By Aaron Crowe 
December 30, 2008 mike huff If the so called gatekeepers of this great nation were really interested in alternative energy, the average citizen would be getting subsidized just like the auto industry, the financial giants, the insurance industry, the banks and all the other leeches that are sucking up the bailout windfalls.......at our (the c ommon citizens) expense and they will count on all of us to eventually forget about it because historically.....that is what we do......can you say "bait and switch"????? P.S. People.... don't be fooled by such things as cheaper gasoline.....this always happens just before the noose is tightened.....don't let your guard down....it's better to be twice shy after being once bitten....
I found a story at NewsTrust about claims that First Solar has reached price parity with convential electric power in a large scale installation. That story falls short on investigation, but it provides an interesting lead. The story pitched here seems to be about smaller scale solar, and maybe subsidies will be part of the story. But the first producer to reach a price point where subsidies don't matter will start the real revolution.
I posted a Facebook update on Solar being installed on our house, starting today and a friend passed on this link. Berkeley is attacking the problem from the financing side by piloting a program to 100% finance the system cost (less credits) on the home's property tax for 20 years. The program is called Berkeley First and the writeup is here: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/mayor/GHG/SEFD-summary.htm It was also covered in the NY Times a few months ago. Ours is one of the 40 homes in the pilot project. No out of pocket cost (on an almost $40k system) and positive ROI from day 1. And yes, more should and could be done.
