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Do Home Solar Panels Work in the Northwest?

Although the Northwest United States may not seem like an ideal place for solar, it is actually a great location for home solar panels.  Higher latitudes, such as where the northwest of the United States sits, receive fewer annual hours of sunlight than places that most people would consider a good location for solar energy. However, home solar panels operate at a much greater efficiency in cooler climates like in the northwest and this makes it a great location for solar power.

The Northwest receives more than enough sunlight to meet the entire energy needs of your home. The long summer days during the many months of high solar hours provide plenty of solar energy. And although the Northwest faces long, overcast winters, even on cloudy winter days, home solar panels will still provide power to meet some, if not most of your energy needs. Places like Seattle and Portland which have long, rainy winters, still provide enough solar energy for home solar panels to work. There are really not any bad solar areas in the Northwest. Most of the Northwest actually receives up to 70% of the sunlight that the Los Angeles area receives during the winter months. The Northwest also receives at least half as much solar energy as the desert areas of California and Arizona, and receives much more solar energy than Germany, which has made itself into one of the solar energy leaders of the world.

Germany gets much less sunlight than the Northwest receives but is producing 55% of the world's solar panels and has high expectations of being 100% green in its national energy use by 2010. Germany has around 10% fewer annual hours of sunlight than Portland and Seattle, yet it is generating over half of the world's solar energy. So if Germany has the ability to produce so much solar energy with far less sun light than what the Northwest receives, it is clear that home solar panels are a great investment in the Northwest area and will provide you with an affordable energy solution.

Incentive Programs for Home Solar Panels in the Northwest

Washington and Oregon have some of the best incentive programs in the country for home solar panels. These state incentives make solar more financially attractive here than in the majority of the Southern United States.  Every state in the Northwest offers incentives for solar energy development. Oregon, Idaho and Montana all offer low-interest loans and substantial tax credits for home solar panels. Washington now offers a production incentive of $0.15/kilowatt-hour or more for electricity from solar energy, depending on where the technology was manufactured.  Montana and Oregon also exempt solar systems from property tax assessment, while Idaho and Washington exempt solar system purchases from sales taxes. Many local utilities and regional organizations also provide additional incentives. One example is the Energy Trust of Oregon, which offers additional rebates and loans to customers of Oregon's two largest utilities. Many utilities also offer additional rebates, loans, or production incentives for solar energy systems.

Washington has modeled its solar electric financial incentive programs on those of Germany because of the huge success of it's solar power program. With the additional solar hours available in Eastern Washington, there are additional incentive programs available including the Chelan County's SNAP program, which has led to a rapid increase of solar installations occurring in Wenatchee over the past few years.

Net Metering for Home Solar Panels in the Northwest

Utilities in all four Northwestern states offer net metering programs. Net metering is available from utilities throughout Oregon, Washington and is required by law for Montana utilities. Net metering makes it easy for customers to install home solar panels, because any extra power generated by your home solar panels during the day is fed back to the utility's electrical grid for distribution to other customers. Then at night or any other time when you need more power than you are generating, you can draw power back from the utility grid.

Net metering allows customers to install home solar panels without the need for expensive storage systems, and without wasting or losing any extra power generated when sunlight is at its peak. These programs also provide a simple, standardized way for customers to use solar systems while retaining access to utility-supplied power.

In most net metering programs, the utility installs a special ‘dual-reading' meter at the customers home that will keep track of both the energy consumed by the home, and energy that is generated by the home solar panels. The customer is then billed only for the net amount of electricity that they draw from the utility, effectively receiving the utility's full retail price for the electricity that is generated from the home solar panels.

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