, U.S. Congressman Mike Thompson and Linda Adams, Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, yesterday announced just that: solar panels will power the cleanup of the Frontier Fertilizer Superfund site in Davis, California.

“For the first time ever, solar will provide all of the power for a Superfund groundwater cleanup,” said Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “Our goal should be to clean the environment in the greenest way possible—and this new treatment plant sets the benchmark for future actions.”

Solar panels were first installed at the Frontier site in 2007. The initial system, however, offset only a portion of the facility’s electricity needs. In 2010, $350,000 in federal stimulus funds were used to expand the system, which now provides 100 percent of the energy needed to power the groundwater treatment system. The solar panels cover half-an-acre of land and are expected to reduce the site’s electricity costs by about $15,000 a year.

Good news for Florida customers of Progress Energy: they’ll soon be eligible to receive up to $20,000 for installing solar panels.

The utility, which serves 3 million customers in Florida and the Carolinas, is expanding to the Sunshine State its popular SunSense solar rebate program. Starting March 15, homeowners who install solar panels will be eligible to receive a rebate of $2.00 per watt for systems up to 10-kilowatts (kW) in size. That means a maximum rebate of $20,000 is on the table for interested residential solar buyers. When combined with the 30-percent federal tax credit, the new solar rebate program will provide strong incentive for Florida homeowners to get solar.

Businesses, meanwhile, won’t be left behind. Commercial customers of Progress Energy Florida (PEF) may apply for solar rebate funds not to exceed $130,000 per applicant. Funds will be allocated according the following schedule:

Given that the program’s annual budget is $1 million and demand for solar power among Floridians is strong, we expect the solar rebate funds to go quickly. If you’re a PEF customers who’s interested in installing solar panels, we’d encourage you to act sooner rather than later.

Pay attention, freshman members of Congress… In case you missed it, a couple of weeks ago Gallup released results from a recent poll suggesting that Americans want more alternative energy. Here’s what folks were asked:

What’s really interesting here is that, of all eight potential legislative actions, the passage of an alternative energy bill ranks at the top of the list. What’s even more interesting is that a majority of both Republican respondents (75 percent) and Democrat respondents (93 percents) voiced their support for such a bill. Try finding that much bipartisan support on any other issue — I dare you.

One more thing worth noting: you’ll see that, beyond alternative energy, Americans also seem to support expanding exploration and drilling for oil and natural gas. While renewable energy and fossil fuels are by no means incompatible, it’s interesting that respondents support both. This suggests to me that Americans are interested above all in energy sources that are clean (like solar, wind and other renewables) and domestic (like solar, wind and natural gas). Shocker, I know…

Notably absent from the poll question is coal, which is dirty, domestic and divisive. It also accounts for about half of all electricity generation, nationwide.

On Valentines Day, the University of Maryland, College Park agreed to install one of the largest photovoltaic (PV) rooftop solar energy systems in the entire state atop its Severn Building — a building that stands roughly one mile away from the main College Park campus. University officials also announced that they will use a $630,000 grant from the state’s Sunburst Initiative Program to fund a majority of the installation. The Sunburst funds are meant to help fund renewable energy projects at public buildings throughout the state, and the University of Maryland is one of the first public schools in the state to receive funding through the program. The rest of the $2.6 million project will be funded by Washington Gas Energy services.

University of Maryland recently bought the former Washington Post printing press and, after installing the PV solar energy system atop it, the school will transform it into a multi-purpose center with a combination of offices and trade shops. When the solar energy system is completely built and installed this summer, the Washington Post reports that the more than 2,500-panel system will be able to produce 792 megawatt-hours (mWh) of electricity each year and annually reduce the carbon footprint of the entire university by over 600 tons.

Here’s Ann Wylie, Vice President of Administrative Affairs and Chair of the University on the University’s most recent environmental endeavour:

“The University is committed to addressing the significant challenges of this generation, including environmental sustainability, climate change, and renewable energy. The use of solar energy – a clean energy source that produces no greenhouse gases – will move us another step closer to achieving our vision for a greener campus embodied in the university’s Strategic Plan.”

The University of Maryland has been one of many schools at the forefront of the renewable energy movement at public schools around the country. In May 2007, it was one of about 700 schools to sign the American College & University President’s Climate Commitment. Just two years later, the University released a blueprint to become a carbon neutral campus by 2050.

Before installing a solar photovoltaic (PV) system at your home or business, it’s important to know as much as you can about how the system actually works. This way, when you get solar home energy quotes, you’ll know exactly what they’re talking about and won’t drown in a sea of foreign vocabulary.

So today we’re going to delve into one of the most important pieces of your solar energy system: the inverter. The solar energy that your PV solar panels generate is direct current (DC), meaning it flows in a single direction. The inverter converts the electricity into alternating current (AC), so that the it can flow back and forth and feed electricity to different areas of your home.

The solar PV energy system atop your home or business likely features several PV solar panels wired together in series in a single row, or multiple rows depending on the size of your solar energy system. Conventionally, the PV solar panels have to be wired together so that all of the electricity that the PV panels produce is fed into a single inverter.

But there is a new type of inverter that changes the rules of the game: the microinverter. Microinverters are installed on each individual panel. So each panel produces AC power on its own. As a result, the solar PV panels don’t have to be wired together to flow energy to a single inverter.

Today, microinverters are not as common for solar energy home installations because they haven’t been around as long as conventional inverters. Panels equipped with microinverters cost a bit more, too, but they may generate more AC output per panel than a system with a conventional inverter.

If you’re interested in PV panels with micro inverters, talk to your installer about it before choosing a system. And be sure to check out this podcast courtesy of Renewable Energy World in which solar industry professionals debate which type of inverter is best to use. Also interesting is this 2009 article from MIT’s Technology Review.

Just last week, we introduced you to the LED solar pebble — a dependable and easily transportable solar-powered light that can be used in rural areas that lack a steady source of electricity. Today, it’s the solar refrigerator — an equally fascinating and useful development that is also made for those same remote areas.

The solar powered refrigerator was developed by the sustainable engineering firm True Energy and runs on what the company calls Sure Chill Technology. True Energy says that Sure Chill can guarantee a constant and reliable cooling temperature in “the toughest environments. Here’s how it works:

A refrigerator using Sure Chill Technology accesses grid energy and/or solar power when the energy is at its cheapest and most available. If the energy rate is too expensive at a certain time, the solar powered refrigerator can hold out for up to 10 days without using any electricity at all and still maintain a low, cooling temperature. How? It uses a high-density polyurethane foam as an insulator and a phase change material to store energy until it’s needed. So if the temperature rises too high, that stored energy kicks in and cools the refrigerator down.

The solar powered refrigerator keeps everything inside of it between four and six degrees Celsius (39 and 43 degrees Fahrenheit). It’s not widely used at the moment as far as residential use. But Unicef and the World Health Organization (WHO) are already using the solar-powered refrigerator to store vaccinations in remote areas of Africa where they would otherwise not have a place to store vaccinations.

Photo credit: True Energy

Trust me, it’s much more significant than it sounds.

The LED solar pebble is not one of those “cool-but-who-really-needs-that” solar gadgets that we sometimes see. It’s actually a very significant development, specifically for people living in rural parts of Africa using kerosene lamps. According to Inhabitat, kerosene poisoning in some of the most remote and poorest parts of the world kills someone every 2o seconds. The solar pebble is a game-changer with the potential to eliminate the need for such a toxin.

The Solar Pebble was created by Adam Robinson of Plus Minus Solar — a research and design firm based in the UK. It can be used as both a lamp and as a solar charger for smaller electronics like cell phones and batteries. It’s perfect for people in areas that don’t have a steady source of electricity, and it lasts for 12 hours, meaning it can be used throughout an entire day before it needs a charge.

But what makes this solar pebble so valuable is its portability. After all, it’s the size of a pebble. If you’re at home, you can use it to light up a room. If you’re hiking, you can toss it in your backpack and use it to charge electronics. If you’re camping, use the solar pebble to light up the camp site.

Plus Minus Design hasn’t released a price yet because the LED solar pebble is still a few months away from officially being released, but Inhabitat says it costs roughly one-tenth of what a family would otherwise spend on a kerosene lamp. We’ll know more when it hits the market in June 2011, and of course, we’ll keep you updated.

Some California environmental groups want 2011 to bring about a friendlier relationship between themselves and the solar energy industry. To that end, several state environmental organizations, led by the California Desert and Renewable Energy Working Group and Defenders of Wildlife, have come up with a list of recommendations they hope the U.S. Interior Department will consider when approving future solar energy projects. The U.S. Interior Department had a regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, February 10, and discussed the list of requests submitted by the group of environmentalists. The department has yet to formally respond.

On the groups’ list is a request for more communication with the public during the project approval process. Also, the group advocates for siting solar energy plants in areas that are considered “low-conflict,” meaning the projects won’t require the mass relocation of native wildlife, disturb cultural sites or use an abundance of the area’s natural resources, like water.

Kim Delfino, program director for Defenders of Wildlife, spoke about comprise rather than tension between California environmentalists and the U.S. federal government:

“It’s not everything that the environmental community wanted, and it’s not everything that the solar industry wanted, but it is a good middle ground for which we can build and move forward on.”

If you’ve been following solar development in California, you’ll remember that 2010 was mired in a series of lawsuits filed by several state environmental groups against renewable energy development companies and the federal government. The groups claimed that both the companies and the government had neglected to take into account the full scope of environmental impact before approving several large scale solar energy plants to be built in the the Mojave Desert along the California-Nevada border.

Specifically, the groups felt that the companies and government were only pushing one side of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP), a 2008 executive order signed by then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that promised to ensure the safety and habitat of long-term endangered species during construction of solar energy power plants in California. In 2011, the groups hope more consideration will be taken. We’ll keep an eye on the situation.

Biennially since 2002, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has held the solar decathlon, a competition between 20 university teams from around the world that design, construct and operate homes that are affordable, energy efficient and attractive.

The finalists for the competition were recently announced. Among them is Team New Jersey, a collaboration of faculty members and students from Rutgers University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology. It is the first trip to the finals for Team New Jersey and yesterday at Civic Square Building in New Brunswick, New Jersey, State Senator Robert Menendez recognized Team New Jersey and its project, “eNJoy: A Generation House.” The team will next travel to Washington D.C. for the finals.

The home is concrete, making it durable. It’s been described as a “passive solar house,” meaning the sun’s heat enters the home in its natural state of solar radiation by way of the roof and is used for both heating and light. This means there’s no need for fans or pumps to maintain a comfortable temperature. Additionally, Team New Jersey built the roof in the shape of an inverted hip for optimal solar exposure and rainwater collection.

The 20 finalists are chosen after schools submit proposals to be reviewed by renewable energy experts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, American Institute of Architects, National Association of Home Builders, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers. After the competition, the homes are on display for the public free of charge and are usually used as energy research labs.

Here is a list of Solar Decathlon Accomplishments since the 2002 inaugural competition:

• Involved 92 collegiate teams, which pursued multidisciplinary course curricula to study the requirements for designing and building energy-efficient, solar-powered houses
• Established a worldwide reputation as a successful educational program and workforce development opportunity for thousands of students
• Affected the lives of 15,000 collegiate participants
• Expanded its outreach to K–12 students by inviting schools in the Washington, D.C., area to visit on class tours.

Check out images of the 2009 Solar Decathalon.