Amidst a flurry of energy announcements, the White House also released a video about the new solar panels on the White House today.
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Yolo County Shows the Way to Being Grid Positive
By Roy L Hales
Yolo is the only grid positive county government in the United States. They do not have an electric bill. Pacific Gas and Electric will have to pay Yolo around $500,000 a year for the surplus electricity it feeds the grid! Now Terry Vernon, deputy director of Yolo County General Services, wants to improve on that. He would like to add another renewable energy project that would boost the county’s revenues by another $5 million a year.
Rare Birds: A Newly Founded Yet Fully Mature Community
By Roy L Hales
Rare Birds was birthed out of friendship. One of the inspirations was the film “How to boil a Frog,” that Mary Jordan and Val MacKay-Greer saw at the 2011 Kamloops Film Festival. The film maker had wanted to bring hope to his daughter’s generation. It brought forth hope in Mary and Val as well. They were attracted to a communal lifestyle.
“What’s stopping us,” Val said.
California’s Solar storage scandal
SolarCity spokesperson Will Craven said that about 500 of their California customers have agreed to install batteries for power storage, but the state’s three biggest utilities have only connected 12 since 2011. He decided to go to the press after Southern California Edison (SCE) said they were going to charge $2,900 to install a meter, whereas SolarCity has found that an adequate meter can be purchased for between $75-150. The situation has greatly improved since Craven was interviewed by Bloomberg and PV Tech.
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Reliable Solar Mounting Systems
There are currently approximately 400,000 homes in the US with rooftop solar arrays and by 2024 solar panels may be more common than satellite dishes. In their white paper, “The Importance of Reliable Solar Mounting Systems,” Barry Cinnamon, Liz Oh, and a consortium of experts in the solar industry provide a manual on how to avoid problems like roof leaks, loose panels, and defective wiring.
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