Should Your House Go Solar?

Feb. 22 - KGO (KGO) -- Solar power in homes is a hot commodity these days with all the rebates and incentives and tax credits. 73 percent of Californians think solar power is a good idea but have not yet taken action installing panels on their rooftop.

Those who are "going solar" on their home tend to be upper middle class professionals living in a 2,000 square foot home. With $3 billion dollars in rebates available, homeowners are suddenly anxious to take advantage of solar energy hoping to save a big chunk of the installation costs.

So you may notice a lot of solar panels coming to your neighborhood soon, though some experts say, it may be a very big waste.

In the past few years, those who chose solar were more often upper class homeowners who didn't care how much it cost because they were most interested in "going green". The panels for solar systems carry a warranty in many cases to last 25 years--- experts place their life expectancy at 20 to 40 years. The best candidates are homes with south-facing rooftops with little shade.

Of course, homes located inland have more solar potential than those in extremely foggy coastal areas. Companies can usually assess how much power your home is capable of generating in order to make a decision on investing in solar. Sometimes homeowners elect to put in solar systems that are smaller than what they need for all their energy--- but the system still knocks off the higher-priced electricity tiers so they're left paying very low priced electric bills. Most opt to connect to the grid and PG&E's infrastructure--- which allows you to bank excess solar energy to use in "darker" times like nights and in the winter. PG&E charges $5 a month to connect to their grid.

So many customers pay $60 a year for electricity . Still, in a blackout, you'd go down just like other customers, solar or not. Complete off-the-grid systems require banks of batteries that take up lots of space and are filled with potentially toxic chemicals. In 8-12 years, a system should have paid for itself in saved electric bills. Some homeowners say the monthly payments they make now on the borrowed money for the solar system is less than what they would normally pay to PG&E, so the costs are recovered almost immediately.

The director of UC Berkeley's Energy Institute says while solar is "ok", the technology could be vastly improved if we invested in research & development--- that in 5 years, a single solar panel would be able to generate much more power than today's panels if only we invested now in the improving the technology instead of wasting state money on rebates. Eventually, solar needs to generate power at a lower initial investment, putting in within the reach of more Bay Area homeowners.

Solar panels should not be installed on an old roof. They should be considered as a roof is replaced or on a roof that's only a few years old. The solar panels will actually extend the life of the roof as they block out light and heat from the roofing material. There seems to be a huge momentum building behind solar power, which many attribute to the growing interest in global warming --- it's now "politically correct" and California is certainly leading the way on that front.

But the US produces, right now, only 7 percent of the worlds solar energy supply. Germany, just the single country of Germany, produces 57 percent of the worlds' solar power. We have a long way to go as we hope we've chosen the right road to energy independence.

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