Category Archives: Roof

These homeowners in the Rhode Island village of Carolina have said “good-bye” to annual electric company rate increases. Their 24-panel solar energy system is covering all of their electricity needs. That’s like getting a rate cut from the $0.19 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) they were paying National Grid, to the $0.07 they now “pay themselves”. And […]

In general, the more solar your system produces, the faster it will pay for itself, leaving you with years more, possibly decades, of free electricity. This roof is 70% of ideal, which means it produces significantly less than an 85% or 90% roof. But panel prices have come down so much in recent years that […]

This barn renovation included solar energy panels – now that’s what we like to see! More and more people factor solar into their new homes and renovations. In fact, in Massachusetts, new homes are required to be “solar ready”. And check out the metal roof. We like to brag about how long solar panels last […]

Sometimes it’s hard to know which financial benefit of solar to highlight, so here are a bunch of them for this 20-panel system, which doesn’t even have a spectacular roof for solar: 1st year electricity savings: $1,100 25 years of electricity savings: $45,192 (assumes electricity inflates at 4.3% annually) Price of electricity per kWh: $0.05 […]

As solar panel prices have dropped, roofs that weren’t “economical” for solar a few years ago work just fine now. For example, this system is on a roof that is only 70% of the ideal (meaning 100%), yet the system will pay for itself in about 6.5 years. After that, all the savings and green […]

Like all of the solar electric systems New England Clean Energy installs, this one in the Jefferson neighborhood of Holden comes with a number of safety nets: long-term warranties on the equipment, on our workmanship, and on how much electricity the system will produce. So the homeowners are pretty much guaranteed to get the savings […]

Municipal light departments like the one in Holden, Massachusetts tend to offer better rates than the big investor-owned utilities. But in most cases, solar can bring that price down even further. This solar energy system in Holden’s Jefferson neighborhood lowered the homeowners’ price per kilowatt-hour of electricity from $0.15 to $0.04, locked in for 25 […]

Solar on some roofs is very hard to photograph, because the roof is high up, nearly flat, or both. But trust us, this home has 38, 330-watt solar panels proudly displayed on the long southwest-facing roof. The roof is considered 70% of ideal for its ability to generate solar energy. A few years ago, a […]

We tend to talk about solar in decades, because that’s how long a system lasts. But what about the impact on a monthly basis, since that’s when we all pay our bills and that’s how many of us manage our budgets? Well, this homeowner was paying Eversource around $90 a month for electricity. With solar, […]

Sometimes the solar numbers are almost too good to believe, but trust us, they are correct. If this homeowner’s system produces less than we estimated, we’ll pay him the difference. He can expect: Monthly electricity savings of more than $275. Monthly average green income of $222 (for 10 years). A 25-year financial return of more […]