Renewable energy must be affordable to the consumer if it is to be categorized as sustainable as promoted on the Environment Sustainability Consulting website. An article of interest I found very relevant to this ideology is 'Home Solar made cheaper & easier'. You can read it here
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/care2/67/home-solar-made-cheaper-and-easier.html
(Image Credit: Jeremy Levine Design)
Homeowners looking to switch to solar power can skip the expensive installation and instead use their existing electrical outlet. The home solar kit is designed to be placed as a sunshade over a large window that gets a lot of sun, and faces south.
The product, called Sunfish was created by Clarian Technologies. It generates 1,000 watts of power, enough to run a refrigerator. A smaller version generates 200 watts or enough to power lights within a home using energy efficient bulbs.
In 2011, the cost of the 1,000 watt system will be about $4,000, but it was reported that by 2012, that cost could come down to $3,000. Clarian's website says installing the Sunfish requires 6-8 hours, and it weighs 200 pounds.
It is estimated that after four years, the money saved from energy use would cover the cost of the product. After that, it could save several hundred dollars per year.
Another benefit is that having a home solar power system could cause the owners to pay more attention to their energy consumption and reduce it. Energy monitoring and targeting has been studied and observed to reduce consumption by about five percent.
The Sunfish system has a wireless data transmitter so it can send the energy output information to Google Powermeter, which you can view on a Web browser. Google Powermeter is used to analyze energy consumption to look for potential energy reduction, and cost cutting.
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