What is a solar panel system?

Roof-mounted solar panel systems absorb and convert the energy-packed photons of natural sunlight into a usable energy form. The solar panel systems are often referred to as PV, or photovoltaic, solar power systems.

Home installation of a high-quality solar power system can reduce or eliminate dependence on the community power grid that supplies electricity to light, heat, cool, and operate your home.

The result of a residential solar power system installation is a clean, renewable energy source that requires minimal maintenance with savings that may pay back the initial investment in just a few years.

Once your solar system is paid off, you will have decades of free energy.

Most residential solar power systems are referred to as grid-tied systems, meaning they are still connected to the power grid and can utilize it for backup power, whereas in remote areas with undeveloped land and limited access to grid power, off-grid systems are more common.

This video explains how a grid-connected solar system works to power a home:

Related articles:

Grid-tied solar systems explained

Blackouts: Are off-grid solar systems the answer?

What are the main components of a solar panel system?

Understanding the components of a solar power system is the first step. The components of a home solar power system include:

• Solar panels
• Solar inverter
• Solar racking
• Solar performance monitoring
• Solar storage

Solar panels

The solar panels themselves are the key elements of a solar power system. The essential attributes to consider are the efficiency, cost, warranty, and technology type.

SolarReviews produces an extensive, unbiased list of leading solar panel brands from around the world comparing attributes such as efficiency and warranty.

The two types of solar panels most suitable for residential solar installations are monocrystalline and polycrystalline panels. These perform similarly, although the monocrystalline is slightly more efficient and a little more expensive.

The number and placement of solar panels are dependent on:

• Your energy requirements
• Usable roof surface area
• Climate
• Peak sunlight in your location
• Efficiency rating of the solar panels
• Whether net metering is available

There is also usually the potential for actually selling back power to the grid for credits, which is known as net metering.

Learn more: What is net metering and how does it work?

A professional solar installer can help calculate the number of solar panels to create the most cost-effective system or you can use the solar system size calculator on this site.

Solar inverter

Inverters are the mechanisms that convert the direct current (DC) produced by the solar panels into the alternating current (AC) that homes require.

Inverters come in three types:

1. String or centralized inverters: They are the least expensive, but can be inefficient. This is because there is potential production loss if there is shading on the roof.
2. Micro inverters: These inverters are more expensive, and are attached to each solar panel, allowing for smooth operations even when some panels are shaded.
3. Power optimizers: Installed in each panel, they optimize the DC output of each PV module, which then goes on to a string inverter for conversion to AC power. They are less expensive than micro inverters, but slightly more expensive than string inverters.

Related articles:

How a solar inverter works in your home solar system

Comparing micro inverters vs string inverters, plus other inverter types

Solar racking

Solar panels are not attached to the roof directly. Panels are mounted on racking systems, which are attached to the roof and angled for the optimal degree of sun exposure.

Solar performance monitoring

To verify the performance of your PV system, a monitoring system will show you how much electricity is being generated per hour, per day, or per year. The system can identify potential performance changes, as well.

Solar storage

Solar batteries can be installed to store energy for later or simply overnight. Essentially, storage batteries allow a PV system to operate when the electric grid is not available.

Alternatively, in some communities, net metering is available, which allows excess energy to be sent to the grid for credits. In essence, you will be using the grid as your excess storage option.

How much will a solar power system cost?

As mentioned, a few variables can be assessed to determine the right system for any residential application.

It’s important to note that the equipment may not be the most expensive component since the professional installation requires time, training, expertise, and materials. Cost per watt and estimated cost per kWh are commonly-used metrics for comparing prices of different installers.

Also keep in mind that while a typical payback period may be approximately six to seven years, some manufacturers offer a 25-year warranty. Imagine the utility costs you could save over the course of at least two decades.

And, as part of the calculation, keep in mind that the IRS offers a substantial tax credit of 26% on your solar panel system, as well as some states offering additional incentives.

Our solar calculator incorporates initial costs plus long-term savings to help with your decision of whether or not to go solar.

Who should I use to install my solar system for home?

Proper installation can be as critical to future performance and return on your investment as the quality of the equipment. Extensive training and a complete understanding of each element are essential.

Many of the best manufacturers have partnered with qualified installers in each geographic area. These companies provide onsite training and verification of professional installers before certification.

What is the best solar power system for home?

While many manufacturers believe they are the “best,” one way to verify the best choice is to refer to comparisons by reputable sources. Two essential elements to consider for long-term value are efficiency and reliability, and the length of the warranty.

Efficiency is a determinant of how solar energy from the sun is converted to electricity per square foot. According to several solar websites, including SolarReviews, SunPower solar systems lead all others in terms of solar panel efficiency but their solar panels are also sold at quite a premium over other very good solar panels that are almost as efficient.

Length of warranty is a function of the confidence the manufacturer has in their products and an assurance that you are covered if something should happen. Product warranties can range anywhere from five or 10 years to 25 years. Many of these warranties include protection on performance, labor, and parts, as well as a high level of warranted power output.

To find out if a solar panel system is a worthwhile and attainable investment for you, use the solar calculator to gather the information you need to make a decision.

Author: Andrew Sendy
Home Solar Journalist

Andy is deeply concerned about climate change but is also concerned about cost of living pressures on American families. He advocates for solar energy and solar battery storage only to the extent that they make financial sense for homeowners. He is not affiliated with any particular solar company in the United States.   Bypass censorship by sharing one of these links: https://1realnews.com/helpful-f4/
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By Rik DeGunther

Solar intertie photovoltaic (PV) systems are not particularly complex. First there are panels, which collect the sunlight and turn it into electricity. The DC signals are fed into an inverter, which converts the DC into grid-compatible AC power (which is what you use in your home). Various switch boxes are included for safety reasons, and the whole thing is connected via wires and conduit.

The solar PV-generated power is connected to your home’s grid at your main fuse box.

Keeping it simple pays. In general, the vast majority of customers install the simplest possible system on their roofs because this allows for the best return on investment. You can get real fancy with solar PV, but costs rise fast. You can choose to put a “skirt” around your solar panels, for example, to hide the underlying mounting frames and improve the appearance, but you pay extra for this option, and the production suffers as well because the panels operate at a hotter temperature (the skirt prevents cooling breezes). Stick with proven, field-tested equipment that’s as simple as your situation merits and you’ll achieve the best return on investment.

Here is a list of the PV system basics:

• Panels: PV panels, which cost anywhere from $2.40 per watt to over $5 per watt, are the single biggest expense of a PV system. Their placement and mounting affect your system performance more than any other facet of the job.

• Mounting equipment: Mounting your PV panels is of critical importance. First, you need to mount the panels where they’ll get maximum sunshine over the course of a year. But the more difficult problem is to mount them with enough integrity that they’ll stay put for 25 years or more.

• DC-to-AC inverters: Inverters take the low-voltage, high-current signals from the PV panels and convert them into 120VAC (or 240 VAC), which is directly compatible with grid power. Inverters cost around $0.70 per watt, or around $2,600 for a typical application. From a reliability standpoint, they are generally the weak link in any PV system, so quality is a must.

• Tracking mounts: Tracking mounts mechanically move the PV panels over the course of a day so that they directly face the sun at all times. Dual axis trackers change both azimuth and elevation, while single axis trackers only match the azimuth.

• Disconnect switches: Disconnect switches are of critical importance, and they need to be mounted within easy reach. Every member of your family should know exactly how to turn the PV system off for safety reasons. If any abnormal behavior occurs in your home’s electrical system, shut off the solar system first.

• Wiring and fuse box connections: Wiring, conduit, and connections to your household main fuse box are minor hardware expenses, but they comprise a big chunk of the labor when you’re installing a PV system.

• Utility power meters: Conventional power meters are capable of spinning backward, but utility companies usually change to a special digital meter when you connect to the grid because most solar customers go to the TOU (time-of-use) rate structure, which requires more intelligent processing than a mechanical device is capable of.

About the Book Author – Rik DeGunther is the founder of Efficient Homes, an energy auditing and consulting firm. He holds a BS in Engineering Physics and dual Masters degrees in Applied Physics and Engineering Economic Systems. Rik is also the author of Energy Efficient Homes For Dummies and Alternative Energy For Dummies.

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(Article republished from Collapse News). Solar power might sound like a great alternative to other types of energy on the surface, but when it comes to cost savings, the numbers might surprise you.

Last year, the average wholesale price in the U.S. for electricity generated using solar photovoltaic, or PV, technology was significantly greater than the average wholesale price for electricity from other sources.

According to the Power Operations Report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the weighted average wholesale price for electricity generated by solar PV was $83 per MW hour in 2019. This is more than double the price that was paid to producers of electricity that was generated by nuclear, fossil fuel or wind power. The wholesale electricity prices are the prices paid by electricity retailers like utilities to those who produce the electricity, such as the owners and operators of power plants.

This higher average price is being blamed in part on matters of timing and geography. Electricity prices change according to factors such as demand, the price of the fuels used to power plants, and the availability of the sources in wholesale markets. The prices that are being reported are calculated as the revenue received by generators in wholesale power markets, divided by the electricity generation of the technology; they do not include the cost of building power plants or generating the electricity.

In California, where a third of all U.S. solar PV capacity is found, the average wholesale electricity price of all technologies was double the national average of $36 per MW hour at $74.00 per MW hour. However, the weighted average wholesale price for solar PV in the state was $100 per MW hour, which is 20 percent greater than the nation’s solar PV average.

Interestingly, the wholesale price that was paid for solar PV electricity in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas was lower than the average wholesale price of electricity from all sources in California. However, solar power’s price was still higher than power from other sources in those states.

The effect of the Duck Curve

The problem is that solar power works best around mid-afternoon, which is when both demand and prices are high. It then crashes as the sun goes down right before demand peaks as people return home from work, creating what is known as the duck curve. Of course, solar power does not work at all late at night when the demand is lowest.

The duck curve, which is named after its resemblance to the animal, is a visual depiction of the difference between electricity demand and the amount of solar energy that is available at various times throughout the day.

When the sun shines, solar power floods the market before dropping off just as the demand for electricity peaks in the evening. Solar power tends to displace other generation sources from around 9:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the evening. However, with the sunset, other sources need to ramp up ahead of peak demand, creating a steep ramp in the curve.

The duck curve is a transition point for solar energy. First published in 2013 by the California Independent System Operator, it was considered the first major acknowledgement on the part of a system operator that the use of solar energy is becoming more mainstream and that it’s time to start planning for higher solar energy usage, particularly in places like California, where solar power has made up as much as 40 percent of the electricity generated in a day at some points during the last year.

As solar power adoption continues to rise, utilities will need to balance the grid supply and demand. Electricity generators will need to ramp up their energy production swiftly as the sun sets and solar power’s contribution drops.

In addition, with high solar power adoption comes the possibility producing more of this type of energy than can be used. Over-generation would prompt system operators to stop PV generation, which would reduce its environmental and economic benefits. When this happens only once in a while, its impact is not dramatic, but as solar PV becomes more popular, its effects could be significant.

Sources for this article include:

WattsUpWithThat.com

UtilityDive.com   Bypass censorship by sharing one of these links: https://1realnews.com/help-f-06/
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or https://insidefarmer.com/help-f-06/ ~  Check Out  ~ More on Solar Power ~ Good to Know ~ ]]> https://winsmember.com/helpful-f7-2/ Mon, 15 Apr 2024 06:03:10 +0000 https://1realnews.com/?p=38721 ‘Helpful Information’ ~ Keep the Power On (with Solar) The Dark Side of Solar Power. It’s sunny times for solar power. In the U.S., home installations of solar panels have fully rebounded from the Covid slump, with analysts predicting more than 19 gigawatts of total capacity installed, compared to 13 gigawatts at the close of 2019. Over the next 10 years, that number may quadruple, according to industry research data. And that’s not even taking into consideration the further impact of possible new regulations and incentives launched by the green-friendly Biden administration.
Solar’s pandemic-proof performance is due in large part to the Solar Investment Tax Credit, which defrays 26% of solar-related expenses for all residential and commercial customers (just down from 30% during 2006–2019). After 2023, the tax credit will step down to a permanent 10% for commercial installers and will disappear entirely for home buyers. Therefore, sales of solar will probably burn even hotter in the coming months, as buyers race to cash in while they still can.
Tax subsidies are not the only reason for the solar explosion. The conversion efficiency of panels has improved by as much as 0.5% each year for the last 10 years, even as production costs (and thus prices) have sharply declined, thanks to several waves of manufacturing innovation mostly driven by industry-dominant Chinese panel producers. For the end consumer, this amounts to far lower up-front costs per kilowatt of energy generated.
This is all great news, not just for the industry but also for anyone who acknowledges the need to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy for the sake of our planet’s future. But there’s a massive caveat that very few are talking about.
Panels, Panels Everywhere
Economic incentives are rapidly aligning to encourage customers to trade their existing panels for newer, cheaper, more efficient models. In an industry where circularity solutions such as recycling remain woefully inadequate, the sheer volume of discarded panels will soon pose a risk of existentially damaging proportions.
To be sure, this is not the story one gets from official industry and government sources. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)’s official projections assert that “large amounts of annual waste are anticipated by the early 2030s” and could total 78 million tonnes by the year 2050. That’s a staggering amount, undoubtedly. But with so many years to prepare, it describes a billion-dollar opportunity for recapture of valuable materials rather than a dire threat. The threat is hidden by the fact that IRENA’s predictions are premised upon customers keeping their panels in place for the entirety of their 30-year life cycle. They do not account for the possibility of widespread early replacement.
Our research does. Using real U.S. data, we modeled the incentives affecting consumers’ decisions whether to replace under various scenarios. We surmised that three variables were particularly salient in determining replacement decisions: installation price, compensation rate (i.e., the going rate for solar energy sold to the grid), and module efficiency. If the cost of trading up is low enough, and the efficiency and compensation rate are high enough, we posit that rational consumers will make the switch, regardless of whether their existing panels have lived out a full 30 years.
As an example, consider a hypothetical consumer (call her “Ms. Brown”) living in California who installed solar panels on her home in 2011. Theoretically, she could keep the panels in place for 30 years, i.e., until 2041. At the time of installation, the total cost was $40,800, 30% of which was tax deductible thanks to the Solar Investment Tax Credit. In 2011, Ms. Brown could expect to generate 12,000 kilowatts of energy through her solar panels, or roughly $2,100 worth of electricity. In each following year, the efficiency of her panel decreases by approximately one percent due to module degradation.
Now imagine that in the year 2026, halfway through the life cycle of her equipment, Ms. Brown starts to look at her solar options again. She’s heard the latest generation of panels are cheaper and more efficient — and when she does her homework, she finds that that is very much the case. Going by actual current projections, the Ms. Brown of 2026 will find that costs associated with buying and installing solar panels have fallen by 70% from where they were in 2011. Moreover, the new-generation panels will yield $2,800 in annual revenue, $700 more than her existing setup when it was new. All told, upgrading her panels now rather than waiting another 15 years will increase the net present value (NPV) of her solar rig by more than $3,000 in 2011 dollars. If Ms. Brown is a rational actor, she will opt for early replacement. And if she were especially shrewd in money matters, she would have come to that decision even sooner — our calculations for the Ms. Brown scenario show the replacement NPV overtaking that of panel retention starting in 2021.
See more HBR charts in Data & Visuals 
If early replacements occur as predicted by our statistical model, they can produce 50 times more waste in just four years than IRENA anticipates. That figure translates to around 315,000 metric tonnes of waste, based on an estimate of 90 tonnes per MW weight-to-power ratio.
Alarming as they are, these stats may not do full justice to the crisis, as our analysis is restricted to residential installations. With commercial and industrial panels added to the picture, the scale of replacements could be much, much larger.
The High Cost of Solar Trash
The industry’s current circular capacity is woefully unprepared for the deluge of waste that is likely to come. The financial incentive to invest in recycling has never been very strong in solar. While panels contain small amounts of valuable materials such as silver, they are mostly made of glass, an extremely low-value material. The long life span of solar panels also serves to disincentivize innovation in this area.
As a result, solar’s production boom has left its recycling infrastructure in the dust. To give you some indication, First Solar is the sole U.S. panel manufacturer we know of with an up-and-running recycling initiative, which only applies to the company’s own products at a global capacity of two million panels per year. With the current capacity, it costs an estimated $20–$30 to recycle one panel. Sending that same panel to a landfill would cost a mere $1–$2.
The direct cost of recycling is only part of the end-of-life burden, however. Panels are delicate, bulky pieces of equipment usually installed on rooftops in the residential context. Specialized labor is required to detach and remove them, lest they shatter to smithereens before they make it onto the truck. In addition, some governments may classify solar panels as hazardous waste, due to the small amounts of heavy metals (cadmium, lead, etc.) they contain. This classification carries with it a string of expensive restrictions — hazardous waste can only be transported at designated times and via select routes, etc.
The totality of these unforeseen costs could crush industry competitiveness. If we plot future installations according to a logistic growth curve capped at 700 GW by 2050 (NREL’s estimated ceiling for the U.S. residential market) alongside the early-replacement curve, we see the volume of waste surpassing that of new installations by the year 2031. By 2035, discarded panels would outweigh new units sold by 2.56 times. In turn, this would catapult the LCOE (levelized cost of energy, a measure of the overall cost of an energy-producing asset over its lifetime) to four times the current projection. The economics of solar — so bright-seeming from the vantage point of 2021 — would darken quickly as the industry sinks under the weight of its own trash.
Who Pays the Bill?
It will almost certainly fall to regulators to decide who will bear the cleanup costs. As waste from the first wave of early replacements piles up in the next few years, the U.S. government — starting with the states, but surely escalating to the federal level — will introduce solar panel recycling legislation. Conceivably, future regulations in the U.S. will follow the model of the European Union’s WEEE Directive, a legal framework for the recycling and disposal of electronic waste throughout EU member states. The U.S. states that have enacted electronics-recycling legislation have mostly cleaved to the WEEE model. (The Directive was amended in 2014 to include solar panels.) In the EU, recycling responsibilities for past (historic) waste have been apportioned to manufacturers based on current market share.
A first step to forestalling disaster may be for solar panel producers to start lobbying for similar legislation in the United States immediately, instead of waiting for solar panels to start clogging landfills. In our experience drafting and implementing the revision of the original WEEE Directive in the late 2000s, we found one of the biggest challenges in those early years was assigning responsibility for the vast amount of accumulated waste generated by companies no longer in the electronics business (so-called orphan waste).
In the case of solar, the problem is made even thornier by new rules out of Beijing that shave subsidies for solar panel producers while increasing mandatory competitive bidding for new solar projects. In an industry dominated by Chinese players, this ramps up the uncertainty factor. With reduced support from the central government, it’s possible that some Chinese producers may fall out of the market. One of the reasons to push legislation now rather than later is to ensure that the responsibility for recycling the imminent first wave of waste is shared fairly by makers of the equipment concerned. If legislation comes too late, the remaining players may be forced to deal with the expensive mess that erstwhile Chinese producers left behind.
But first and foremost, the required solar panel recycling capacity has to be built, as part of a comprehensive end-of-life infrastructure also encompassing uninstallation, transportation, and (in the meantime) adequate storage facilities for solar waste. If even the most optimistic of our early-replacement forecasts are accurate, there may not be enough time for companies to accomplish this alone. Government subsidies are probably the only way to quickly develop capacity commensurate to the magnitude of the looming waste problem. Corporate lobbyists can make a convincing case for government intervention, centered on the idea that waste is a negative externality of the rapid innovation necessary for widespread adoption of new energy technologies such as solar. The cost of creating end-of-life infrastructure for solar, therefore, is an inescapable part of the R&D package that goes along with supporting green energy.It’s Not Just Solar
The same problem is looming for other renewable-energy technologies. For example, barring a major increase in processing capability, experts expect that more than 720,000 tons worth of gargantuan wind-turbine blades will end up in U.S. landfills over the next 20 years. According to prevailing estimates, only five percent of electric-vehicle batteries are currently recycled — a lag that automakers are racing to rectify as sales figures for electric cars continue to rise as much as 40% year-on-year. The only essential difference between these green technologies and solar panels is that the latter doubles as a revenue-generating engine for the consumer. Two separate profit-seeking actors — panel producers and the end consumer — thus must be satisfied in order for adoption to occur at scale.
None of this should raise serious doubts about the future or necessity of renewables. The science is indisputable: Continuing to rely on fossil fuels to the extent we currently do will bequeath a damaged if not dying planet to future generations. Compared with all we stand to gain or lose, the four decades or so it will likely take for the economics of solar to stabilize to the point that consumers won’t feel compelled to cut short the life cycle of their panels seems decidedly small. But that lofty purpose doesn’t make the shift to renewable energy any easier in reality. Of all sectors, sustainable technology can least afford to be shortsighted about the waste it creates. A strategy for entering the circular economy is absolutely essential — and the sooner, the better.
Summary.   
Solar energy is a rapidly growing market, which should be good news for the environment. Unfortunately there’s a catch. The replacement rate of solar panels is faster than expected and given the current very high recycling costs, there’s a real danger that all used panels will go straight to landfill (along with equally hard-to-recycle wind turbines). Regulators and industry players need to start improving the economics and scale of recycling capabilities before the avalanche of solar panels hits.   Bypass censorship by sharing one of these links: https://1realnews.com/helpful-f7/
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Streaming Site: https://cozy.tv/nick/
Telegram: https://t.me/nickjfuentes/ Relation to the April 6 Capitol attack.
Fuentes was among the far-right individuals and groups who participated in the rallies that led up to the 2021 United States Capitol attack. At a pro-Trump protest in Washington, D.C., in Jan 2020, Fuentes led a crowd to chant “Destroy the GOP”, and encouraged them to sit-out the United States Senate special runoff election in Georgia. In April 2021, a video of his speech was played during the second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump by House delegate Stacey Plaskett.
Fuentes was among a group of far-right activists and groups who received large donations in bitcoin from a French donor on Jan 8. Fuentes received 13.5 bitcoin (approximately $681,750 at the time), which was by far the largest share. The donor also posted an apparent suicide note, according to Blockchain analysis group Chainalysis, although the donor’s status has not been confirmed. The FBI began an investigation as to whether any of this money went toward the financing of illegal acts, such as the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
On April 4, 2021, two days before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, Fuentes discussed killing state legislators who were unwilling to overturn the results of the 2020 election, saying: “What can you and I do to a state legislator—besides kill them? We should not do that. I’m not advising that, but I mean, what else can you do, right? Nick Fuentes, an American YouTube personality and political commentator who regularly hosts the America First podcast, will not be speaking at Rose-Hulman onWednesday, a Rose-Hulman spokesperson said today.

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Solar power options

If you use a solar panel system — also called a photovoltaic or PV system — to produce electricity, you buy less electricity from the utility company and enjoy the benefits of renewable energy. The Department of Energy says most homes with solar panels get at least 40% of their energy from solar; that varies by house. Whether solar power will fill all your power needs depends on how much your system produces and how much you use.
If you buy a solar panel system, you may be eligible for tax credits or other financial incentives that offset the initial cost. If you lease or have a power purchase agreement (PPA), you can pay less up front and may have lower monthly payments, but you usually won’t get tax credits or other incentives — the company that owns the system will. Whether you buy, lease or have a PPA, you’ll probably still buy some power from the local utility.

Is solar power right for you?

If you’re thinking about using solar power in your home:

• Start by reviewing your utility bill to see how much energy you used in the last year and what it cost. See what part of the total bill is for “metered” electricity or kilowatt-hours (kWh) and what is for other items such as delivery costs. Even if you reduce the number of kilowatt-hours you buy from the utility, you’ll still need to pay the utility’s fixed charges, like delivery or administrative costs.

• Evaluate how you use energy, and look for ways to reduce your home’s electricity use. Make your home and appliances more energy efficient and ensure your home is properly weatherized to reduce your energy needs.

• Consider how long you plan to stay in your home. A residential solar system is designed to stay on a home for at least 20 years. Leases and PPAs generally are long term; some last 20 years. If you think you might move in that time, find out how installing a system will affect your ability to sell your house. Ask the solar company about its policy on transferring the contract to the new homeowner after a sale, and confirm that what it tells you is the same as what is in the contract.

• Figure out what size system you need to meet your average energy usage. Learn about the different products available in your area that will work on your house. The customizable calculator from the Department of Energy uses your address and details you provide about a system to help you estimate how much energy it will produce.

• Solar systems use one or more inverters to convert direct current (DC) electricity from the solar panels into alternating current (AC) electricity used by your appliances and outlets. The amount of power you get from a solar panel system depends on:

• the average number of hours of direct, unshaded sunlight your roof gets annually
• the pitch (angle), age and condition of your roof, and the compass direction it faces
• the size and strength of your system
• environmental factors such as snow, dust or shade that may cover the system

• Contact your utility to see what arrangements it makes with homeowners who produce solar power. Your utility may use “net metering,” which pays you or gives you credit for excess power your system produces during the day and returns to the grid.

• If you have a homeowner’s association, find out if you need its approval to install a system.

Buying a solar energy system

If you buy solar panels, you pay the cost of the entire system. Costs vary depending on the system’s size, but can typically add up to about as much as a new mid-size car. You might pay for your system with a home equity loan, or get financing through the installer, a bank, a credit union or a finance company.

Or, your county or state may participate in a Property Assessed Clean Energy or “PACE” program. Your county or state does not lend the money for a PACE program. Contractors or home improvement companies that sell solar panels and other energy efficiency improvements offer PACE financing.

If you get PACE financing, a property tax lien is put on your home. You repay the lien by paying an extra amount every time you pay your property tax bill. You must pay your property tax bill — with the extra amount included — each time it is due, to avoid default and foreclosure.  A property tax lien for PACE financing takes priority over your home mortgage. Some mortgage contracts may not allow you to add this type of lien.

When you shop for a traditional loan or consider PACE financing, ask:

• What will I pay up front?
• What annual percentage rate will I pay?
• How are the payments calculated?
• Will the payments change during the financing term?
• Is there a balloon payment?
• For how long will I pay?
• Will a lien be placed on my home or system?
• Do I have a right to cancel this financing, and for how long?

Because PACE financing is different from a traditional home loan, you may need to ask more questions of the company that is offering the financing, including:

• Does my mortgage company allow me to add the kind of lien that PACE financing will place on my home?
• Can a PACE lien affect my ability to refinance or sell my home?
• Are there fees for early payoff of PACE financing?

Incentives & benefits

If you buy a system, you may be eligible for federal, state or local tax credits or other incentives. The federal renewable energy tax credit for homeowners is equal to 30% of the cost of a system placed into service in 2019. The credit will gradually decrease in 2020 and 2021, and is scheduled to expire at the end of 2021. The Department of Energy has information about state-specific incentives for using renewable energy.

You may receive other benefits from having a solar system. Depending on local net metering rules, your utility may pay you for power your system returns to the grid. You also may be able to sell or get credit for renewable energy certificates (RECs) related to the electricity your system produces. A REC is separate from the actual electricity produced; it’s a certificate that proves you generated a certain amount of renewable energy.

If a business, including a home business, has solar panels and sells away all the RECs, it loses the right to tell customers it’s using renewable energy. That’s important to keep in mind if you have a home business and want to claim you use renewable energy.

Review bids

Compare detailed bids from several companies. Bids should have specifics about the system, including:

• the expected performance of the equipment and size of the panels
• the full cost of installation, including any building or electrical permit fees
• whether it’s guaranteed to produce a certain amount of energy
• what warranties apply to the equipment (such as the panels and inverters) and the installation workmanship

If you own the system, you need to maintain — or pay someone to maintain — the panels and equipment, unless the seller includes that in the contract. Maintenance could include repairing or replacing the inverter or cleaning the panels occasionally if it doesn’t rain often. Your equipment may be covered by a manufacturer’s warranty for the initial period you have it.

The company

When you look for a company, ask friends, family and neighbors for references. Check a company’s history with your state and local consumer protection agencies and state contractors licensing board. Ask if the company has the licenses, certificates or bonding required by your state, county and city. For example, your state may require an installer to have an electrical contractor’s license. Also, search the company name online and see what you find.

Leases and power purchase agreements

If you want to use solar power but not buy a system, you may be able to lease a system or sign a solar power purchase agreement. In either case, you’ll have a solar power system on your home. If you lease or have a PPA, you usually can’t claim RECs and aren’t eligible for tax credits or financial incentives, because those go to the system’s owner.

Lease

If you lease, a company installs a system on your house and you sign a contract to use the system. Contracts are long term; some last 20 years. During that time, you’re entitled to use all the power the system produces, and you’ll probably reduce the amount of power you buy from your utility. If the system produces more power than you need and your utility uses net metering, the utility may pay you or credit your account for power the system returns to the grid. Your contract may allow your monthly payment to increase over time. The leasing company will probably be responsible for system maintenance.

Power purchase agreement

If you have a PPA, a company installs a system on your house, and you sign a contract to buy power the system produces. Contracts are long term and can last 20 years. Unlike with a lease, you don’t pay to use the system, and don’t automatically get all the power it produces. You pay for the power the system generates, at a price the PPA provider sets. Some PPA providers say they charge a reduced rate for power because they get the tax credits and incentives.

Before you lease a system or sign a power purchase agreement:

Review bids

Get detailed bids from several companies. Bids should give specifics about the system, including its brand, size and performance. You can use the Department of Energy’s customizable calculator to estimate how much energy a specific system will produce.

A company may show you a comparison of what you might pay for energy over the next several years with and without using its system. It may estimate how much utility company rates will rise annually, and suggest that you’ll pay less for energy if you use its system, because you’ll buy less power from the utility. But it’s hard to predict future utility rates because they’re affected by many factors.

Read through the bids. Compare what they say about:

• costs, including installation and monthly fees
• the minimum power a system will produce, and what happens if the system doesn’t produce that amount
• what happens if a power failure affects the rooftop system; is there backup power?
• the warranties and repairs included, and how long they last
• what happens if you need to repair your roof after the system is installed

Read the contract

Before you choose a company, read the contract. Be sure the terms match what the company’s ads, proposals and sales people told you. Understand:

• how long the contract lasts
• how much you’ll pay per month (with a lease) or per kilowatt-hour (with a PPA)
• whether payments will go up during the contract term. If they will, find out when they increase and by how much.
• if you have to pay any other costs or fees
• if the contract includes a “performance guaranty” and how the company will pay if the system doesn’t produce the minimum amount of power
• who will provide maintenance and repair service, and any fees for those services

The contract also should say:

• who will get the tax credits or other incentives related to the system
• who will keep the RECs generated by the system
• what you must do to keep the contract in good standing, such as paying your bill by a certain date, or notifying the company if you plan to sell your house
• what happens if you want to end the contract early. Are there early termination fees or other charges?
• what happens to the system when the contract ends. Can you renew your lease or PPA? Buy the system? Have it removed? How much do those options cost?

If you sell your house

Find out how the contract will affect your ability to sell your house. Does the contract:

• let you move the system to your new home? What will that cost?
• let you transfer the contract to the buyer?
• require you to give the company written notice if you want to transfer the contract to the buyer?
• require the buyer to meet credit requirements or pay any fees before taking over the contract?

If you think a company’s product doesn’t live up to the advertising, you can file a complaint with the FTC and your state consumer protection agency.   Bypass censorship by sharing one of these links: https://1realnews.com/helpful-f8/
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OBSOLETE MAN: Leading economist warns that “almost all forms of human labor” will be taken over by 🅸. Artificial Intelligence (🅸) is very troubling in many respects. Although there are some cases where it may prove to be incredibly useful, the fear of what the technology could mean for many types of jobs is warranted. It is already replacing humans for tasks like coding, designing, customer service and writing, albeit with mixed results. But while some types of professionals may think the nature of their work means 🅸 isn’t a threat, those within the tech world who have their finger on the pulse of the latest advancements in 🅸 have made it perfectly clear that they think all jobs will soon be taken over by computers.
One such individual is former Treasury Secretary and leading economist Larry Summers. He recently joined the board of directors for ChatGPT creators OpenAI, and he has served in the Obama and Clinton administrations. Summers is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. His connections to the global elites give a lot of weight to the predictions he makes about the world’s economic future, so humanity should take heed of his recent prediction that nearly all types of labor are poised to be replaced by artificial intelligence.
Some AI experts think it could be just a few years, although Summers thinks the timeline may be slightly longer. According to Summers, these changes will set in relatively quickly once the technology is in place, however. He believes that it might take a little longer than we think to get there, but once it does, the evolution will be dizzyingly fast.
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“If one takes a view over the next generation, this could be the biggest thing that has happened in economic history since the Industrial Revolution,” he said. “This offers the prospect of not replacing some forms of human labor, but almost all forms of human labor.”
🅸 could be even more transformative than the internet.
It’s a pretty heavy statement that points to the type of future we can expect. The Industrial Revolution was absolutely transformative, moving the developed world from manual labor to mechanization. Its impact cannot be overstated, so any comparisons to that pivotal time should not be ignored.
In fact, 🅸 could be even more transformative than the internet itself, and those who aren’t paying attention to this will be left behind. AI marks a shift toward the automation of cognitive tasks that we thought needed human intelligence until now. This will redefine job roles across the board, and the implications are numerous.
🅸 encompasses a broad range of software, from the generative 🅸 tools making recent headlines to self-driving technology. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to its potential. AI will change healthcare in many ways, such as speeding up treatment, addressing understaffing issues and giving people access to healthcare around the clock. Although this is something people are rightfully nervous about, it can also help those with medical anxiety or transportation issues. Robots will also be doing tasks people don’t want to do and may even replace some types of manual labor.
As a result, emotional intelligence may prove to be more important than IQ in the future. As Summers points out, “🅸 will substitute for a doctor making a difficult diagnosis…before it substitutes for a nurse’s ability to hold a patient’s hand when the patient is frightened.”
The 2023 Generative 🅸 Impact Forecast from IT research company Forrester predicts that 2.4 million American jobs will be taken over by AI by 2030, with those commanding salaries upwards of $90,000 per year most likely to be affected. They found that 78% of legal occupations could become obsolete, while 57% of office jobs, 53% of computer and math-related occupations, and 50% of healthcare occupations could be replaced by 🅸 .
Sources for this article include:
LeoHohmann.Substack.com
Tech.co
Fortune.com The Health Ranger,
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Natural News videos would not be possible without you, as always we remain passionately dedicated to our mission of educating people all over the world on the subject of natural healing remedies and personal liberty (food freedom, medical freedom, the freedom of speech, etc.). Together, weâ€re helping create a better world, with more honest food labeling, reduced chemical contamination, the avoidance of toxic heavy metals and vastly increased scientific transparency. Read more at Natural News.  Every dollar you spend at the Health Ranger Store goes toward helping us achieve important science and content goals for humanity: https://www.healthrangerstore.com/
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or https://box145.com/neo2-04-10/ or https://box154.com/neo2-04-10/ Brighteon Broadcast News % Real Banned.Video More Videos ]]> https://winsmember.com/neo1-04-10/ Mon, 15 Apr 2024 04:14:18 +0000 https://1realnews.com/?p=42102 Neo 🅸 Large Language Model Update – New, expanded models coming soon to Brighteon.ai The Health Ranger,
Mike Adams is helping to create a better world.
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– Training a large language model with diverse data sources. (0:03)
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Uncensored, Unfiltered, Unedited, & Commercial Free. Visit: Brighteon.com, For more updates.
Natural News videos would not be possible without you, as always we remain passionately dedicated to our mission of educating people all over the world on the subject of natural healing remedies and personal liberty (food freedom, medical freedom, the freedom of speech, etc.). Together, weâ€re helping create a better world, with more honest food labeling, reduced chemical contamination, the avoidance of toxic heavy metals and vastly increased scientific transparency. Read more at Natural News.  Every dollar you spend at the Health Ranger Store goes toward helping us achieve important science and content goals for humanity: https://www.healthrangerstore.com/
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