Solar power now cheaper than natural gas for utility companies

According to experts in the solar industry, the U.S. expects to see the construction of 13 gigawatts worth of new utility-scale solar PV projects in the next two years. This number is impressive on its own, but it becomes even more striking when compared to the state of solar in this country as recently as a year ago. These new projects will provide a power supply equivalent to the total amount of solar power that was available across all sectors at the end of 2013.

So what's behind this explosion in the popularity of solar among utility companies? Apparently, the price of solar power has decreased dramatically for these companies over the past few years. Solar energy currently costs a utility company about 4.5 to 7.5 cents per kilowatt hour. In 2008, the price of solar energy was more than double this amount on average.

This impressive dip in prices is enough to put solar on an equal footing with natural gas when it comes to cost competitiveness, meaning that the old excuse about clean energy being too expensive to be practical is effectively no longer valid. An executive at Xcel Energy explained the company's shift toward solar power this way: "This is the first time that we've seen, purely on a price basis, that the solar projects made the cut — without considering carbon costs or the need to comply with a renewable energy standard."

The drop in prices is due largely to the Solar Investment Tax Credit, which reduces taxes for companies that purchase solar energy and has allowed the sector to grow exponentially since its inception in 2006. Solar power advocates are currently urging Congress to extend the provision; otherwise it will end in 2016.

To learn about green energy options for your own home, contact Alban Inspections for an energy audit today. 

In case anyone was still doubting the feasibility of powering the entire country with energy from renewable sources, a new study from the Environment America Research and Policy Center just came along to crush those doubts. The study found that not only could America meet all of its current energy needs easily with solar energy, but solar could even provide up to 100 times the amount of power we currently use. 

Using data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the researchers found that the country has the potential to use solar PV and concentrating solar power (CSP) installations to produce enough power to supply not only the current America, but 99 other hypothetical equal-sized Americas as well. Compared to this potential, using solar power to meet only 10 percent of the nation's needs, as recommended by environmental experts, seems almost like underachieving. However, meeting this goal seems realistic based on the strong growth of solar power in past years, and it would reduce the nation's carbon footprint by 280 million metric tons by 2030, the equivalent of taking 59 million cars off our roads.

The researchers' opinion is clear: they state in their conclusions that politicians on the state, federal and local levels "should adopt aggressive goals for solar integration and implement policies that encourage the adoption of solar power." And in case anyone were to assume that this potential is localized in a few very sunny states, the researchers also make it clear that each state has the potential to source enough energy from solar power within the state itself to meet 100 percent of its own needs.

If you're looking for ways to reduce your carbon footprint and take advantage of green technologies, contact Alban Inspections for an energy audit today. 

With the unending march of new technology, it's gradually becoming much easier to monitor your carbon footprint and energy expenditures, and to take steps to decrease them. By using the new online tool from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), called the Energy Star Home Advisor and released on Dec. 8, Americans will now be able to enter information about their home into their computer and receive personalized advice for updating their homes' energy efficiency.

Homeowners can get the process started by visiting the tool's new website, where they will be guided through the process of creating a profile for their home. This includes information like zip code, how the home is heated and cooled, and other relevant information that can be used to determine the current energy efficiency of the home. Once the profile has been created, the tool recommends home improvements and prioritizes them based on the amount of energy they will save. Over time, homeowners can return to the tool and enter updated information about repairs they've made, which is fed into reports on how much energy they have saved so far. These reports can eventually become useful in selling the home, if desired.

This announcement came as a part of the EPA's Energy Efficiency Action Week, where local EPA offices step up their outreach efforts and lead events about energy efficiency. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy remarked on the lifestyle benefits of low energy use for homeowners: "When homeowners take advantage of this important tool and increase the energy efficiency of their homes, many families will notice savings on energy bills and improvements in the comfort of their homes."

For help determining how energy efficiency measures can be implemented in your home, contact Alban Inspections for an energy audit today.

In encouraging news for the green energy and green building communities, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that solar power production in the US has increased over 100 percent since Sept. 2013. According to the agency's report, 12,303 gigawatt hours of energy were produced by US solar power technologies in Sept. 2014, more than doubling the figure of 6,048 gigawatt hours in Sept. 2013.

The 12,303 GWh sent to the grid by solar technology is enough to power about 1.5 million average American homes. The total share of the energy market occupied by solar is relatively small compared to other renewable technologies — it represents about 0.4 percent of total US energy production, whereas all renewable technologies combined have taken over about 13 percent of the market.

However, according to environmental advocates, this is already significant because as recently as 2008, solar energy was much less popular and barely contributed anything to the power mix. Its sharp gains represent a hopeful possibility for the future of solar as the country looks toward renewable energy to decrease carbon emissions in an increasingly warming world. The founder of solar power company SunEdison, Jigar Shah, told NBC: "Given the growth of solar over the last few years, getting to 10 percent of U.S. electricity from solar should happen far sooner than 2030."

Groups like Environment America are also pushing for 10 percent of US energy to come from solar within the next 15 years, noting that in order to accomplish this goal, solar production would only have to increase by 22 percent annually, which is much more slowly than it has been expanding in the past few years.

Considering installing solar technology in your home? Contact Alban Inspections for a home inspection or energy audit to determine how best to fit solar into your home's existing structure.

In a previous post, we talked about how smart house technology can help you save money and energy over the holidays, but you can still have a green holiday even if you don't have any electronic gadgets to keep track of your energy use. Here are some simple strategies to help you reduce the waste that's so common around the holidays:

• Recycle wrapping paper: The prevalence of packaging waste during the holiday season is stunning — household garbage increases by a million tons (literally) between Thanksgiving and New Year's. When you think about it, wrapping paper isn't really "used up" after one use, so you can carefully unwrap presents and save the paper to use next year. There are also numerous wrapping paper companies that make their product from recycled paper, or you can even wrap presents in fabric or a bag that you can reuse later.
• Use LED Christmas lights: We've already sung the praises of LED lights in the home, and they are equally as useful for holiday decorating. Substitute LED light strings for your traditional energy-wasting Christmas lights for financial and environmental savings.
• Choose the tree thoughtfully: Artificial Christmas trees are more eco-friendly than the traditional chopped evergreen, but some varieties made in China may contain lead, so be careful when choosing a brand. If you want the traditional real-tree experience, you can bring in a potted tree and plant it outside afterwards. 
• Recycle or forego Christmas cards: All the Christmas cards that get sent around this time of year represent a massive waste of paper, so consider either sending out greetings by email or making your own cards out of recycled materials.

'Tis the season for energy savings — contact Alban for a home inspection or an energy audit today. 

The holidays are a beautiful time, but powering those pretty Christmas lights can end up costing you an arm and a leg. The good news is, the technology now exists to make saving energy during the holidays a breeze rather than a chore. If you've looked into "smart house" technology, you probably know that controlling everything in your home from your smartphone is a good way of saving energy throughout the year, but here are some specific ways to use it during the holiday season:

• Turn off the Christmas lights. If you find yourself tucked in on Christmas Eve in sub-freezing weather and realize you left the entire yard ablaze like a 3-alarm fire with Christmas lights, smart house technology can be a lifesaver. Install power control devices that connect to smartphone apps so that you can turn off your lights (and save energy) from anywhere.
• Automate the thermostat: Smart thermostats are more popular and widely available than ever, and they are one of the best bets there is for winter energy savings. Since many people travel during the holidays, smart thermostats are especially practical during this season, allowing users to turn off the heat while they're away from home, then turn it back on just before they return.
• Use a smart security camera: For increased security during travel, set up a camera to keep watch over your home and send streaming video to your phone. This will help save a different kind of energy — the kind you would otherwise expend on worrying about break-ins.

To prepare your home for the holidays, contact Alban for a home inspection. We are an experienced and trusted home inspection company serving D.C. and parts of Maryland and West Virginia. 

Traditionally, swimming pools have never been a source of water and energy savings. Sure, they're fun to have and provide a place to cool off in hot weather, but for the most part, they represent a drain on water supplies and a fairly useless component of a home. However, with droughts striking across the country, many Americans are turning to an innovative solution: turning their unused outdoor pools into miniature farms, complete with greenhouses, chicken coops and fish ponds.

The concept was originally developed in 2009 by Arizona residents Danielle and Dennis McClung, who had bought a new home and were faced with the decision of what to do with the cracked, run-down pool in the backyard. They added a greenhouse frame over the top of the pool, filled the deep end with water for tilapia to swim in, added chickens that roost over the water, and started growing produce with water pumped out of the fish pond. Chicken excrement provides an excellent fertilizer for the duckweed that grows in the pond, which in turn feeds the chickens.

The McClungs' swimming pool pond provides the vast majority of the food they eat. The couple started a meetup group that eventually grew into a nonprofit organization called Garden Pool, whose mission is to teach others how to replicate the self-sustaining agricultural methods used in the McClungs' original pool garden. However, all this success didn't come without a lot of botched attempts along the way. "We spent a lot of time falling on our faces. We'd put one fire out with another," Dennis McClung told Modern Farmer magazine.

For expert advice on how to make energy efficiency improvements to your home, schedule an energy audit with Alban Inspections today.

Most of us already know that what seem like expensive green energy investments today can pay for themselves many times over throughout their lifetime. Nevertheless, sometimes the magnitude of the savings can surprise even the hardiest advocate for energy efficiency. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), the $18 million invested this year by the DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU) will eventually lead to savings of over $100 million for DC residents, businesses and governmental agencies. In addition to the financial savings, ACEEE estimates that DC residents have saved over 60,000 megawatt hours of electricity because of the upgrades.

The DCSEU, according to a statement on its website, is a government-funded agency "designed to help District households, businesses, and institutions save energy and money through energy efficiency and renewable energy programs." Throughout 2014, they have invested over $18 million in energy efficiency initiatives in DC. One of their biggest projects this year was the replacement of 1,200 205-watt metal halide fixtures in Union Station with 98-watt fluorescent fixtures, which will lead to an annual energy savings equivalent to 809 metric tons of carbon dioxide. However, the agency also engaged in numerous smaller projects, including a partnership with Capitol Hill Village, a local largely-senior housing association that provides supportive services to its tenants. Residents were given the opportunity to replace their inefficient personal appliances with more up-to-date models.

Looking for ways to improve your own home's energy efficiency for the coming year? Schedule a home energy audit with Alban before the new year, then make it your resolution to implement all the changes our licensed home inspectors will suggest. Before you know it, your new appliances and fixtures will be paying for themselves and more. 

If you've been hesitating to switch out your incandescent bulbs with LEDs due to the latter's price, you've never had a better opportunity than the present. In 2013, 60-watt LED bulbs went for an average of $10 per bulb, but with recent innovations in production and design, the price has dropped to below $8.

Not only are the new models cheaper, but they are also lighter and slimmer due to improvements in the design of the bulbs. Older model LEDs had to be manufactured with a bulky aluminum "heat sink" attached to draw heat away from the light-emitting diodes themselves and keep the bulb from overheating. Now, the heat sink has been replaced with models that allow air to flow throughout the bulb and over the LEDs and use large flat surfaces to draw heat away from the bulb. These more efficient models, manufactured by companies like Philips and Cree, are also many lumens brighter than old models, and are made with shatterproof plastic instead of glass, making them weigh less than two ounces each. The new models also come in both daylight and "warm light" versions, with the warm light providing a similar light quality to that of incandescents.

However, the main draw of LED bulbs remains their energy efficiency and extra long life — about 20 years, at an energy cost per year per bulb of about $1.30. If you're curious about how you could incorporate LED bulbs and other energy-efficiency improvements into your home, contact Alban Inspections today for a home energy audit. We partner with several sponsored programs that can give you the opportunity to try out these technologies for free or using rebates.

Hosting guests for Thanksgiving is a great way of bringing family and friends together, but what with all the cooking, cleaning, TV-blaring and generally increased activity, the holiday can cause a spike in your home energy use. Here's our list of tips for getting the most out of the holiday without sending your energy bill skyrocketing:

• Cook in glass and ceramic dishes. These hold heat better than their metal equivalents and allow you to lower the oven temperature for more efficient cooking.
• Cook sides with the turkey. Planning on having side dishes in the oven at the same time as the turkey is not only energy-efficient because it shortens the amount of time the oven is left on, it's also a time-saver. A turkey takes a long time to cook, so it can help with your overstuffed schedule to double up in the oven.
• Don't hand-wash dishes. And don't pre-rinse them — simply scrape them off and load them into the dishwasher to avoid wasting water.
• Don't peek into the oven. Opening the oven door leads to a temperature loss of 25 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, so it's best to either contain your curiosity or check on the turkey through the oven window.
• Lower your thermostat. The oven will provide a substitute for some of the heat your HVAC system usually provides, allowing it to take a load off for the day.
• Use the microwave for pre-heating. Microwaves are more energy-efficient than ovens, so use them whenever possible to take the burden of pre-heating dishes off the oven.

For even more energy savings, consider getting a home energy audit from Alban Inspections. We work with several funding programs that can provide the audit either for free or at low-cost, including installation of some small appliances.