Solar Depot

The Home Depot has teamed up with BP Solar to provide solar installation service to customers. It is offering (...) free, in-home consultations. California is also getting ready to make solar roofs mainstream. Renewable Energy Access reports: "When the clock strikes midnight on January 1, 2007, SB 1, California's new state law that provides $3.2 billion in funding to build a million solar roofs over the next ten years, will officially take effect. But in order for SB 1 to succeed -- and the solar industry as a whole to continue to expand -- it's time to start marketing solar power as an accessible, aesthetically pleasing, and cost-effective product to the average consumer, according to California Senator Kevin Murray."

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This is great. I've heard, though, that government refunds are only given to people that use the services of specific contractors, who mark things up way too much and end up basically gobbling up the government grants... I hope that is not true, but...

Here's an article by my friend Lonnie Gamble (see photo), who lives totally off the grid:

Let's Redirect Iowa's $6 Billion Yearly Energy Expenses into Local Sustainable Projects (...) This article gives you a flavor of what could be done at the city level to save energy, reduce our dependence on oil, increase our dependence on the sun, and make our communities more interesting places to live. (...) The next step for any interested town would be to fund detailed feasibility studies of some of these ideas—$10,000 spent on feasibility and preliminary design work could yield millions of dollars in benefits.

I wonder how expensive solar shingles really are. There must be an easy-to-install, scale-economy relatively inexpensive solution.