It’s 2022, and more people than ever are experiencing the incredible cost-saving benefits of installing a solar energy system in their home. However, there are still some myths floating around about home solar power systems. In today’s blog post, we are going to clear up some of those myths and provide you with the truth about residential solar power. Read on to learn four myths about home solar systems, and contact West Coast Solar to…

Are you considering making the switch to solar energy? If so, you may have some questions about commercial solar panels. There are a lot of myths and misconceptions floating around out there, and it can be hard to know what’s true and what’s not. In this blog post, West Coast Solar dispels four common myths about commercial solar energy and provides you with the facts. Read on to learn more, and feel free to contact…

Recently on this blog we reported that the city of Lancaster, California, became the first metro in the United States to push forward an ordinance requiring all new homes to feature solar energy solutions. The regulation states that residential properties built on lots of 7,000 square feet or more must include 1- to 1.5-kilowatt solar systems. This and other efforts throughout the city to embrace sustainable technologies and make Lancaster the “solar capital of the…

On November 5, Enphase Energy, the leading producer of solar microinverters in the world, posted its third quarter earnings report, showing that the company is benefiting from enormous growth in the solar hardware industry. Enphase generated $62 million in revenue and achieved a gross margin of 28.1 percent, the highest in its history. Microinverters are a very exciting innovation in California residential solar systems. These devices are quickly replacing centralized inverters, which use one unit to convert all…

A new report by market research firm IHS states that the solar industry and its customers will not be seriously affected by various changes to net energy metering (NEM) policies that have been proposed in several states across the country. Although there have been concerns that alterations could make NEM less generous for solar customers, the IHS study indicates that the industry will continue to see similar levels of growth in 2014 to what it experienced in 2013, according to DigiTimes.com. The…

Crews have finished construction of the California Valley Solar Ranch, a 250 megawatt (MW) capacity plant near San Luis Obispo, California, that is now the biggest operating solar generator in the state. It was built by SunPower and will be run by NRG, producing enough electricity to power 50,000 homes. The facility covers 4,700 acres, although only about 1,500 of that is actually covered by panels and buildings. The remaining 3,200 are being set aside for permanent…

Gina McCarthy, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was confirmed last week by the U.S. Senate after having spent several months waiting for Senate Republicans to come to an agreement with President Obama. McCarthy, who has worked for many years in the EPA, will be taking over the agency at a time when it has begun taking a more active role in regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Hill, a political news site,…

As we’ve written before on this blog, leasing and financing options for residential solar energy solutions have made this technology accessible to more families than ever before. New data from the California Solar Initiative (CSI), as analyzed by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), shows that these programs have been enormously successful with homeowners. The EIA states that two-thirds of new solar installations completed in 2012 and 2013 under the CSI were third-party owned, meaning they…