San Francisco Bay Area, California – Clean Power Finance, Inc. (CPF) announced the first close of a $6.9M financing round co-led by Claremont Creek Ventures and Clean Pacific Ventures, and joined by prior investors Sand Hill Angels and clean tech investor Gary Kremen. Clean Power Finance is the nation’s leading provider of software and services to solar installers and renewable energy professionals. The San Francisco California based company’s web-based platform delivers verified leads, solar quoting and sales management, residential and commercial project financing, and training to over 30 percent of the solar installer community nationwide. [continue reading…]

We love to hear about public solar energy panel projects like the recent solar commercial project installed near San Jose in Northern California where money is put to good use creating jobs while not missing a teaching moment about the benefits converting to solar energy.

There is no better place to plant the seeds for the expanded use of renewable power by future generations than in a school environment. School officials and corporate leaders in the San Jose, San Francisco Bay Area embraced the concept recently when they announced a public-private partnership for solar power and energy efficiency. The Milpitas Unified School District launched its collaboration with Chevron Energy Solutions and Bank of America to construct a 14-site program across the district that will supply 75 percent of the district’s total annual electricity needs through solar energy. [continue reading…]

PACE solar financing is facing a serious threat from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could render these programs dead in the water. The Department of Energy, state and local governments, and many others working to address this problem. Yet, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have repeatedly missed their own deadlines for resolving the issue. It’s time to step up the pressure. Help us urge Congress to step in and remedy this harmful impasse. [continue reading…]

Federal and California government via California solar incentives deserve much credit for making solar photovoltaic (PV) energy systems (solar panels) more affordable for California homes and commercial business. Solar companies and manufactures are also making great strides to lower the cost of solar over the last 24 months. Solar permit fees are passed on to the California solar panel system home and commercial business owners and can add much to the roadblock to moving closer to energy independence. [continue reading…]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently selected the team of ACCIONA Solar Power and the Clark Energy Group to develop a massive solar energy project. The first phase alone consists of five sites over 21 square miles, which will produce a cumulative 500 megawatts (MW) of power at the Fort Irwin military complex, located in the Mojave Desert of California, an area with nearly the most hours of sunlight in the U.S. annually. In specific, Fort Irwin is located halfway between Los Angeles, which is approximately 245 km to the southwest, and Las Vegas, NV, nearly 290 km to the northeast. The base is the U.S. Army`s largest training ground and also houses NASA`s Goldstone Deep Space Communications center. This effort is in response to a federal mandate that requires the U.S. Army to reduce its energy consumption by 30 percent by 2015 with respect to 2003 levels and to cover 25 percent of its energy consumed with clean, renewable energy by 2025, which is analogous to the renewable energy portfolio standard for states. [continue reading…]

Most laptop batteries are manufactured by all the leading companies in the market like Samsung, Toshiba, Panasonic, Acer, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, HP, IBM, Sony, last but certainly not least, the new hot Apple iPad.

We had a friend recently join the Peace Corps and wanted to find a way to reliably charge his iPad battery off the grid, we are going to focus on the iPad. [continue reading…]

Assessing a homeowners energy consumption and designing high-performance solar system installation and integrate it into a customers home in an aesthetic manner seems simple enough. But we are finding that homeowners who know a little about solar are sometimes the toughest customers to sell because they have been told by some solar sales persons that solar just does not pay. Here in N. Ca, with the CSI PG&E / SMUD rebates, and the 30% tax credit, and the reduction in panel prices since the silicon glut, solar pencils out for just about everybody. [continue reading…]

Sunday afternoon in the backyard in Sacramento. The sun is shining. My neighbor nods in the direction of my solar power system and says, “what’s it earning now?” One glance at my SMA Sunny Beam is enough. The results leave your neighbor whistling in appreciation. It really creates a good feeling knowing my home solar power system is doing what it should. Namely feeding solar power into the SMUD utility grid and securing my family powerful returns on my solar investment. Even for small solar power systems, comprehensive monitoring can be important as well as satisfying. 

West Sacramento Solar Cost. Free Site Evaluation

Choose the Blue Pacific Solar team for your home or business solar energy system installation. Start-to-finish project management by solar panel installation professionals who are licensed by the state of California to install solar. A solar power system from the Blue Pacific Solar team can save money on your electric bill, increase your home’s value and make the world a cleaner and America a safer place. [continue reading…]

Do you find solar batteries exciting? I bet you don’t, but when you realize how central they are to the clean tech revolution, you’ll be intrigued. Batteries, along with emerging technologies such as ultra-capacitors and flywheels are at the heart of energy storage – the ability to store enough energy to power electric transportation and solve the intermittent issues associated with solar and wind. [continue reading…]

Solar cost? How much is solar power going to cost to run my home or business? This is usually the first question asked by someone who is exploring the idea of using solar power to run their home or business. Seems like a simple enough question. However, the answer is not so simple to get to without a little up-front information.Short of throwing some broad, vague meaningless numbers out there, if the person asking the question can provide the last 12 months PG&E or SMUD electrical bills, we can glean much of the information to provide a meaningful answer. O ya, one more thing, it is actually helpful to see the last bill rather than just the summary numbers so we can look at the rate your power company has you on. It makes a big difference when considering the payback. [continue reading…]