Edmonton's newest solar installation company, Dandelion Renewables

My friend Mike has been working for the past year on a new business, and I think that his timing is perfect: there has never been a cheaper time to install solar electric modules on your house.

A mathematician and project feasability modeller by profession, Mike is passionate about making solar work for his clients. He is one of two people whom I've met who truly understands your electricity bill (Gordon Howell is the other one - how is it okay that only the best experts understand a freakin bill?), and he is looking to put that understanding to good use.

The solar electric industry is undergoing an upheaval. Although I don't care to know the details, the result is that the price of PV modules right now is roughly one quarter of what I paid just a few years ago.

Mike tells me that he can achieve rates of return between 3%-5% for his clients on solar installations. That investment is more secure than any stock (the equipment can be covered by home insurance), and it turns you into a green energy producer. How cool is that?

If I didn't already have every square inch of my house covered with PV modules, I would hire Mike of Dandelion Renewables to install solar panels on my house.

Congratulations to Peter Amerongen on winning "Net-Zero Energy Home Champion of the Year" and to the team at Habitat Studio & Workshop Ltd on winning "Net-Zero Energy Home Product of the Year" for their PV Awning.  I believe this is the very awning that is on Conrads house.

Check out: http://netzeroenergyhome.ca/2011-award-winners

 This just in from resident Net Zero House expert and Edmonton green leader Bob Heath:

The latest issue of Home Power magazine has an article entitled "Blast From The Past" written by Martin Holladay. He tested a 33 watt PV module that he had bought in 1980 for $275.00 US. He found that the module was still performing at better than factory spec. A quote from the article - "A PV cell is a rock that makes electricity."
Another quote from the same issue of HP - "A PV module is the closest thing we have to perpetual motion [and] is the most reliable electric generator in the known universe." —Joel Davidson, SOLutions in Solar Electricity

Germany will install 6,000,000 kilowatts of PV modules this year. Shouldn’t we Albertans also be investing in these en masse in order to make our electricity supply more resilient (not to mention greener) in a future of declining fossil fuel availability?

Mill Creek NetZero Home, December 15, 2009, 14:00.

As we approach the winter solstice and the three-month anniversary of our moving in, we continue to learn about our new house. These observations are mostly qualitative, because we don’t have the rest of our solar modules up, and we haven’t set up monitoring equipment yet. We are tentatively planning to remove the door of our wood stove on July 1st, 2010  and then monitor the house’s energy use for a year.  read more... »