Dirty Coal statistic of the day

We hit 1,000 kWh of banked Sun Miles™ – what we at SolarChargedDriving.Com describe as solar-powered miles driven by an electric vehicle (EV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) whose batteries have been charged using solar energy – earlier this week on our 47^th Colorado day with a 5.59 kW solar system on our perfect-for-solar, south-facing roof.

(SolOptics Photo)

Here's something I will definitely be keeping close tabs on -- and which you might want to pay close attention to as well, especially if you already have a solar PV system on your home:

A stick-on photovoltaic film developed by Soloptics -- a division of Genie Lens Technologies, LLC, a specialist in applied optics and light ray management solutions -- can improve solar panel efficiency rates by more than 12 percent, thereby reducing the cost of solar power for the consumer. The US Department of Energy confirmed the product's effectiveness Aug. 2.

If you're about to go solar and are thinking seriously about charging a future electric car with some of the electricity your solar system produces, pay close attenton -- very close attention -- to the different options your utility offers in terms of what you can do with any excess electricity your system generates.

People say solar is expensive – but so are other things people buy, including, over the long term, electricity from their utility.

Our new 5.59 kW solar system cost $8,500. That’s not cheap. But again, in the long term neither is electricity from your utility.

Given that so many people are so unwilling to plop down money for a solar system, it’s fair to ask what they are willing to spend their money on. In other words, what’s not expensive (but costs just as much as a solar system)?