Cooler Planet: “Solar energy headed to final frontier”

Sunpluggers: “Vermont Starts New Solar PV Incentive”

CBS News: “The Fab 40 Who Paved the Way for a Green Revolution”

Brighter Energy: “New Jersey cuts red tape to boost solar efforts”

Huffington Post: “Eco Etiquette: How Green Are Solar Panels?“

The MetLife Cycling Team Powered by groSolar has started their 2010 racing season with the Tour of the Battenkill in New York and the Turtle Pond Circuit Race in New Hampshire. groSolar is sponsoring the team for the season which covers more than 40 events around the country.

As groSolar’s CEO, Jeff Wolfe, said,”We’re proud to sponsor the MetLife team and we believe they are excellent ambassadors for groSolar’s message – that solar power is a lifestyle choice with a global impact. In the race to save the planet, we are determined to install solar on as many rooftops as possible. The MetLife team is exceptional group of athletes committed to practicing and promoting sustainable living, encouraging healthy ideals while racing at an elite level. It’s a great fit for groSolar, and we hope that cycling fans will take note and adopt clean, sustainable energy practices as well.”

You can read more about the MetLife Cycling Team’s environmental responsibility on their website.

Sustainable Business: “Regulators Approve 500MW California Solar Plan”

The Union Leader: “Solar silliness: Let PSNH build”

The Burlington Free Press: “University of Vermont selects nine clean energy projects”

Intelligent Energy Portal: “Rising Solar Backlash: Are We Creating Unsustainable Expectations?”

The New York Times: “Solar Power To the People: With A  Lot of Public Help“

Happy Earth Day! I wanted to share with you a great website I found recently. It’s the NREL Open PV Project and I’m in solar heaven. For those of you solar nerds, like myself, this thing is not only functionally cool, but it has great hard data.

Two cool things to check out on the site:

• View the solar PV installations over time for a heat map showing installations across the US since 2000
• Go to the Explore section to see stats and data for the US and by state

http://openpv.nrel.gov/

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) released their 2009 Solar Industry Year in Review last week and it provided some insightful information about our industry. Some highlights of the report:

• PV installations (grid-tied) grew by 38%
• Solar hot water grew by 10% over 2008
• Residential grid-tied PV solar installations grew from 78 MW to 156 MW
• The utility market for grid-tied PV grew from 22 MW to 66 MW
• The solar industry contributed to the overall economy by adding 17,000 new jobs
• Top states for solar installations:
  • California
  • New Jersey
  • Florida
  • Arizona
  • Colorado
• Top countries for solar installations:
  • Germany
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • United States
  • Czech Republic

The full report can be found at SEIA.org.

It’s Earth Week (Earth Day is officially this Thursday, the 22nd) and we, at groSolar, are doing many things to celebrate the 3rd rock from the sun. Things like biking to work, carpooling, swearing off bottled water and buying locally or not buying at all.

I plan on line drying all of my laundry and am planting some herbs and raspberry plants. What are you going to do? Leave a comment below to tell us what you are doing to celebrate the earth today and every day.

For those of you who follow us on Twitter (@Jeff_groSolar or @groSolar) you have seen that we are running a contest for Zep Week. There are 4 days left to win. It’s simple: follow us, retweet #ZepWeek tweets and win!

It’s your last chance to register for one of 11 Zep trainings going on around the country next week, April 19-23. All participants will receive a $100 coupon for Zep and Zep compatible items from groSolar. We have increased the venue size in many locations to accommodate the demand. Go to groSolar.com/zepsolar for more info and to sign up!

Dealers, Did you know…

Aside from cutting your installation time by more than 50% and simplifying array-designs, the Zep system dramatically reduces inventory and warehouse logistics because you no longer have to deal with rails.

Bonus!! Attend National Zep Week and receive $100 in coupons for Zep items from groSolar.

Check out the video from the Mid-Atlantic Green Business forum. Looking good Brian!