Welcome to the Arizona Solar Challenge Tumblr! We're your source for the latest updates about our work to put solar on 5% of homes in your community by the year 2015. We'll regularly feature photos, news clips and profiles of Solar Ambassadors from across the state. Learn more at the Arizona SmartPower website.

Goodyear homeowners Mike and Cher Zeman recently moved to Arizona and witnessed the widespread adoption of solar on homes in their PebbleCreek neighborhood. They began asking neighbors about their experiences with solar and soon they were hearing all about the good savings that could be achieved. But when they asked questions about purchasing and installation, they were overwhelmed. Every homeowner was telling a different story and sharing different advice, but the one suggestion that they heard from all of their neighbors was that they needed to talk with a Solar Coach.

Mike and Cher called Arizona SmartPower to speak with Solar Coach Dru Bacon. In the ensuing conversation, they mentioned that they had several neighbors who had also recently moved into their immediate neighborhood who had questions about solar. Mike and Cher invited nineteen homeowners to attend a meeting in the Zeman’s living room, where Solar Coach Dru gave a brief background about SmartPower and the Arizona Solar Challenge. After a discussion of how solar energy works, homeowners began asking questions. And Dru had the answers.

Since that meeting, Dru has continued to work with the PebbleCreek homeowners to address their concerns and provide solutions.

Solar energy is new to most homeowners and can be an intimidating process when trying to integrate all the variables that impact the best solar solution for each home. Such things as electricity usage, roof space, roof azimuth, rate plan, pattern of usage and other factors all have important impacts on determining the optimum solar system. The process is further complicated by the question of whether to buy or lease a solar system. Fortunately, the Solar Coach is there to sort it all out.

Please contact Solar Coach Dru Bacon at dbacon[at]smartpower.org with your solar questions.

“When I was looking to go solar I felt caught in the middle of various solar companies, all wanting me to buy, but with Dru’s help and expertise, I went ahead and chose a PV system feeling confident in my decision based on his ‘brass tacks’ real world knowledge. 

With Dru’s help, I feel I made a much more informed decision than I would have otherwise. I would highly recommend that anyone looking to go solar take the time to get Dru’s invaluable input as a Solar Coach.”

- David Snyder, Scottsdale, Arizona

ABOVE: Solar Coach Dru Bacon retreats to the shade to talk the hot topic of solar with local residents at Green Cave Creek’s Earth Day Event.

Arizona SmartPower and residents of Anthem and Cave Creek celebrated Earth Day in record-breaking heat this year.

State Director Toni Bouchard and the Policy Development Group’s Betsy Ware talked with Anthem residents interested in going solar at the Anthem Goes Green event on Saturday, April 21, where several residents signed up for SmartPower’s Solar Coaching services. Meanwhile, Toni had a chance to chat with several local Solar Ambassadors about their ideas to spread residential solar in Anthem and beyond.

In Cave Creek, Solar Coach Dru Bacon, along with the Policy Development Group’s Andy Jacobs and Todd Baughman, celebrated Green Cave Creek, talking to more residents interested in solar. Dru gave a short solar workshop which, along with the 100+ temperatures, motivated folks to begin to think about solar as a sustainable way of coping with summer cooling bills! Many people signed up for follow-up conversations with Dru about going solar.

Green Cave Creek intends to make the event an annual Earth Day Celebration and Arizona SmartPower plans to participate again in the future. We expect solar to be an even hotter topic during next year’s Earth Day events! 

More than 20 people attended the April 10 Electric Vehicle Policy Working Group meeting, hosted by ASU at the Global Institute for Sustainability. State Director Toni Bouchard led a brainstorming discussion on policies including ordinance language available for adoption by municipalities to have the authority to enforce electric vehicle charging/parking; the potential for Homeowner Associations to make it difficult to install charging equipment at residents’ homes; and policies being discussed at the federal level that could be adopted by the state to allow electric charging stations to be included in energy performance contracting by state agencies, municipalities and school districts.  

The next EVAZ Stakeholder meeting is May 7 from 2-4 pm at the Salt River Project. Please RSVP to tbouchard@smartpower.org if you would like to attend.  

ABOVE: The EVAZ Policy Working Group gathered on April 10 to discuss potential policy ideas that would advance electric vehicle adoption in Arizona.

Arizona SmartPower, with the help of the Anthem Council, sponsored a booth at the 13th annual Anthem Days event in North Phoenix on March 24-25th. The booth welcomed a steady stream of homeowners eager to learn more about how they can obtain solar energy for their homes.

Many event goers signed up for Solar Coach services and several of those who had already installed solar signed up to become Solar Ambassadors so that they could share their solar experience with friends and neighbors.

Among the new Solar Ambassadors were several young professionals who have solar homes and who were interested in ways they can share information about the benefits of solar with other young families. With such a high return on investment, solar is an excellent choice for homeowners at any stage of their life. Arizona SmartPower looks forward to working with these new Solar Ambassadors to encourage more young professionals to make the solar investment.

The community of Anthem already has a high percentage of solar homes, but Anthem Days certainly helped Arizona SmartPower and its team of Solar Ambassadors set a high standard for community events and for homeowners looking to go solar.

Almost everything we do requires electric power. From lighting, heating, cooling, food storage, computers, iPods, clocks and more, just about every action we take requires some form of electricity. And at the end of each month we pay for all that convenient power with our energy bill. Month after month, year after year, those payments add up to a lot of money.

But what if we could invest that money instead of paying it out to the electric company? What if we could change electric bill payments into something similar to paying a mortgage? Just like mortgage payments eventually end with a homeowner free of monthly bills, residential solar electricity can reduce your monthly energy bills into nothing. It converts an expense into an investment!

Here’s how it works: When you install solar electric panels on your roof, you reduce your electric bill and begin recovering your investment with the monthly savings. About 6 or 7 years later, you shall have recovered all the money you invested in the solar system and have access to years of guaranteed free electricity! Instead of an ever-growing monthly expense, you have free, renewable energy and added value to your house.

When considering solar, keep in mind that investments have two important aspects: return on investment and risk. We’ve established that residential solar has an excellent return on investment, but what about risk?

Residential solar has far lower risk that most investments. Risks are low because manufacturers guarantee 25 years of panel electricity production from a robust technology that requires little, if any, maintenance. In addition, should you sell your house, the value is significantly increased because of the low electric bills.

So what’s the downside to solar electricity? I’ve been living with solar panels on my roof since August 2008 and have yet to find one. It’s the best investment I’ve ever made.

While solar energy proponents, skeptics and pundits were debating the renewable energy source’s future, solar became mainstream.

ABOVE: U.S. Solar 2011 Year in Review in One Graphic via GreenTechMedia.

2011 will likely be judged as the year solar energy came of age, as examples of solar and wind energy developments last year are too numerous to list. Below are a few highlights.

- U.S. Photovoltaic Solar energy installations grew from 152 megawatts of power installed in the first quarter of 2010 to 776 megawatts in the fourth quarter of 2011. Year over year increases were 887 megawatts in 2010 to 1,855 megawatts in 2011 or a growth rate of 209%.

- Solar energy attracted massive investments from big money investors such as Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, KKR, MetLife and John Hancock. These well-known investors claim solid 15% returns from their solar investments. “A solar power project with a long-term sales agreement could be viewed as a machine that generates revenue,” said Marty Klepper, an attorney at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, which helped arrange a solar deal for Buffett. “It’s an attractive investment for any firm, not just those in energy.”

- General Electric, already a major player in wind energy, broke ground on a $400 million solar panel manufacturing plant in Aurora, Colorado, which will be the largest solar panel manufacturing plant in the nation. GE will be competing with First Solar in CdTe thin film solar technology that has already established the world’s lowest manufacturing cost for solar panels. The entry of GE into thin film can only mean even lower prices for solar and more widespread adoption for residential, commercial and utility scale projects.

- Solar PV panel prices decreased 50% in 2011, resulting in an average 20% drop in total installation costs. The rapid price decline caused business failures for manufacturers introducing new technology and for non-cost competitive companies.

- Solar electric energy grew in all market segments including residential, solar and utility scale.

- California reached a total of one gigawatt of residential solar power. California homeowners’ roofs now generate power equal to one nuclear power plant.

- “With 30-year Treasuries yielding about 3.4 percent, investors are seeking safe places to park their money for years at a higher return. Solar energy fits the bill, with predictable cash flows guaranteed by contract for two decades or more. Those deals may be even more lucrative because many were signed before the cost of solar panels plunged 50 percent last year.”

- Dan Reicher, executive director of Stanford University’s center for energy policy and finance in California, said, “The beauty of solar is once you make the capital investment, you’ve got free fuel and very low operating costs.”

- Renewable energy is cheap today. The following are some key quotes from Climate Progress’s report on the solar market:

• Last year was the first time global investments in renewable energy surpassed investments in fossil fuels. 
• The United States is currently leading in corporate R&D and venture capital investments in clean energy globally, and last year retook the top spot in overall investment with a 33 percent increase to $55.9 billion. 
• Some wind developers are signing long-term power-purchase agreements in the 3 cents a kilowatt-hour range, far cheaper than any other new power source. 
• The clean energy sector is growing at a rate of 8.3 percent, nearly double the growth rate of the overall economy. 
• The global market for clean energy was worth a whopping $250 billion in 2011. 
• Solar energy development in Arizona increased by 333 percent in 2011. 
• In California solar developers have signed contracts for power below the projected price of natural gas from a 500-MW combined-cycle power plant. 

The road ahead for solar and wind now seems clear. Prices are falling dramatically; leading financial institutions and manufactures have accepted solar and wind as mainstream industries; the use of fossil fuels continues to decline in energy production; electric power from coal in the U.S. has dropped from 50% to less than 40%; plans for more than 100 new coal fired power plants have been cancelled as retirement of older coal fired facilities has increased; the economics of solar and wind have made renewable energy the fuel of choice.

The transition from mining and burning coal and uranium for electric power to harnessing the free fuel of solar and wind will take a few years to complete, but the outcome is inevitable. Solar and wind will win.

Arizona SmartPower led an exciting Solar Workshop in Yuma, partnering with the wonderful folks at the Foothills Library to host the event. The SmartPower team was joined by five Yuma Solar Ambassadors who shared their experiences with their residential solar electric systems.

Arizona SmartPower State Director Toni Bouchard introduced the workshop to the 32 attendees with information about SmartPower’s work, particularly the Arizona Solar Challenge. Solar Coach Dru Bacon answered solar questions ranging from “What size do I need?” to “How much will it cost and what is the payback?” to “Will solar panels be damaged by hail?” along with several other inquiries.

BELOW: Solar Coach Dru Bacon answers attendees’ solar questions.

Reporters from two television stations covered the Solar Workshop including one from Channel 9, a FOX News affiliate, who visited the home of one of our Solar Ambassadors to film solar installations in Yuma. The City of Yuma TV Station also arranged to visit the home of a Solar Ambassador as part of a series they have planned that follows a homeowner through the entire solar process, from learning about solar to flipping the switch and watching their meter run backward on the day they start producing electricity.

The SmartPower team was thrilled to see solar spreading even further throughout Yuma. Thanks to all of the Solar Ambassadors and local reporters who came out to the workshop to help spread the solar message.

1. Save money on your electric bill. Homeowners can buy or lease solar electric panels and save money on their electric bill by generating a large portion of the electricity they use. 
2. Take advantage of incentives. Utility companies and state and federal governments offer generous incentives for residential solar installations. Be sure to use them if you’re interested in going solar, and sooner rather than later before they are gone! 
3. Protect yourself from future utility rate increases. Since you will be generating most of your electric power from sunlight, you will not see an increase in your electric bill when rates increase. 
4. Be a hero with your friends and neighbors by showing them your low cost electricity bills. Also help them learn how they can save on their electric bills with a solar system. 
5. Give a home tour of your solar electric system on a sunny day. Your friends, family and neighbors will be amazed when they see your electric meter running backwards. 
6. Reduce air emissions from fossil fuels by producing clean solar electricity from sunlight, the ultimate renewable energy resource. 
7. Help stimulate the state and local economy by keeping your energy dollars at home. Arizona imports almost all the energy we use, whether it’s petroleum, coal or natural gas. Residential solar keeps our energy dollars at home. 
8. Help provide local jobs for solar manufacturing, sales and installation companies. Most Arizona solar installation companies are locally owned and solar manufacturing companies that supply solar panels, mounting hardware, power inverters, glass and other solar energy components are increasingly located in Arizona. 
9. Sleep well at night knowing that you are powering your house with clean energy from the sun and improving air quality. 
10. Dream about the day you get a plug-in electric car and fuel your it with power from your solar roof. And then stop dreaming and get one!