Here is some more info from Dsire USA on solar in New Jersey.

And here are some thoughts about going solar in New Jersey from our friends at 1Bog.org:

$5,000 – that’s how much you could be getting paid in New Jersey this year, just for having solar panels on your roof.

It may come as a surprise, but New Jersey has the best financial incentives in the country forhome solar power. The combination of high electricity rates, the federal tax credit, and solar renewable energy credits (which pay you for producing renewable energy) means a typical solar array will pay for itself in just 4 years. After that it’s free electricity and, thanks to the renewable energy credit market, a viable source of income for the next 11 years.

Even without a solar rebate, NJ beats every other state, even sunny California (where solar is immensely popular):

The two left columns show New Jersey solar payback time with and without a state rebate. No rebate = no problem.

Why is the payback time so fast? Here are the 5 reasons why New Jersey is the best place in the country to go solar:

1. Electricity in NJ is expensive

The typical cost of electricity in NJ is $0.19 / kWh, compared to the US average of $0.11 / kWh. That means that the average electricity bill in New Jersey is around $190-$228 per month. An average-sized solar array will cover most of this, knocking about $175 / month off of that bill.

2. The Federal Solar Tax Credit puts 30% back in your pocket*

The Federal solar tax credit is a tax credit for 30% of the total system cost. While you’ll have to shell out the money up front, at the end of the year you will get a tax credit of $11,000 for a $35,000 system (assuming you have tax liability for that year–otherwise it will rollover into another next tax year). Confusing? Yes. But don’t worry – your solar installer can help you with the right forms, and you can always consult your accountant.

3. SRECs turn your roof into an ATM*

Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECS) are credits you get for producing renewable energy. A home accrues 1 credit for every 1,000 kWh of solar energy produced, and each credit is currently worth around $650. We’ve estimated that the average home will produce about$5,000 worth of SRECs on average per year. A new solar energy system is eligible to produce SRECs for 15 years, meaning that an average roof could earn over $75,000 by selling credits over that time period.

4. You’re getting a 15-30% discount on panels and installation with group discounts

Although we can’t disclose our south New Jersey 1BOG rate for solar just yet**, we can tell you the price for our last New Jersey solar campaign: $5.54 / DC watt. If you went to a local big box store for solar today you would see prices around $8 per DC watt–or $17,958 more for an average sized system. Our group discount is typically around 15% off competitive market rates, although in New Jersey we anticipate it will be considerably more than that.

5. If you don’t want to purchase, you can go solar for $0 down.

Our local installation partner offers PPA-financing through SunRun, which means that you can install a system for $0 out of pocket.

Even though it’s our job to bring you good deals, we’re blown away by how good solar in New Jersey looks right now. There’s no better time to make the investment, especially since you can start generating SRECs as soon as the system is installed.

Want to evaluate the numbers for yourself? Use our calculator to estimate the cost of solar panels for your home. Want access to the 1BOG group discounts on solar? Sign up now! It’s free.

Stay tuned, as we’ll be writing more about solar in New Jersey soon. You can also learn more about our Southern NJ Solar Campaign.

* We are not tax professionals, so please make sure to consult your accountant on the tax implications of a solar installation. Additionally, please be aware that these calculations are based on several assumptions, including the future cost of electricity and value of SRECs. Yearly SREC payments have been updated in this post based on the most up-to-date information we have.

**1BOG discounted member pricing for southern New Jersey will be announced on Monday (June 14). Sign up here to be among the first to get 1BOG exclusive pricing details.

I have long promised to write about a backup power system for small electrical loads, including the Neuton Lawn Mower (On Amazon Here). Here is the promised post, outlining the installation of the XPower and Kyocera Solar panel. This system will keep the XPower (Also on Amazon) nicely charged using the sun, without a need for shore power.

Here is the complete system. We have a Kyocera 130W solar module, a Morning Star charge controller (Of Course, on Amazon), 20′ of cable to connect the solar panel to the XPower, some different adapters for connecting the charge controller to the XPower, and a tension relief connector to keep the cable snug in the junction box on the solar panel.

The first thing you are going to need to do is unpack the solar module.

Then you are going to find the Junction box on the back of the module and open it up.

Notice the hole in the side of the junction box. This is where the wire will fit through.

Then we’re going to strip the main cable. You have to remove the outer sheath, and then strip both the red and black wires inside. This cable is a 2-wire, 12AWG THHN cable.

Slip the bushing into the hole in the junction box, and unscrew the head of the bushing. Slip the head of the bushing onto the cable, and insert the cable into the junction box.

Land the red wire to the outside screw on the positive side of the module, and the black to the negative side.

Then land the red wire to the positive side of the “Solar” pair of screws, and the black wire to the negative. Also cut the DC plug cable, and strip the wires. Land the wire that has bumps or a white line on the negative side of the pair of “Battery” screws, and the smooth, unmarked wire to the positive.

Then you can plug the DC plug into the side of the XPower and…

…push the battery status button. If the panel is out in full sun, and there is no load, you should see all the lights light up. Now you can connect a load to the AC plug in the XPower, and turn on the “AC Outlets” button. There will be a beep. If you have a load that is bigger than 130W, you will see fewer lights lit on the Battery Status. This means that the load is not only using all the solar power, but it is also using the battery. The same is true if there is less than full sun, and a 130W load, because the solar panel will be producing less than 130W.

So now you have your XPower up and running. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. The XPower and Charge Controller are on Amazon, but not the Solar panel or Cable. If you would like to buy those items, feel free to order them as a kit off of our online store (with PayPal or Google Checkout) here: http://www.in2solar.com/store/index.php/solar-battery-charging-kit.html

The California Solar Initiative (CSI) is an organization that offers a cash back incentive for putting a solar system on your home or business in California.  There are two different rebate programs, Expected Performance Based Buydown (EPBB), and Performance Based Incentive (PBI). The rebate values vary according to system size, customer class, and performance and installation factors, as shown on the chart below:

CSI Rebate Graph

Here is the EPBB rebate explained by the CSI website:

Owners of solar systems less than 50 kilowatt (kW*) may apply for an up-front cash rebate known as the Expected Performance Based Buydown (EPBB)**. Program Administrators calculate a customer’s rebate using the expected performance of the owner’s system based on equipment ratings and installation factors such as geographic location, tilt, orientation and shading. Customers receive their incentive payment in a lump sum after their system in fully installed and interconnected.

And here is the PBI:

Customers with solar systems between 50 kW* and 1 MW must* apply for the Performance Based Incentive (PBI) structure. PBI incentives are a five-year stream of fixed monthly payments determined by the actual output of the system, as metered and reported to the utility. After January 1, 2010, all systems greater than 30 kW must choose the Performance Based Incentive structure. The PBI incentive path is available at any time to ANY size system.

The table below shows the effect of prices as these step declines occur, with current prices in the three territories highlighted in yellow. Residential and commercial incentives are the same price in each step; however, local governments and other tax-exempt organizations receive a slightly higher incentive because cannot qualify for Federal Investment Tax Credits on their solar systems.

The table below shows the rebate levels available at various steps, and information on currently applicable step in your region is available at the California Solar Initiative Trigger Tracker.

However, there is a catch. In order to use this great incentive, the homeowner or business must “record the output of the PV generator”, and “pay for 5 years of data communication and performance monitoring and reporting services” (emphasis mine). So who are these Performance Monitoring and Reporting Services? After some major digging through the beaurocratic labyrinth of CSI and Pacific Gas and Electric’s websites, I found this list:

1. Applied Power Technologies, Inc.
2. Deck Monitoring, LLC
3. Draker Laboratories, Inc.
4. Energy Recommerce, Inc.
5. Enflex
6. Enphase Energy
7. Fat Spaniel Technologies
8. Locus Energy
9. NergyOS, Inc.
10. Recurrent Energy
11. SatCon Power Systems
12. SolarCity
13. Thompson Technologies, Inc.
14. Trimark Associates, Inc.

So there you are! The list of the 14 privileged Performance Monitoring and Reporting Service providers. These chosen few capitalize on every solar installation in the state of California.

The Bamboo Bike Studio is run by three men in their late 20s who know a lot about bamboo and a lot about bicycles. On a cool autumn morning, two of them are out on a bamboo harvest — in a dense grove near New Brunswick, N.J.

Justin Aguinaldo and Sean Murray carry a small Japanese pull saw and a caliper to find bamboo stems that are 1 1/2 inches thick. When they find stems that are just right, they tap the bamboo to make sure it’s not too soft: “If the bamboo’s too watery, it’s not as dense and it’s not as strong,” Aguinaldo explains.

Aguinaldo makes his living as a bicycle messenger. Sean Murray is a former schoolteacher whose voice mail greeting makes note of the fact that he is now living the dream of making bikes with his friends.

Murray says he finds bamboo patches by reading online gardening forums. He says a lot of people start growing bamboo as a decorative plant — but then it gets out of hand. Read More… »

Recently I came across a new Google service, the Google Power Meter. This is a Google.org service that provides users with the ability to monitor their house’s energy usage from any web browser. It comes packaged in a very nice user interface, with interactive graphs and statistics in real time.
I found that Google Power Meter harvests energy data through its partners, one of which is The Energy Detective, a small company that manufactures a device that harvests the data. The neat thing about the TED, as The Energy Detective’s device is called, works not only for monitoring your home’s energy use, but also your solar systems production!
I will be posting more on Solar Data Monitoring later on, but for now, check out both of these websites, and evaluate whether or not The Energy Detective might be right for your solar system.

Gas-powered lawn equipment is a pain. I can’t count the number of times I have had to tip the mower to unclog the blade and discovered that I was tipping it over the wrong way and that I had flooded the engine. Or the many times I have spilled gas all over myself when I was refueling. Have you noticed that the smell of gas doesn’t go away when you change your clothes? You can even wash your hands in hot water and the gasoline will still be there.

And then there was the time when I mistakenly put old mixed gas in our beautiful Stihl weedeater. It started, but when I shut it off, it was destined to never start again. The old mixed gas seized up in the piston, and the whole thing became as hard as rock.

Bummer.

So here is an article that gives some interesting facts about gas-powered lawn maintenance, and then goes through some of the options for gas-free lawn equipment. I have to say, electric is great. It is so quiet! I could talk on the phone and mow the lawn at the same time. In fact, my corded lawn mower is quieter than our vacuum!

A Swedish study in 2001 determined that cutting grass for one hour with an old gas powered lawn mower creates the same amount of air pollution as driving a 1992  automobile 100 miles.

Environmental Canada, the nation’s environmental regulatory agency, says that number is closer to 300 miles in a late-model car.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans spill more than 17 million gallons of gasoline each year refilling lawn equipment – more oil than the Exxon Valdez spilled in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989. Read More… »