Affordable 'green homes' being built in Frederick

I saw this article in the WaPost a few weeks ago, about Frederick's new North Pointe community, which features new homes from the mid-$200,000s with green qualities such as solar panels, geothermal heating, and a computer system to manage energy usage.

Each house will have about 20 solar panels, which will generate more electricity than the house uses during the day. The excess electricity will go to the grid and be credited to the home; the residents can essentially cash in that credit at night when they use more power. The homes should have net-zero energy usage.

This is a great new development (in more ways than one) and I hope we see more of them in the DC region!

If You're Thinking Sun, Come to Solar Bethesda June 12!

Memorial Day weekend is here, so even though it's cloudy my thoughts are turning to the beach and the swimming pool. It's the unofficial start of summer and many folks will be fleeing the city to hit the beach; others will celebrate the opening of the local pool.

If you're thinking sun, it's a short synaptic leap to solar energy--one of the renewables that's gotten more affordable with federal, state and local incentives. So if you're curious about solar or ready to put solar panels on your roof, come to the Solar Bethesda! expo, Saturday, June 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Bethesda Green. It's free and you'll be able to:

• Hear from neighbors who are living with solar
• Get info on costs, benefits, rebates, tax credits
• Check your home's solar readiness with satellite mapping
• Meet local solar companies (so far there are 10 on the list)
  

Plus, there will be activities for kids.

Visit the Solar Bethesda! website to learn more or click here to RSVP.

The expo takes place at Bethesda Green, 4825 Cordell Ave., Suite 200, Bethesda, Md. (Basically it's at the corner of Cordell and Woodmont on the 2nd floor of the Chevy Chase Bank building.)

Solar hot water systems and solar electric systems can be really affordable. For example, in Maryland the state, local and federal rebates can cut your cost in half! So come check it out and learn more.

(Full disclosure: I'm the volunteer website manager for Bethesda Green and I also am a writer for the DASolar Blog.)

Local co-ops help DC-area folks go solar

Three solar-power co-ops in the DC region are helping homeowners navigate the paperwork and complexities of adding solar electricity to a home.

An excellent article ("Going Solar") in Saturday's Washington Post profiled the Common Cents co-op in Chevy Chase, the Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative and the Capitol Hill Energy Co-Op.

All three try to get discounts for their members by harnessing the buying power of the group. Solar panels are usually pricey, but a current glut of panels has reduced hardware costs. Some folks have installed Sunslates, which look like slate shingles but function like solar panels, according to the story. Others have used thin-film solar technology that adheres to flat roofs.

I added up the estimates in the story and it seems by spring that 70 or 80 more homes in the area will have solar-electric technology installed. Great news!

p.s. - I've updated the Green Power / Solar Incentives links for Md., DC and Va. on GreenListDC.org.