Community Solar Takes Flight

Greetings solar fans!

After 3 years of false starts, rigorous research, and hundreds of interviews and conversations with experts in many fields, Community Solar in Wisconsin will be making an appearance in 2011.

There are many definitions for what is meant by "community solar".  Basically, if you have shading on your property, or have some other obstacle that gets in the way of your desire to buy into and benefit from clean energy technology from the sun, then you need a community solar project to fulfill your solar needs.

Traditionally, community solar projects have been owned and sponsored by utilities or municipal entities who want local folks to buy into the project.  There is no ideal or standard way to organize this that can be easily replicated elsewhere.

Our solution is to form small private groups that will allow solar projects to be developed in order to help local landowners gain the benefits from owning and/or using solar power for their home or business needs.  This becomes a Win-Win-Win scenario helping those who have a sunny spot but can't afford solar, those who have money, but can't put solar on their own property, and helping the local environment while greening the local electrical grid.

Contact Kurt for more information at:  Solarconnections@gmail.com

Follow me at www.twitter.com/SolDude

Hope to hear from you soon.

Renewably Yours,

Kurt Reinhold
Solar Connections, LLC.

A Bulb for the Ages

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 put limits on the types of lightbulbs that will be available in the coming years.  In fact, by 2014, the age-old glowing filament we call incandescent bulbs will not be the same anymore.  Some incandescents will sport lighter energy consumption profiles, while the older energy-hogging incandescent burners will no longer be available.  2014 is not that far away.  Have you found a favorite CFL or LED bulb you want to put in your light sockets yet?

Here's one that's pretty cool.  Literally.  It's a L.E.D. bulb that produces light that looks more like what we are all used to, unlike the flickering glow of compact fluorescents or the sharp light 1st generation LED bulbs gave us.  See the link below for more information on this new lightbulb start-up company, called Switch Lighting.

http://www.slate.com/id/2298444/