The rest of the world may soon learn the same lesson that venture capitalists from New York to the Chicago Board of Trade to silicon valley have learned.  This is a very good time to invest in solar energy in the United States.

There are many factors making this a great time, but the two largest include the high price of oil (closed at almost $108 per barrel today) and the relatively cheap cost of American labor. 

American wages have held steady unlike European wages that have been fighting wage inflation.  Plus, the value of the dollar has dropped significantly such that foreign investors can now invest in American labor at very cheap prices today.

Plus, many Americans are looking to find ways to get into this new and growing industry.  They want to be part of the future, part of the solution and that is attracting some of the best and brightest talents to take positions working in Solar Energy.

The Silicon Valley investment capital is also going to be a major factor.  Silicon Valley has a lot of history making chips and working with semi-conductors and processes to improve chips and semi-conductors.  That deep seated know how is going to make it that much easier to advance solar energy now that venture capitalists are turning their focus to solar energy.

Politics are shifting in the US as well.  The days of zero Halliburton bid contracts and endless wars are going to have to give way to saving money and new power solutions.  If you are looking to invest, the time to invest in solar energy never looked better, especially if you are sitting on foreign currency.

Years ago I used to work for Motorola and Verizon Wireless was just forming at the time.  They eventually became my largest customer.  The cellular phone industry works on subsidies of equipment and that model could work for solar power also.

Carriers subsidize consumers purchase of cell phones by getting their customers to agree to 1 or 2 year agreements.

Used to be 1 year but these days 2 year agreements are the norm.

Solar energy equipment sales companies could sell their products to energy companies that could then subsidize the cost of the equipment.  It would be akin to a decentralize energy company.  Instead of having a powerplant, they would have a network of homes holding solar power panels collecting energy (or other forms of energy generating systems such as wind or generators or something).

The company could then keep some of the energy generated by the home owner that is sold back to the grid and the homeowner would benefit from having to buy less actual electricity from the grid themselves.  The entire arrangement could further benefit home owners if the company provided technicians to install and monitor the equipment in an optimal method, possibly even making seasonal adjustments to panels.

I came across one company that is already planning to test a system similar to this model called Santee Cooper in South Carolina.  They require the following for a trial program they are running with a limited number of homes:

Be a Santee Cooper residential customer

Agree to receive power though the Green Energy Buy Backs Program, also known as net billing program, for a minimum of five years

Sign a five-year Solar Homes Initiative agreement

Have owned and occupied the chosen free-standing property for a minimum of one year

Use the property as a primary, single family residence

Complete installation of the solar equipment by December 31, 2008

Santee Cooper program offers financial help installing solar panels

Its not a total solution but a partial solution.  Santee Cooper is essentially helping people get a subsidy of about $17,000 on their equipment.  That kind of support is like finding super bustiers as opposed to just getting a bit of a lift.  That may be a bad analogy, but $17k in essentially what boils down to a subsidy tied to a long term contract could go a long way to making solar energy a reality for many home owners.