Photovoltaics Cut Emissions

Even though making photovoltaic solar cells has a negative impact on the environment, over the lifecycle of the solar cells they more than make up for that impact, according to this post in DailyKos (see excerpt below):

The estimated energy payback time (EPBT) for PV ranges from 6 years to 1.1 years, depending upon the type of PV, the insolation, and the installation. PV panels are usually rated to have a lifetime of 25 to 30 years. Now you know what to say when anybody questions whether PV's produce more energy than it takes to make them.

Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 25 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.

Find discounts on energy saving products at http://www.shopipl.org/

Free Solar Panels Too Good To Be True?

Citizenre promises to install free solar panels on the roofs of thousands of customers who will pay the same price for electricity that they do now. Sound too good to be true? Maybe it is, according to an opinion piece on renewableenergyaccess.com. To date they have no factory and no funding, though they claim their funding is lined up.

So why is gambling on Citizenre's plan a problem? Author Jeff Wolfe sees it this way:

As soon as someone signs up for a Citizenre solar system, they are removed from the pool of potential customers for other reputable solar dealers in the U.S. Already, photovoltaic (PV) dealers are telling me that they are losing business because potential customers are signing up with Citizenre -- people are waiting until the reported 500 megawatt "largest fully-integrated PV manufacturing plant in the world" comes online this fall.But it will be September -- the deadline for the build out of the manufacturing facility and beginning installations will have come and gone -- before reality sets in for these customers when they do not receive their solar system on time as promised. Plans seem poised to fall apart, and at that point we'll have four results:

* A lot of very disappointed and upset people.

* A lot of traditional PV dealers who are out of business.

* Reduced or eliminated federal and state incentives for solar electricity due to a perceived lack of need.

* A solar electric industry in the U.S. that has been set backwards 5 years.

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.

New England's Largest Solar Facility Unveiled

The Staples distribution facility in Killingly, Connecticut will unveil its new 433-kilowatt solar voltaic power system today. The system, which covers 74,000 square feet of roof space, was installed by Baltimore-headquartered SunEdison through a $1.7 million grant by the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund , at no cost to Staples. The Clean Energy Fund, part of the quasi-state agency Connecticut Innovations Inc., reported that the system could produce enough energy to power 36 homes per year.

Visit us at www.irejn.org.

Great video on Home Conservation

ABC's Good Morning America has started a new feature called "It's Cool to Be Green." The first installment includes a tour of an energy-efficient home that provides lots of good ideas for saving energy and includes costs and the amount of money saved. See it here.

Visit us at www.irejn.org to learn about our conservation program "This Old House of Worship."