You can go green with a bonus if your utility provider is Xcel Energy. Solar*Rewards provides incentives for customers who install solar power systems and connect them to the grid to sell excess energy to the utility. Through the Xcel Energy Solar Rewards program, payments are extended to the owner of a solar power system in exchange for Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) for the energy produced by the solar system.

There are many great reasons to consider solar, from investing in renewable energy to owning an independent source of power. Installing solar power is more affordable than ever, and due to an extension of the federal solar tax incentive, you can get a credit that covers 26 percent of the cost of your solar installation.

It’s the end of what’s proved to be an unusual year and the beginning of what we all hope will be better times to come in 2021. On this New Year’s Eve, tis the season for looking back at what’s happened and what we’ve been talking about for the last 12 months. With that in mind, we’ve put together our top five most popular solar power blog posts for the year, as well as some other highlights worth your consideration.

Since 2012, the City of Minneapolis aims to create a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable future in part through the Green Cost Share program.

This program offers matching funds for commercial, industrial, multi-family, and single-family properties undertaking a variety of innovative pollution reduction projects, including the installation of solar power. For qualifying installations, this Minneapolis solar incentive will pay a credit based on the first year estimated kilowatt hour (kWh) production.

Solar power is a great investment for grocery stores to get a better handle on their electricity cost and business expenses predictability. There are financing options available to help pay for solar power arrays, in addition to a variety of federal, state, and local incentives meant to make solar more affordable to a wide number of businesses. There’s also net metering that allows solar arrays to sell power back to the electric grid for credit towards future energy needs.

After the Solar Builder readers cast their votes to choose our annual Project of the Year winners, Solar Builder’s editor picked his favorites among the Project of the Year field of nominees in a variety of categories from the Most Resilient to the Coolest Carport. One of the All Energy Solar install projects was a winner in the 2020 Solar Builder Editor’s Choice Awards!

A typical 50,000-square-foot grocery store can spend $250,000 annually on electricity, and unless they run on renewable energy, that results in about 1,900 tons of CO2 emitting into the atmosphere, the carbon equivalent to running 360 vehicles for one year!

Grocery stores are some of the biggest consumers of energy in the retail industry, making them prime candidates for investing in solar power. In addition to the typical heating, cooling and lighting of most buildings, grocery stores also have refrigerators, freezers and other types of cold cases that can take up between one-third and one-half of a supermarket’s footprint - and up to 80 percent of their energy costs. That’s not even taking into account larger supermarkets that might have bakeries, butchers, restaurants and other high energy specialty installations.

Benjamin Allen, a warehouse manager for All Energy Solar in River Falls, Wis., where he took a selfie after he voted. St. Paul-based All Energy Solar encouraged high voter turnout by hiring a voter coach to answer questions and help simplify the process, whish is more complicated this year amid the coronavirus.