Solar-powered homes remain a distant dream for many in the US

It seems like the ultimate in green technology for an emissions-savvy citizen of the 21st century: solar panels on your roof, providing carbon dioxide-free electricity whenever the sun is shining. But as huge utility-scale solar and wind projects continue to make news and the economy continues to struggle, the state of the residential solar sector in the United States remains decidedly mixed.

From the first quarter of 2010 to the fourth quarter, installations of U.S. residential solar systems rose from 62 megawatts to 74 megawatts (enough to power about 15,000 homes), and the Solar Energy Industries Association reports that the first quarter of 2011 saw similar gains over the same period in 2010. Considering that the total installed solar capacity in the U.S. — residential, commercial, and industrial-scale of all types included — still hasn’t cracked 3,000 megawatts (enough to power roughly 600,000 homes), this feels like progress.

Yet if you look at residential solar’s share of the total U.S. solar market, the picture is less bright. In 2009, 36 percent of all installed solar systems were on homes; this dropped to 30 percent in 2010, and some experts think that will continue to fall.

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California may now hold the record for largest residential solar system in the world. The 150-kilowatt system is about 30 times larger than an average 5-kilowatt residential system.

The estate sits atop a hill in Los Angeles. Instead of installing the 600-panel solar power system on their roof, the owners, who choose to remain anonymous, installed the array on the south-facing downward slope of the hill. This increases the efficiency of the system. Tilted panels typically produce more power than those laid flat.

The owners showed a bit of whimsy in the installation, leaving a gap in the rows and columns of solar panels to accommodate a boulder protruding from the craggy slope.

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Econ 101 Solar panels increase home values 2

It stands to reason that adding an asset which cuts your electricity bills–solar panels–will bump up a home’s value. Now an economic study attaches numbers to solar panels’ real-estate value.

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) recently released an analysis that found solar panels add between 3 percent and 4 percent to the value of a home. That result is consistent with a study released in April by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which found that solar photovoltaic (PV) panels have a “sizeable effect” on home prices.

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Green technologies for eco friendly homes of the future

Global warming, pollution and toxic wastes scream that our environment is rapidly deteriorating. To protect our own interests, it is quite imperative that we should think and implement ways and techniques that are eco-friendly. We can think of building homes or remodeling an existing home using eco-friendly materials and methods. This goes a long way in contributing towards protecting our environment.

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Sonnenschiff Solar City Produces 4X the Energy it Consumes

Although net-zero projects have been creating a lot of buzz lately in the field of green building, the Sonnenschiff solar city in Freiburg, Germany is very much net positive. The self-sustaining city accomplishes this feat through smart solar design and lots and lots of photovoltaic panels pointed in the right direction. It seems like a simple strategy — but designers often incorporate solar installations as an afterthought, or worse, as a label. Designed by Rolf Disch, the Sonnenschiff (Solar Ship) and Solarsiedlung (Solar Village) emphasize power production from the start by smartly incorporating a series of large rooftop solar arrays that double as sun shades. The buildings are also built to Passivhaus standards, which allows the project to produce four times the amount of energy it consumes!

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Why installing solar power looks increasingly attractive for homeowners

Are you a homeowner with some spare cash? A 20%-25% collapse in the price of rooftop solar power units in recent months has turned the government’s feed-in tariff scheme into one of the most lucrative financial propositions for households with the right sort of property.

The scheme was introduced in April 2010, when the Labour government introduced generous feed-in tariffs to encourage households to install solar photovoltaic systems. Back then, anyone spending, say, £13,000 up front to fit a 2.5kWp system to their home was paid 41.3p per kilowatt hour (kWh) generated – enough to earn them a typical annual income of £900 a year in payments, on top of a £140-a-year saving in reduced electricity bills.

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With climate change being such a hot topic many people are looking to ways at having less of an impact on the environment. Buying an eco-friendly home, or even making your current home more environmentally friendly would not be considered unusual. If you have an eco-friendly home that you are wanting to put on the market then you are in a good position. Being able to state your home is eco-friendly is a big draw card for buyers, and with all the energy and money saving extras on your house you will be able to demand a higher price. Having a solar panel to heat your water, or energy efficient appliances, or even the house itself being made out of recyclable materials will help create a lot of buyer interest. Don’t forget the steps to selling your home will be the same, with the buyer having the usual added costs like stamp duty and conveyancing fees.

Play to its strengths

A major benefit when selling an eco-friendly home is you will be able to ask more for it simply due to the additions you have made and also if your home is made from recycled materials using environmentally friendly methods of building. Your home is worth more and so you can ask for more. If potential buyers balk at the price you need to be sure that they are made aware of the savings they will make in the long run. Through the use of either solar energy or energy supplied by wind turbines, with water saving devices like shower heads and energy efficient appliances and a design of home that makes the best of natural light, a new owner will have significant savings on energy.

Spreading the word

By selling an eco-friendly home you will not only make the new owners aware of the need to help the environment but pass the message on to others as well. More than one person will inspect your home, and even those who aren’t the buyers may take away new knowledge about how they can make their own homes more environmentally friendly. The new owners will have a whole new set of friends and family who will visit and may feel inspired to turn their homes into energy efficient houses.

Helping the environment

You can be happy knowing that you are passing on a home that will mean another family is benefiting from sustainable living and that their impact on the environment will be significantly reduced.

Supporting green living

By helping create a demand for environmentally friendly homes you will encourage others to change to a more sustainable lifestyle and hopefully start a chain reaction that will spread over time to ensure that all new homes are automatically built using eco-friendly practices and meet energy saving standards.

Find a green real estate agent

There are real estate agencies that specialize in eco-friendly homes. This is your best option in selling your home as they will understand the finer points of what to highlight to potential buyers. They will also attract clients wanting to purchase this type of home in the first place. Use these agencies to help you benefit most from your sale.

Source: renewable-energy
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