New Homes with Solar Built-in!

Cornerstone Building Group LLC is developing a small community of new housing with a 5.2KW solar panel system built right in! It's in South Jersey's Mullica Hill, just a few miles away (from where I am).

How cool! I've been wondering when something like this might pop up (I'm sure it's not the first but it's the first one I noticed.) I hope this catches on and people realize how utterly painless it is to capture and use all that energy that drips down the sides of our houses and goes unused.

Valle del Sol Exclusive Features

+ Exclusive agreement with Eastern Energy Services to supply, install and maintain a + 5.2 KW solar panel system on each home to lower energy costs and reduce environmental impact.
+ Solar powered street lights throughout development.

Energy-efficient Design

+ Insulated double-pane single hung windows with built-in grilles and screens and lower sash tilt-in design
+ 14 SEER Central air conditioning
+ High efficiency heat pumps
+ Fully insulated (R-30) ceilings and (R-13) exterior walls and superseal foam insulation package
+ 50 gallon high-efficiency direct vent electric hot water heater

Here's a link to the Valle del Sol page on Cornerstone's web site:

Valle del Sol

I must add for the sake of LOL that another of their developments in Deptford, New Jersey is incorrectly labeled as being in Debtford.

August: 1 SREC Sold

We sold one SREC for August, for $625.65.

One of these months we're going to generate two of them. We seem overdue for that.

Another Way to "Make" Green Energy

Reducing energy usage is as green as it can get -- it's as green as the power generated by the panels on my roof.

That's why I loved this letter to the editor by R. Lalli of Atco that appeared in today's Courier Post (Cherry Hill, NJ):

Wasting Energy

"I noticed an immediate reduction in my electric bills as my central air conditioning system took less time to cool my home.."

Sounds familiar, right? Remember, air-conditioning season is the only period during which our house consumes more energy than it generates. Maybe better windows would change that for the better.


I must admit that in my house I have the crappy windows that the writer is referring to. Maybe that should be our next undertaking.

PSE&G and Renewable Energy

Interesting article about one of South Jersey's utility company's attitude on renewable energy.

PSE&G Embracing Renewable Energy

"PSEG has embraced renewables for a number of reasons.

First, our customers tell us they want the benefits of green energy. Utilities are uniquely equipped to bring these benefits to millions of people, just as we have traditionally provided universal access to electricity and gas.

Second, renewables can help put energy on a more sustainable track by reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Solar energy is not only carbon-free, but pollution-free.

Last but not least, renewables present an extraordinary jobs-and-growth opportunity.

New Jersey has a knowledge-based, high-tech economy. It's in our state's interest to have strong companies active here in the clean energy industry, creating jobs and poised to grow. It's in the interest of local communities, too. When we build a solar farm on a former contaminated site, as we are doing in Trenton, it not only brings land back into productive use, but also generates good-paying local jobs -- and hope for a better future."


Personally, based on my experience and what I read, I think PSE&G is less excited about renewable energy than their marketing spin meisters are claiming to be here. But it's still cool that they are doing some of these things anyway.

One (1) (I) SREC sold for July. Six hundred clams even. That's six-hundred clams closer to system payoff...

I Concluded that SREC Income is Not Taxable (Rerun)

The most popular search topic on this blog, by far, is about whether or not SREC income is taxable. I did a little research last winter and concluded that it isn't, and I filed my 2010 tax return without mentioning it.

For more detail on this topic you can check out the March 20 blog post here: Taxable?

One June SREC

SRECTrade Customer Service got back to me pretty quickly. It turns out that we sold one June SREC for $665.04. I'm pretty sure we've done two in a month at least once so I'm having a hard time figuring out how we only had one. But we only had one.