This passive solar house in Portsmouth, New Hampshire has a 3.4 kilowatt Sun Power photovoltaic (PV) array mounted on a 40-degree pitched roof, and a Sun Power 3000 inverter.

The solar electric array generates most of home’s electricity during the course of the year, averaging about 380 kilowatt hours each month.

This solar power system is grid-tied with no moving parts and smart inverter technology that allows the import of electricity to the electric panel on overcast days or when electric load is high. In clear sunlit conditions the array will export energy out to the electric grid, and credit is banked under New Hampshire’s net metering program.

Using solar power at home not only produces clean energy reliably, it reduces the strain on the electrical grid during times of peak demand.  Since solar energy has no emissions, this system will eliminate an estimated 6,890 lbs of CO2 from the atmosphere each year!

We put a lot of effort into ensuring our systems will operate trouble-free in New England winters for 20+ years, which is no small feat!  Exceptional manufacturers help make this a reality.

We recently learned that one of the manufacturers we use for solar electric panels, Canadian Solar, received some of the highest rankings in PV USA (PTC) rankings.

These rankings, required by the State of California, exhaustively test module performance in laboratory settings and are required for a module to be eligible for California’s solar financial incentives.

Five of Canadian Solar’s solar module series, the CS6P- 220P, 225P, 230P, CS5P-240M and CS5A-180M obtained rankings that were near the top of all of those tested.

You can read Canadian Solar’s official statement, or see the full listing of PTC rankings and requirements.

Here are some pictures of recent installations that use Canadian Solar panels:

This 6KW grid-tied photovoltaic system will produce roughly 7800KWhrs of clean electricity per year and reduce CO2 emissions by 10,452 lbs.

Solarbuzz just released a report on solar panel prices for early 2010. The exciting news is that global supply of solar electric (PV) panels continues to exceed demand – meaning a decreased cost per installed watt of solar panels.

In fact, the cost per watt for a grid-tied photovoltaic system has dropped by roughly 30% over the past 18 months, meaning that the time to lock in your energy rate with a renewable solar power system is now.

This is great news for people in northern New England who want to save money and clean up the environment. Most of the electricity generated in Maine and New Hampshire today comes from oil and gas-fired power plants, which emit enormous quantities of harmful byproducts into the atmosphere.

Solar power systems, on the other hand, have zero emissions and only need sunshine for fuel. ReVision Energy has installed more than 1,000 grid-tied solar electric systems, thereby gradually reducing the need for fossil fuel power plants.

One of the biggest struggles many homeowners have when considering solar is the ROI – due to the up-front cost, many people want to know how long it will be before they will start saving money on the system vs. what they would have paid to energy utilities.

Lowered cost of solar panels does a lot to make this technology more affordable.

ReVision Energy customer Ben Tipton pointed out on his blog how important he feels a solar investment is to a house:

Everyone always talks about the return on investment when it comes to solar … This to me is a silly question. No one ever asks when the refrigerator, TV, furnace, car, video game is going to break even. I consider my solar a integral part of the house, something that the house couldn’t be without. I have not found the solar additions to the house any more expensive than say a regular furnace.

Indeed, Tipton’s attitude – that energy efficiency is simply part of house design, not an optional luxury, is growing more common as it becomes increasingly clear that our road to energy independence needs to happen today, and by individuals, rather than by somebody else some day down the road (check out our coverage of Tipton’s house).

If you’d like to learn more, you can always contact us for a free solar site evaluation or attend one of our many events. We’re going to have a free, one hour Solar Sustainability Crash Course in our Portland office on January 23.