Rob:  With gasoline still about a dollar more a gallon than this time last year, alternative energy sources make more and more sense. Yet each has it’s own set of drawbacks.  Coal contributes to green house gases, corn based ethanol puts pressure on food prices, and wind is absolutely great, when it blows.  But one potential energy source is pretty much a constant without harming the environment.  As our Brian Bendele shows us, a growing number of Americans are counting their energy savings thanks to a little help from up above.
Brian Bendele:  Going green doesn’t just mean using alternative fuels it also means using natural resources like the sun.
Fred Hansen:  Solar dryer here, one of the cheapest investments you can make to save money for yourself.
Brian:  Now while homeowner Fred Hansen points out the simplest of solar powered appliances drying your clothes outside does add up.
Fred:  If you consider a dryer uses about four kilowatts of energy an hour and a family does two loads twice a week, that’s four loads, that would be sixteen kilowatts for something that the sun will do for you for free.
Brian:  But Hansen’s ingenuity hasn’t stopped there. He uses the sun to power his home and heat his water.
Fred:  Most people say, well all you’re doing is producing enough to turn some light bulbs on and we’re producing way more than that.  
Fred:  My gas bill that was primarily for the two hot water heaters have been cut in half.  So that’s a benefit there.  Solar electric last year I had twelve panels that made about fifteen percent of my electric.
Brian:  Hansen learned about solar power on a trip to Hawaii and when he came home he also learned about a tax credit to make the process economical.
Fred:  It is still a system that is getting better but it is expensive and is probably is not practical for most people without the tax credit and unfortunately the tax credit right now is going to end up at the end of this year.
Scott Frazier:  This actually has the IRS tax form 569 you can download and the expiration date is right there, December 31 of this year.
Brian:  Something Scott Frazier with OSU Bio Ag Engineering says homeowners should look into and use now before it is too late. 
Scott Frazier:  If you are in a remote location off the grid where it would cost several thousand dollars to get power in there then that is something to look at or if you are just interested in this from an environmental point of view and you want to do your part so to speak.
Brian:  What Frazier is talking about and Hansen is using, is photovoltaic where solar panels actually create electricity to run your house and even turn back your electric meter putting electricity back into the grid.
Fred:  I’m not paying anything for electricity right now.  The electric company is paying me.
Brian:  A process that isn’t cheap to install.  
Fred:  With the electric company coming and approving it and running power lines to the breaker box I think it is somewhere between 800 and 1,000 dollars a panel.
Brian:  And with Hansen’s twenty panels the bill adds up fast, but thanks to the 30% federal tax incentives, you can receive up to $2,000 for solar electric and solar water heating systems.
Scott:  Well probably for residential we’re thinking that solar thermal, so in other words, to provide hot water is probably the best bang for you buck.
Brian:  That is because a typical system runs around 2,000 to 3,000 dollars with the tax credit but most importantly the system works with your current hot water heater.
Scott:  There’s several different kinds.  The simplest kind would just feed into your existing water tank and you would keep, whether it was natural gas or electric, you would keep that tank operating on natural gas or electric it is just that the thermostat in the tank would sense that it is getting hot water from somewhere else.
Fred:  We used to have a problem that if we did laundry and dishes you had to wait quite a period of time before you could take a shower or bath and have hot water.  After I put the solar hot water in, we have not had any problems whatsoever.
Brian:  A resourceful way to save money while going green from an advanced level right down to the most basic of applications.
Rob:  So Brian, how unique is Mr. Hansen’s desire to get all his energy needs from the sun?

Brian:  Well I think as we look now, he’s not the only one doing it.  There’s a lot of people looking into this trend.  What would be really unique and what be a nice affect of this, is if we actually met the 1997 U.S. Department of Energy’s initiative to have one million households powered by solar energy and if that is done, according the General Electric, we could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by two million fewer tons.  And that would be 181,000 cars going around the world once.

Rob:  Now that’s a really impressive number, but you mentioned the tax credit and the tax credit is set to expire.

Brian:   It is and that’s a shame because it will expire twelve thirty-one this year and that tax credit does a lot in order to get this technology into a household.  What we’ve seen in a lot of areas, especially in some of the bigger countries that are starting to look into it, they’re starting to build their plants for it.  Over in California, Pacific Gas & Electric is having to put a hold on an 800 megawatt facility that would actually generate enough electricity for 239,000 homes.  They just can’t do it because it’s not affordable.

Rob:  So without these tax incentives, is the solar powered industry is it sustainable, is it viable to stands on it’s on?
Brian:  I think we’re beginning to see that.  This is not a new technology.  It’s been done in the seventies when we had the oil and gas crunch then. What we’ve done over this time span is eventually made it more efficient, found more ways and better ways to incorporate it into households and less expensive for people to buy.  Also we’re seeing a lot of activity in the stock market.  Companies, people are investing in these companies, as the price of fuel only looks like it’s going to get higher.  What’s really unique is European countries that are the leaders in this industry are developing power plants in Saudi Arabia and the Sahara, economic powers like China are putting in their own plants as well.  And so with all this research and all this activity, I definitely see this as being a dependable, renewable energy that we can use and get a lot of effort out of, so I really see the future, if you’ll forgive the pun, as extremely bright for solar power energy.
Rob:  Great.  Well, we will forgive the pun.  Great story.
Brian:  Thank you.