I just found this website today on the latest CA Solar PV pricing http://gosolar.la/contractors/offers
  
This is from CA where they receive the containers of solar products which arrive there from China, Japan, Korea, etc. The cost for these products is the same between the Midwest and CA except I have higher shipping costs to get these
products to the Midwest.  Also, none of those offers use the safer and more expensive micro inverters.
 
I also received info today about this website http://www.ilsr.org/solar-costs-grid-prices-collision/ which is saying that the solar cost is $4.00 per watt and that at that price it might be too low.
 
I knew I was competitive in my pricing but didn't know by how much, till now.  
 
Also, I heard that module prices are slowly going up due to the tariff the US Gov put on Chinese modules. It now gives all the solar module companies a reason to raise prices.

We will continue to bring you the best quality products at the best possible prices.  We monitor the market (sometimes daily) to bring you the best price.

Due to the 2013 rebates in our Xcel Energy area we are seeing Cashflow Paybacks as low as 2.7 years with an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) as high as 29.8%. This is on a 39.75kW solar electric business/commercial system. Tax rate is based on 35% Federal and 7% State. Should your tax rate be lower then the payback is stretched out a little more. Tax rate of 25% and 5% respectively will yield a Cashflow Payback of 4.4 years and an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 22.8%. Not bad on an investment that is probably the safest investment in the world and is guaranteed/warranted for 25 years!  Yes this seems too good to be true...the good news is that it is true and here now.  The bad news is that it is a first come first serve rebate program which will open in Feb to March of 2013.  Also note, Solar electric rebates have historically been dropping in price so you may want to get them now while they last as they might not be available next year.

A nickel-metal hydride cell, abbreviated NiMH, is a type of rechargeable battery similar to the nickel-cadmium cell. A NiMH battery can have two to three times the capacity of an equivalent size nickel-cadmium battery. A  nickel-metal hydride battery has about the same volumetric energy density as the newer lithium-ion cell, but cost significantly less.

So why aren’t they being used in hybrid and electric cars today? The small AA cells are currently all over the place and NiMH technology is being used in many consumer cameras, cordless phones, and laptops.

Turns out General Motors purchased the patent from Ovonics in 1994. Stanford R. Ovshinsky was the one who invented and patented the NiMH battery and founded Ovonic Battery Company in 1982. By the late 1990s, NiMH batteries were being used successfully in many fully electric vehicles, such as the General Motors EV1, Dodge Caravan EPIC minivan, Solectria and Toyota RAV4-EV. Field tests indicated the Ovonics battery extended the EV1′s range to over 150 miles and Solectria Sunrise achieved 375 miles on a single charge back in 1996.

In October 2000, GM sold the patent to Texaco and a week later Texaco was acquired by Chevron. Chevron’s Cobasys subsidiary that now has the rights to sell the NiMH batteries will in theory only provide these batteries to large OEM orders of 10,000+.  Afterwards General Motors shut down production of their electric car production (the EV1) citing lack of battery availability as one of their chief obstacles. Cobasys/Chevron has effectively blocked the use of NiMH batteries by start-up EV manufacturers and has the ability to keep doing so until 2014 when the patents expire.

It’s interesting to note that in 1997-2003 Toyota sold/leased 1485 RAV4 EVs in California that used batteries produced by Panasonic, which had licensed the Ovanics technology. “The original batteries found in the remaining 750 RAV4 EVs that weren’t crushed like GM’s EV1s are still on the road today have proven the longevity and usefulness of large format NiMH batteries.” says Ken Burridge (editor-in-chief of EV.com). Toyota discontinued producing the RAV4-EV partly because Chevron won a $30,000,000 USD settlement from Toyota-Panasonic from the International Court of Arbitration which forced them to shut down their production line for large NiMH batteries. In addition California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) caved to the pressure of the US federal government and eliminated most of their Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) requirements, which was the main reason Toyota had produced the RAV4 EV in the first place.

Noteworthy is that in July 2009, Cobasys NiMH division (Chevron-Texaco), was sold to a Bosch and Sanyo consortium, but they still retained the patent rights and collect royalties on the batteries.

There are grass-root campaigns springing up calling for: The US President, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives to exercise Eminent Domain and/or Compulsory Licensing of NiMH large format technology by Cobasys NiMH division (Chevron-Texaco) to all interested manufacturers. We here at EV.com are fully supportive of all their efforts and encourage others to request this type of green government mandate.

 You can sign such a Petition Now.

Now you can view live data from a 9,000 watt solar electric system which produces 120% of this family's annual electricity use.  That extra 20% is enough to power an electric car for 10,000 miles annually.

Please check out this site:  http://www.moneychimp.com/features/market_cagr.htm

The take away:  "Over the very long run, the stock market has had an inflation-adjusted annualized return rate of between six and seven percent."

Investing in your own solar electric system will usually meet or beat the stock market.  Now you can be rest assured knowing your investment is right next to you and not in a black hole somewhere subject to the volatile emotions of others.

1.144 million people now have documented jobs in Europe's renewable energy sector.  

The boost in activity in 2010 represented about $166 billion in economic value, a 15 percent increase over 2009.
These figures only include renewable fuels, heat and electricity. They do not include jobs in mass transportation, recycling, and green building design.

They show a very healthy diversity in Europe’s renewable energy sector. According to the 2010 figures, the top three sectors for employment were biomass (273,000), solar PV (268,110), and wind (253,145). The next largest were biogas (52,810) and solar thermal (49,845). Behind those sectors were ground source heat pumps, waste-to-energy, small hydro, and geothermal.

Here in the U.S. we are at a fraction of these jobs...will we allow other areas of the world to create millions more while we sit and watch?

The U.S is a leader...lets get back in the race and win!