Solar is Getting Popular

Across the nation, businesses and homeowners are adopting solar power to reduce their carbon footprint and help the environment.

In California, for example, hundreds of businesses have adopted solar power. California is one of the country's hottest solar markets, thanks to a bevy of rebates and incentives. A guideline requiring that utilities in the state buy 33 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020 has contributed to California's solar build-up, too - and the California Air Resources Board made that guideline an official rule this week.

The new rule, ARB chairman Mary D. Nichols said, "will help clean our air and bring new solar and wind energy facilities to California with thousands of jobs in construction, operation and spin-off industries."

Just this week, Frito-Lay North America announced that it would install even more solar capacity at its manufacturing plant in Modesto, California.

The plant has used solar thermal collectors since 2008 to heat cooking oil - and now, it's installing a 1-megawatt solar photovoltaic system, as well. The array will reduce the facility's use of grid-sourced energy by as much as 25 percent.

Frito-Lay's Modesto plant is already LEED Gold-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. The building, Frito-Lay Modesto technical manager Thomas Melead said, is using "innovative technologies and renewable energy such as solar power to helpminimize [its] impact on the environment."

It's not just companies that are looking to reduce their impact on the environment, though.

In California and elsewhere, homeowners are installing solar power systems to reduce their fossil-fuel consumption and help make the world a little greener.

One such homeowner is Robert Stonerock, an Orlando-area physician who moonlights as the president of the Florida Renewable Energy Association. The Orlando Sentinel recently profiled Stonerock, who went 100 percent solar at his 6,930-square-foot home.

His house has a solar pool heater, two solar water heaters and a 20.8-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array. By using only solar power, Stonerock saves between $300 and $350 per month on energy. He estimates that his solar equipment will one day pay for itself - but that's not the reason he adopted it.

"I want to be able to say, 'I did my part to protect the environment by using renewable resources,'" Stonerock said to the Sentinel.

For companies and individuals alike, going solar can help the environment - and maybe save some money in the process.