Thursday, January 1, 2009

Solar, Solar Everywhere

Yes, I know it's been a long time since we posted anything. The state of the financial markets left us scrambling to find financing after the lender the mortgage broker found for us decided they were no longer going to do construction loans. So we had to start over with finding a bank. More on that later.

Solar, Solar Everywhere - in Bavaria that is. Andreas and I just returned from a Christmas trip to Germany to spend the holidays with his family. One of the things that struck us on this trip was how much solar energy is being captured in Germany. Old barns, old farm houses, new houses, and commercial buildings of all sizes had solar PV panels capturing energy and/or solar water heaters. It was amazing and refreshing. Hopefully that's something we'll see in our country in the not too distant future. Hopefully Obama's commitment to green collar jobs and potential tax incentives for renewable energy options will lead to more affordable solar power in the U.S. Cost certainly is an issue for us, which is why our house will be solar ready instead of solar powered.

1 comment:

  1. My wife Stacey and I are so glad to hear that people are using renewable energy more, wind and solar included. We just wish there was more of it being used in the U.S.

    I just had a conversation with my Mom tonight that their place would be perfect for a wind turbine as they've got the space for it and their house sits at the top of a hill which is always windy. I happened to stumble across this website for residential wind turbines www.skystreamenergy.com which seemed promising to me.

    Best wishes for smooth sailing on the construction!

    Mark

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