Valley Solar's Sunny Says Blog

Home and business owners alike install solar for a variety of reasons: they want to save money, they want to be more green and environmentally-friendly, or they're just plain sick of shelling out money to the utility company month after month. There's a good chance that you fall into one of those categories, and you have chosen to go solar as a result. With summer just around the corner, you want to be sure that your system is performing to your expectations—but you might be wondering how to do that.

If you get solar for your home, you will be able to charge your EV by converting sunlight into electric power. With consulting from Valley Solar’s expert design and installation team, we can create a system large enough to help you reduce your power bills and essentially charge your EV with free power from the sun.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions about home solar energy floating around. We’ve written the truth about five solar myths we frequently hear. In reality, though they aren’t perfect, solar photovoltaics are a great way to save money while producing green energy for residential or commercial use, and we want as many people as possible to know the truth about solar energy as we work our way to a brighter, greener future.

Remote solar monitoring allows for web-based real-time viewing of your home’s energy consumption and your solar installation‘s production, meaning you can show your co-workers and make sure your kids aren’t running up the electric bill by leaving every light in the house on while you’re at the office.

Yes, according to a June 2015 report from investment bank UBS. Solar energy (and home solar energy in particular) seems to be in an exciting growth stage, and the UBS report confirms this. The analysts concluded that global solar installations could represent 10% of the world’s electricity supply within a decade. The UBS analysts believe that solar will beat nuclear and coal power to become the “default” power generation technology. This report comes on the heels of two September 2014 reports by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which offer a roadmap for solar becoming the largest source of electricity by mid-century.

When you purchase SunPower® panels from Valley Solar, you get an industry leading combined 25-year product and power warranty that means your solar installation will be steadily producing energy for years to come, and in the unlikely event a panel is underperforming, you won’t be responsible for any of the costs associated with replacement. As your trusted local solar company, we stand behind our work, and guarantee our installation with another industry leading 25-year workmanship warranty.

Earlier this year PG&E changed the eligibility requirements for their “solar friendly” A-6 tariff. The change means that many new industrial and commercial solar projects will lose significant value because they are no longer able to take advantage of the substantial net metering credit offered by the tariff.

Luckily for us, solar panel maintenance is very easy. Simply inspect your panels a few times a year to make sure they are not dirty, and rinse them off with a garden hose if they are. That’s it!

Net energy metering (NEM) is a system which compensates homeowners who own or lease rooftop and ground-mounted solar arrays and other renewable energy generation sources at full retail price. Since 1996 net energy metering has been a mainstay of the California solar market. It is the means through which solar customer’s energy meter’s “spin backward,” giving them credit for their surplus power being fed into the grid.

If you want your 30% federal solar investment tax credit on the cost of going solar in 2015 your solar installation must be completed by December 31st, 2015.

One of the many benefits of going solar is receiving a federal tax credit of 30% of the price you pay after all other rebates and incentives have been applied. This means that a $10,000 solar PV system will result in a federal tax credit of $3,000 that you can claim for this tax year.