About Tax Credits
This is the part that was a little confusing at first, but basically a tax credit is more valuable than an equivalent tax deduction because a tax credit reduces tax dollar-for-dollar, while a deduction only removes a percentage of the tax that is owed. You can itemize purchases on your federal income tax form, which will lower the total amount of tax you owe the government. Fuel-efficient vehicles and energy-efficient appliances and products provide many benefits such as better gas mileage –meaning lower gasoline costs, fewer emissions, lower energy bills, increased indoor comfort, and reduced air pollution. In addition to federal tax incentives, some people will also be eligible for utility or state rebates, as well as state tax incentives for energy-efficient homes, vehicles and equipment. Each state’s energy office web site may have more information on specific state tax information. See website: Department of Energy – Tax Breaks

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
And you thought just those Wall Street boys were “rescued” last year…On October 3, 2008, the House of Representatives passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) of 2008, which includes an 8-year extension of the solar investment tax credit (ITC) and provides other critical incentives to the renewable energy marketplace. But not only does this new law extend the ITC, it also provides additional provisions that will combine for $18 billion in renewable energy tax credits. Those provisions include credits for solar, wind, and several other clean-energy industries in the United States.

“By passing this bill,” according to Suntech America president Roger Efird, “Congress has finally given the solar energy industry the ‘policy certainty’ that will attract investment, expand manufacturing and lower the cost of solar energy to consumers,” Efird said in a statement.

The solar industry is the greatest beneficiary of this legislation. The tax credits for solar initiatives are good for the next 8 years. Additionally, the $2,000 tax credit limit for residential solar systems being lifted means that homeowners can get a 30% tax credit on the solar panels they install starting next year (That’s 2009!).

So if my math is right for every $100 you spend on solar power, the IRS will give you $30 back on your taxes. Doesn’t get much better than that. Don’t delay any longer, get out there and start building.

Unfortunately, converting that energy into electricity is not free, or sometimes even cheap! Home setups can cost more than $50k for a typical home. Just the kit to construct panels yourself can run upwards of $5k. However, it is not too difficult–or expensive–to build your own.

I know what you’re going to say… “But Sam, I’m not handy! I don’t know nothin’ about buildin’ no solar panels!” Well, I’m with you there, brutha. I didn’t either. However, through a lot of trial and error I was able to figure it out. And I got a “little help from my friends” as they say.

Building panels yourself will save you a TON of money, which means a quicker payback. Even if you can’t generate enough energy to run your entire home, it will help decrease your electricity bill which will help. Let’s say you spend $300 on building your panels and getting your system set up. If you can save even $50/month in energy bills, you’ve paid for this thing in six months! After that, its all gravy!

Now, if you went off and paid $30k for a setup and if it saves you double what the home-made setup saves, or $100/month, you’re looking at 300 months, or 25 years. Your home will be paid off before that happens!

If you are serious about using solar power, you should think about building your own panels.

If you are not serious about solar power, you should also think about building your own to see how it goes.

When I first started wanting to install solar power panels a few years ago, I scoured the internet for instructions, kits, knowledge, etc. I found some things that were partially helpful, and I found a lot of people who just wanted to take my money.

Look, I’m not exactly “Joe Rolling in the Money” here. I’m a supervisor at a paper plant outside Denver and I’m struggling to make ends meet, just like the next guy. I have liked the “idea” of a solar home for a lot of years now, but I just wasn’t able to do much about it. It always remained out of reach, cost-wise.

Fortunately, an Army buddy who lives on the other side of town told me about his experience. He was over for some BBQ last summer and told me about how he was able to get his entire system up and running for about $500. He said he bought an e-book that explained it all. I said, “What the h#!!’s an ‘ebook’?” He told me it was information he bought online and downloaded. I told him all information on the internet should be available for free. He countered that it makes a lot of sense to pay for information, as long as it is useful, relevant and accurate, which this was. He figured you could collect much of the info yourself by doing months of research online and offline and put it together yourself. However, he wanted to get the info and get to work already.

But I digress.

The site he told me about was Earth 4 Energy, and he was really happy with it. I continued to futz around and didn’t purchase it (yeah, like $50 is soooo much money!) for a while. It turns out there are a variety of products that are similar. I started looking into these in depth and have written up some reviews that you can read right here.

They are all basically solid, but my favorite has been Earth4Energy. Read my review to find out why.

Basically what it means is “turning light energy into power.” That’s what this site is all about. In terms that even I can understand, the photons in the light hit your panels and cause the associated electrons to get all hyperactive, increasing their energy which gets turned into actual electricity. I don’t want to go all “scientist” on you, but that’s the basic idea.

Solar power is becoming more common in businesses, communities and homes because it is a viable source of clean, renewable energy. It’s actually the fastest-growing source of renewable energy in the world. The sun is never going away, and if it does, you’ll have bigger problems than how to power your home, won’t you?

The goal of the solar-powered home is to generate enough power through your photovoltaic panels to run the appliances in your home and if you’re lucky, have some power left over to sell back to the grid. Save the environment and make some money to boot. Not a bad deal.

However, life is not ideal, and it doesn’t usually work out like that. Solar panels are very expensive to produce and install. The return on your investment may not be seen soon, or even in your lifetime. This discourages many people from making that investment. Fortunately, there are ways to lower your costs by building your own solar panels.

(By the way, did you sign up for my ebook? I explain a lot more about this stuff in there.)

Solar panels are a great way to give your home the energy it needs. Building solar panels is becoming very popular as people and businesses try to harness this clean, renewable energy source.