Are you interested in getting discounts on your solar energy system and storage? XCEL’s Solar Rewards program is now offering significant discounts for Income qualified and disproportionately impacted communities program for both solar systems and energy storage systems.
The Program:
For batteries, Xcel will pay for $800 per kW of equipment installed, or up to 80% of the equipment cost. In combination with the 30% federal tax credit, our customers are saving over 80% of the installed cost to add batteries to their solar system.
Xcel also has a program for solar energy systems without batteries that is expected to reopen in 2025. This program offers a discount of one dollar per watt installed for systems up to 7 kW. This means a discount up to 7000$ dollars! This utility rebate could cover over a quarter of total costs in addition to the federal 30% tax credit.
The IQ/DIC program (Income Qualified or Disproportionately Impacted Community) is meant to offer access to clean renewable energy for both households that meet income requirements and communities that are most impacted by environmental health and social justice issues.
How to Qualify:
For the IQ/DIC program, customers must meet one of following criteria:
The median household income is less than two times the federal poverty guideline
The median household income is less than 80% of the area’s median income
The customer may qualify under the income guidelines of Section 40-8.5-105, C.R.S. adopted by the Department of Human Services
Live in a DIC community
The Disproportionately Impacted Communities criteria are defined byColorado EnviroScreen: an environmental justice mapping tool. This program was developed for the Colorado Department of Public Health. The map identifies geographic areas with poor quality of air and water, vulnerability to natural disasters increased by climate change, in close proximity to heavily polluting industries, and higher prevalence of certain diseases likely impacted by these factors.
To find out if you reside in a disproportionately impacted community, you can use the EnviroScreen mapping tool. All addresses located in areas with an EnviroScreen score in the top 20 percent are eligible for these discounts. You can simply type in your address and check if you live in an area with diagonal lines on the map. A significant portion of Xcel territory falls within these areas.
A recent study shows that photovoltaic systems are reliable and operating as expected, with 80% to 90% of all systems performing within 10% of the predicted production or better. This peer-reviewed study was based on the largest to date assessment of 100,000 solar systems. Newer solar panels have even lower rates of degradation, so are likely to produce 85-90% as much electricity after 25 years as they did when new.
The lifespan of a solar panel is much longer than its “energy payback time,” or the time it takes for a solar panel to produce enough clean energy to “pay back” the energy that was used in its manufacturing processes.
Free electricity sounds great, doesn’t it? Surprisingly, solar power has been around much longer than you may think. And with time and technology, it has improved and is now becoming more popular because of its availability. In fact, last year solar power installments broke records by doubling over the previous year.
According to energy.gov, Since 2008, U.S. installations approximately 5.7 million American homes have received power from the 1.2 GW installations. Two years ago, Google launched their program – Project Sunroof – and researched the viability of solar panels. Their findings indicated more than 75% of US rooftops are viable for solar. And, in 2014, Forbes reported a savings of as much as $84 per month on your electric bill with the use of solar energy (not to mention reducing your household’s carbon footprint by an average of 35,180 pounds of carbon dioxide per year).
Additionally, as solar and renewable energy has transformed and evolved, so has the price has gone down, as well as accessibility. Combine that with available tax credits and incentives, the leap to solar may not be as long and hard as you believe.
One great aspect of solar energy conversion is that it does not have to be a complete conversion. It can be installed on large or small scales so you have room to expand as you want. Testing the waters may be the thing to help you determine if you want to do a full conversion or not, but by most accounts, investing in solar energy for your home has increased the resale value of homes and returned the amount of the investment, plus the money saved on monthly power bills.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, “solar energy in the United States is booming.” They report the cost to install solar has dropped by more than 70 percent since 2010 and this has led to a very strong market in solar energy. In fact, solar has had an average annual growth rate of 68% over the past decade. Globally, solar power grew by 50% in 2016.
Decriers of climate change sometimes admonish solar on principle without considering the cost-savings. Solar is not just about energy efficiency or carbon footprints. It is also about the bottom line.
Considering the market growth in solar, new innovations and advances in technology, along with the exponential growth and transformation of solar power, this market is not likely to go anywhere. Rather, it is projected to evolve and expand.
Stay tuned to Golden Solar for more industry news and tips to go solar.
The post The Future Of Solar Energy In The US – What To Expect? appeared first on Golden Solar.
Power outages in the Caribbean and North America often leave millions of people stranded in the dark. Extreme weather is playing a major role in the frequency of these outages. Hurricanes and ice storms, including poor grid infrastructure cause problems. People living outside urban areas are worst affected by poor grid performance.
The Caribbean region has a population of about 40 million living in approximately 7,000 islands. At least 28 countries are part of the regional bloc and they are dealing with the effects of climate change. The Caribbean is bearing the brunt through increased exposure to natural disasters.
Role of Alternative Power Sources
Most people in the Caribbean region rely on generators as an emergency power source. The units are available at an affordable price, thus enabling wider use. However, the cost of running the generators is significantly higher. For this reason, many households run the generators for brief periods in the morning and evening only.
Generators operate using various fuel sources, including liquid natural gas, gasoline or propane. This translates to an additional cost for households. The unavailability of fuel, particularly in lengthy outages can leave families in the dark. As a result, the utility of the equipment becomes limited to short-term power blackouts. On the other hand, entry-level units generate considerable noise and may require large storage space.
Benefits of Solar-plus Storage Systems
The popularity of residential solar PV systems is growing in the Caribbean and North America. Households are leveraging low-cost benefits and the availability of new financing models to reduce exposure to the increasing cost of electricity. New technology enables users to combine the solar PV asset with an on-site energy storage system.
The configuration allows the solar PV asset to act as a backup power system when the grid power is down. The battery storage system creates an island as the power generation transfers to the solar PV array. A protected loads panel regulates the PV power based on the household’s essential energy requirements. The panel’s load management role ensures optimal energy consumption, battery performance (state of charge) and solar PV power production.
Optimization creates a backup power source that is efficient and reliable. Unlike fuel-powered generators, solar-plus provides constant power. A residential energy storage system produces zero emission, noise and does not need maintenance or fuel.
These systems require minimal space in primary and secondary living settings. They can be installed indoors or outdoors. The form factor of newer, integrated lithium batteries is aesthetically pleasing than conventional lead-acid batteries.
The cost of batteries has depreciated in recent years, thus making residential energy storage systems a more attractive and practical power source for households. The systems come with lengthy warranties of up to 10 years, longer working life (20 years or more) and a tight form factor. The systems have a low failure rate and operating costs and the installation process is non-intrusive.
The post Solar Plus Storage Emerge as Next Generation Backup Power Source appeared first on Golden Solar.
The world’s largest consumer of electricity, China also has recently become the world’s biggest producer of photovoltaic cells for solar power. Recent strides are not without challenges, though, and the country remains far from being fossil-fuel free.
2017 Production Surges
In the first half of 2017, China’s solar industry produced 25.9 percent more solar panels than it had during the first half of 2017, for a total of 34 gigawatts this year versus 27 gigawatts during the same period in 2016, according to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA).
Official data published by the National Energy Administration (NEA) shows that 24.4 gigawatts of solar panels were installed during the first six months of the year. This represents an annual increase of 9% from the prior year. In June alone, 13.5 gigawatts were added, representing more than 55% of the entire total for the first half of 2017.
Experts predict that China’s production capacity will reach 60 gigawatts in 2017; last year, capacity reached 48 gigawatts. The continued decrease in production costs — the average cost to manufacture a solar module is less than $0.12 per watt –contributes to the increased production. China’s increased production also results from strong local demand as well as from continued foreign demand, particularly from the United States.
Installed Solar Capacity and Curtailment of Solar Utilization
As of the end of June 2017, China had 101.82 gigawatts of installed solar photovoltaic capacity. However, utilization rates are only at 85 percent on average. And though the national curtailment rate was 37 billion kilowatt-hours as of the end of the first half, representing a reduction of 4.5 percent from the same time the previous year, some regions of the country still show high curtailment solar rates. Underutilization especially is high in the northwestern provinces of Xinjiang and Gansu, whereas much as 30 percent of available solar power is failing to meet the grid.
China’s continued surge in solar energy panel production is threatened, though, by more than just problems with underutilization. An ongoing trade dispute with the United States and a petition to impose tariffs threaten to make the U.S. market hostile to Chinese solar energy products.
Stay tuned to Golden Solar for more industry news, tips, and trends.
