Join The Solar Power Movement

Archive for October, 2010

This past week we kind of got back to normal at the solar power office I’ve been writing about. You may remember that several weeks ago I sent out sever hundred letters to many members of the local Chamber of Commerce. Well one such member kept my letter and recently called the office wanting to get acquainted with us and see how much solar power it would take to offset his monthly electricity bill averaging $4,000.00 per month. He has a hotel business and it is painfully obvious that after taking many steps to lower his bills, nothing seems to be working. So we are now at the point of examining what can be done to help him up the path of “Going Solar”.

Which brings me to my purpose of writing this post in the first place. I stumbled upon a program called PACE. It is a way for “home owners” and “business owners” to get solar power on their building without the outlay of a great amount of cash upfront. Here is what the PACE website says about the program:

A Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) bond is a bond where the proceeds are provided to commercial and residential property owners to finance energy retrofits (efficiency measures and small renewable energy systems) and who then repay the financing over 20 years via an annual assessment on their property tax bill.

PACE bonds can be issued by municipal financing districts or finance companies and the proceeds can be typically used to retrofit both commercial and residential properties.

What do you think about that? It means that if I own or have a mortgage on my home or business building I could get the local city government to foot the bill for me to get a solar power system on my building. With little or no out of pocket expense. I urge you to read more about this at the PACE website. Get involved and bring this excellent tool to your community.

FOLLOW THIS LINK IF YOU WANT TO START YOUR OWN SOLAR ENERGY BUSINESS.

When I approached the solar company I am selling for I was optimistic they would welcome the new door of opportunity in my county area. I thought so because there is not another solar power company here in a county of 95,000. But the events that have transpired over the past month indicate to me that the small Nashville based solar company is going down fast. What a #@%//*! problem this is for me.

First of all they cut my potential commissions in half. Next came the termination of the main office manager, because his salary was eating money needed for marketing. Then they cut the full-time plumber to part-time. He is now looking at going back to school for an IT degree. Hope for the best because the IT market is saturated with new graduates.

We’ve had three sales meetings and nothing tangible has come from them. It has taken a month to get an order in for more business cards. I’ve sent out 400 emails to the chamber of commerce and gotten NOTHING from it. We can’t get the lower priced American made solar modules due to all possible product being sent to Europe.

I am for sure looking at joining up with another company but I don’t need to approach them empty handed. Sure would be nice to make a sale.

Later.

FOLLOW THIS LINK IF YOU WANT TO START YOUR OWN SOLAR ENERGY COMPANY.