I came of age post Word War II when the dangers of human-made changes to the environment—pollution, nuclear fall-out, DDT, acid rain, etc.—were undebatable and already taught in school. I have long strived to conserve energy and to reduce my carbon footprint on a personal level and I had always thought of solar panels as something to get for our home at some point in the future. When I was confronted with a major turning point in my professional career I decided to pursue something with a potential impact in combating climate change: to promote the broad-based switch from fossil fuels to solar energy. To educate myself in the subject matter and to demonstrate that I am serious about it I decided to start with a solar PV installation for my own home.

Do you have any solar tips?

First, look at your home from the outside. Is there a big tree or building giving your roof a lot of shade? If yes, you can can consider yourself lucky that this shading will reduce your cooling costs in the summer. Shading severely limits the output of a PV module and a roof that receives a lot of shading during the day is not suitable for a solar PV installation. If there is not much shading, does your roof have a lot of dormers, angles or skylights? To fit 10 or more 3-1/2’ by 5-1/2’ solar PV modules onto a roof one needs a sufficiently large continuous roof area facing preferably south, or alternatively east or west.

Second, think about how to pay for it. A solar installation costs about as much as a car. The difference between purchasing a solar installation and a car is that the the solar installation will pay for itself with the current federal and SREC incentives, if you own the system, and electricity bill savings over its warrantied 25 years of production. Just like a car you can buy a solar installation with cash, a loan, or lease it. The break-even point comes earliest when you can afford an outright purchase and treat it as an investment. A “Zero-Down Solar” deal allows you to go solar without the necessary upfront cash but, like any loan, costs you more in payments over the course of the loan term. A lease or “Power Purchase Agreement” is financially the least attractive option for a homeowner.

Third, if you think you have a suitable roof, would like to go solar and know how to pay for it, get quotes from several installers. The installers will need to see a copy of your recent electricity bill to get an idea of your electricity needs. More important than the total cost ($) in a quote are the total cost per Watt ($/W) and the value of the solar renewable energy credits (SREC) that the installer has secured. The proposal with both a low $/W cost and high SREC valuation can then be tweaked to the system size to fit your needs and your budget.

Lastly, talk to someone with experience in this subject who doesn’t want to sell you a system, especially if you want help with any of the above steps.

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