by admin | Sep 17, 2012 | battery back-up, edison, no electricity, power outage, santa monica, SCE, Solar, solar panel installer, Southern California Edison, SunPower
Word on the street is the power is out, but here at the Solar Forward office, we had no clue. At approximately 11:17am this morning, Santa Monica residents in the Sunset Park neighborhood lost power. At the same moment, Solar Forward’s Outback Power battery back-up...
by admin | Aug 31, 2012 | electricity, global warming, Green energy, hottest summer, LADWP, Los Angeles City Council, Solar, Solar contractor, solar inspector, solar panel, SunPower
The LADWP solar program has deteriorated into chaos. New applications into LADWP for solar are experiencing over two month delays! Solar contractors and homeowners are being held captive by the utility. Until given the go ahead by LADWP, we are unable to move...
by admin | Aug 16, 2012 | climate change, edison, heat wave, hottest summer, LADWP, obama, record temperature, Solar, Solar contractor, solar rebate
The act that granted the right to interconnect solar systems with the power grid is called PURPA. It was passed by Congress in 1978. Solar Forward installed its first grid-tied solar system in Los Angeles in 2005. Solar is not new. So why now, in 2012, do utility...
by admin | Jul 31, 2012 | driving on the sun, electric vehicle, EV + PV, EVSE, Los Angeles Times, PHEV, PHV, plug-in hybrids, Solar, Solar contractor, solar hot water, SunPower
If you’re anything like us, you may also feel the end of the world is just around one very hot corner. Seeing America’s infrastructure snapunder rising temperatures is terrifying. Tailpipe emissions account for one-fifth of worldwide carbon emissions. Ideally, we...
by admin | Jul 27, 2012 | batter backup, germany, Green energy, photovoltaic, renewable energy, Solar contractor, solar forward, solar incentive, solar lease, Solar Los Angeles, solar rebate, SunPower
In the golden state, solar is booming with over one gigawatt of rooftop solar installed. Still, many of us Californians are frustrated with solar – frustrated there is not more of it. We shouldn’t stop at frustration. We should be outraged. Greedy utility companies,...
by admin | Jun 14, 2012 | clean energy, Feed-in Tariff, Governor Brown, Green energy, LADWP, LOS ANGELES, renewable energy, Solar, solar forward, unleash solar
From Obama, to Brown, to Villaraigosa, everyone has a plan to wean us off fossil fuels. Elections are near, but are we any closer to the renewable energy goals mandated by our political leaders? We’re talking the green talk, but are we walking the green walk?...
by admin | May 24, 2012 | Green energy, photovoltaic, PV, renewable energy, Solar, solar forward, solar hot water, solar lease, Solar Los Angeles, solar rebate, Solar Santa Monica, SunPower, sustainability, wind and solar
Combine solar permitting bureaucracy and a no nonsense Solar Forward employee, and the result is a frustrated (and illustrating) work of art. See creation above. Gaining a permit may be the most cumbersome step involved in solar. As city departments acclimate to the...
by admin | Apr 28, 2012 | Chinese panels, green, marketing, PV, renewable energy, roof, Solar, solar electric, solar hot water, solar lease, solar panels, SunPower, sustainable, yelp
What could a solar company offer you to sweeten the deal? How about throwing in an iPad or cash gift for signing a lease contract? The Solar market out there is competitive. And with competition comes sneaky marketing. Incentives like a free iPad or cash-back to...
by admin | Apr 24, 2012 | China, clean energy, coal, drill baby drill, EPA, fracking, global warming, Green energy, jobs, Krugman, New York Times, oil, Solar, solar energy, solar forward, solar panels, wind
Oil as a fuel source is dirty. Coal, even dirtier. Both are leading contributors to global warming, and pose major public health risks from asthma to mercury poisoning. Nonetheless, oil and coal dominate our energy mix, with about half of all electricity consumed...
by admin | Apr 13, 2012 | monopoly, Solar, solar lease, solar panel, sun, utilities, utility
Back in 1880 a new company called AT&T grew out of the work of Alexander Graham Bell. For almost 100 years it maintained a monopoly over telephonic communication lines until the federal government used antitrust laws to break up AT&T. Technology matured and...
