- Alternating current: Alternating current reverses direction at periodic intervals, called cycles.
- Building envelope: The walls, roof, doors, foundation, windows and other aspects of a building that protect the indoor environment. The building envelope plays a key role in regulating interior climate and air flow.
- Direct current: Electric current that flows in a continuous direction and has a constant polarity.
- Energy efficiency: Using less energy/electricity to perform the same function.
- Green policy: Government policies that encourage use of renewable fuels.
- Greenhouse gases: CO2 and other gases trapping excessive heat in the earth's atmosphere.
- Grid-tied: An electrical generator that links to the main utility infrastructure.
- Interconnection: The linkage of transmission lines between two utilities, enabling power to be moved in either direction. Interconnections allow the utilities to help contain costs while enhancing system reliability.
- Inverter: The equipment that turns DC electricity into AC electricity.
- Off-grid: A generator that is not connected to a larger web of power plants and consumers through power lines. An off-grid generator is built near or at the site where the power is used. This also is called on-site generation.
- Kilowatt: One thousand (1,000) watts. A unit of measure of the amount of electricity needed to operate given equipment. On a hot summer afternoon a typical home, with central air conditioning and other equipment in use, might have a demand of four kW each hour.
- Kilowatt-hour: The most commonly-used unit of measure telling the amount of electricity consumed over time. It means one kilowatt of electricity supplied for one hour.
- Megawatt: One-thousand kilowatts (1,000 kW) or one million (1,000,000) watts. One megawatt is enough electrical capacity to power 1,000 average homes.
- Meter: A device for measuring levels and volumes of a customer's gas and electricity use.
- Module: An individual assembly of cells designed to produce power when exposed to sunlight.
- Net metering: Legislative provision that allows an electrical utility customer to receive credit for electricity produced by a qualifying generation system, such as solar or wind. The energy produced by the generation system and sent to the utility is subtracted from the energy consumed. Negative balances are carried forward for a period of time, stipulated by the applicable law. At the end of the designated period, a reconciliation or "true-up" of the account is performed.
- Peak usage period: The electric load that corresponds to a maximum level of electric demand in a specified time period.
- Photovoltaic: The effect of sunlight (photons) generating electricity without mechanical conversion.
- Power purchase agreement: Contract fixing the terms of an electrical energy service agreement between an energy service provider and an end user.
- Renewable energy: Resources that constantly renew themselves or that are regarded as practically inexhaustible. These include solar, wind, geothermal, small hydroelectric, and wood. Renewable resources also include some experimental or less-developed sources such as tidal power, sea currents, and ocean thermal gradients.
- Renewable energy certificate: A tradable commodity that monetizes the environmental or policy attributes of one megawatt hour of renewable energy. These certificates are traded separately from the physical electricity generated by a renewable energy plant.
- Revenue grade production meter: Refers to accuracy, reliability, and method of electricity metering which is required to meet the criteria for billing or settlement purposes, as established by the governing authority with jurisdiction over the transaction. Two common revenue-grade meter standards are plus or minus 5 percent or 2 percent.
- Solar installers: Person or organization that physically places and connects solar equipment.
- Solar panel: A photovoltaic cell that can convert light directly into electricity. Typical solar cells use semiconductors made from silicon.
- SRECs: RECs containing values derived specifically from solar-generated electricity.
"Shell Oil predicts that 50% of the world's energy will come from renewable sources by 2040."
"A system as small as 50 kilowatts, which can fit on a medium-sized office building roof, can produce enough electricity to eliminate 86,388 lbs of CO2 pollution annually, equivalent to planting over 6.5 acres of trees!"
"The number 2 state in the U.S. for solar electric power, and number 1 in total solar installations on a per capita basis, is New Jersey. Abundant state and federal incentive programs have caused the number of solar installations to skyrocket from just six installations seven years ago to over 4,340 today." LEARN MORE
In one hour, the planet Earth receives more energy from the sun than the entire world uses during a whole year.
In most states, you are allowed to feed the electricity produced by your solar power system back into the power grid.
Known as "net metering," this allows you to sell your solar power to the local utility, reducing or eliminating your electric bill.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), passed in response to the worldwide economic crisis of 2008-2009, contains more than than $50 billion in direct spending programs, tax incentives, grants, loans, loan guarantees, and bond programs devoted to clean and renewable energy.
Even during the recession, the solar industry grew by 37 percent in 2009 and created 17,000 new American jobs. One industry association projects 10 gigawatts of new installations annually by 2015, powering two million households with clean, safe solar energy and supporting 440,000 domestic jobs.
2009 marked the second year of major price declines for photovoltaic solar modules. Prices have fallen over 40 percent since the beginning of 2008.
Since module prices account for up to half of the installed cost of a PV system, overall installed system prices are trending significantly downward as well.