Energy
Solar

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Solar PV Power Systems are a viable source of renewable power that will help control energy cost escallation over years to come.

Solar PV Power Systems are a viable source of renewable power that will help control energy cost escallation over years to come.

Many studies prepared by consultants and 'think tanks' over the past several years have highlioghted the enormous opportunity for growth in the area of solar energy systems and energy efficiency retrofits. The growth of the industry has, however, been rather modest compared to the potential. This is surprising when the growth of the industry in Germany has been so much stronger.

There are reasons for this. One of them is that in the United States, the expectation of short term profit from investment is higher than in the rest of the world, which makes the US economy appear successful when a deeper analysis shows that the long term state of the US economy is deteriorating. Another reason is the way the real estate and building construction industry is structured. There are many complex rules and regulations, and it is difficult to put all the 'pieces' together in a way that makes it possible to finance progress.

In the US at the present time, there is a growing appreciation that the long term is important, and the opportunity to invest in solar energy systems is both financially advantageous and good for society. Solar projects can be shown to improve money profit performance by reducing energy costs immediately and 'locking in' a lower cost for a long time to come in the face of otherwise increasing energy costs. Also important is that every bit of renewable solar power helps to reduce the very bad effects of energy production using non-renewables on the environment, something that gets talked about a lot, but is not part of the mainstream system of business performance metrics.

Some of the well known value investors in the US capital markets are now engaged in a substantial way with the solar industry. These include the likes of Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) and Elon Munk (eBay, Tesla, SpaceX and SunCity). Some of the cash rich tech companies are showing interest in renewables including Google.

At the local level, one of the organization working in this space is Better World Building Technology. They are based in north east Pennsylvania and operate in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. They have been building using energy saving methods for more than 30 years. They have been the project managers on projects ranging in size from relatively small residential properties to large commercial buildings.

These are some examples of work they have done in recent years: