Sharp Shows the Way with Smart Solar Electricity

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Today I had to contact Sharp Electronics, the makers of our cafe’s cash register. After I was finished getting soaked for a simple new plastic cash drawer, to the tune of about $100, I perused their website, and discovered that Sharp is a big player in solar electricity.

That got me to poking around more, and I discovered that indeed, this Osaka-Japan based company is one of the world’s leaders in solar. A chart showed the progression, from being the inventors of the mechanical pencil in 1915 to building the largest US commercial solar system, at the Googleplex in California.

Ever since I saw my cousin Chris array out in his New Jersey barnyard, I’ve been fascinated by the concept of ‘reverese metering,’ meaning that the electricity the photovoltaic cells generated makes your meter spin backward. The Sharp website has examples of the different costs in each state. In New Jersey, for example, a system that costs a homeowner $24,000 is reduced down to $11,500 after state and federal rebates are subtracted. In California, it’s not as generous: that same $24K system will cost you $16,280 after the rebates. In Colorado, it’s even better–rebates cut the cost down to just $8500!

I read recently that in Israel, a full ninety percent of all homes have solar hot water. And there is a bill in California and Hawaii to require that all new homes built after 2008 must have solar hot water and or solar electric cells.

This onslaught of alternative energy is coming in massive waves, it’s a seachange that is obvious and getting bigger and bigger. We have the high oil prices to thank for it, and I couldn’t be happier.