Solar Panels for Home

To help evaluate whether a home solar electric system will work for you, you should consider the following: Your available solar resource -- do you have clear and unobstructed access to sunlight for most or all of the day, throughout the year? The system size -- do you have a roof or area large enough to accommodate it?

Solar-powered homes were a rarity as recently as a decade ago. But a plethora of federal and local tax incentives along with increasing worries about climate change have made them commonplace. Installing solar panels can decrease your household's carbon footprint by an average of 35,180 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

The White House outlined a series of measures Tuesday designed to put more solar panels on low-income housing and expand access to solar power for renters. The measures include clarified federal guidelines on how local housing authorities can use federal money to finance solar panels as well access to over $520 million in new capital from foundations, local governments and social impact investors.

Own Your Energy For the same reason people prefer to own their home, they also prefer to own their power. Instead of "renting" power from the utility, and watching helplessly as energy costs skyrocket, people all across America, and particularly here in California, are declaring their energy independence by going solar.