As solar City extends its company arms, the number of residential solar installations rises. Why? The California-based company offers a unique, 20-year, zero-down lease deal to homeowners looking to install solar energy systems. Translation: You pay a monthly fixed rate for using the PV system atop your house. That rate won’t fluctuate with the cost of energy. And even though that fee can vary depending on your region, Solar City claims the savings you’ll see the very first month you use the system will exceed your payment.

This week brought great news for both home and business owners in Massachusetts looking to install solar.

While the world was saying goodbye to 2010 on New Year’s Eve, many in the solar indsutry were gladly welcoming in 2011 — a year that ushered in a plethora of solar energy policies upon its arrival.

South Carolina — currently ranked ranked 20th in solar energy capacity and 29th in generated solar energy among all states — is making an effort to move up the ranks.

Sun Edison has announced today that it is partnering with the electronic manufacturing facility Flextronics to begin constructing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in Ontario, Canada. The manufacturing partnership was made to help Canada’s York region fulfill product demand for its new feed-intariff program (FIT) — the first such electricity pricing structure in North America.

In 2009, the United States federal government converted a 30 percent tax credit for business owners who power their property with solar energy into a 30 percent treasury grant. What’s the difference? The property owners receive a check reimbursing them for 30 percent of the project’s cost within 60 days of completing the installation rather than waiting to use the tax credit against taxes they owe once a year.

Standard Solar, inc. has partnered with Sol Systems to make clean energy systems cheaper for Standard Solar’s customers by allowing them to use solar renewable energy credits (SREC’s) to pay for up to 30 percent of a solar energy installation.

Los Angeles homeowners: your solar rebates may be on the chopping block. Due to falling solar panel costs and an overstretched solar rebate budget, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has proposed cutting by 30 percent its solar energy incentive for home and business solar energy installations. That, according to Ken Button, [...]

Palisade Pharmacy, with the help of Colorado-based Syndicated Solar, has installed a 13-KW solar energy system that is expected to off-set nearly half of the pharmacy’s annual energy consumption and save the nearly 35-year-old business approximately $2,400 in utility costs each year.

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 [...]