County reaches 20,000 solar-powered homes
Atascadero company installs solar energy system on Los Osos home, gets county to new milestone
– On Nov. 17, Atascadero solar company Solarponics helped San Luis Obispo County reach its 20,000th solar-powered home milestone.
The 20,000th solar home honor belongs to Los Osos residents and Sage Ecological Landscape owners Todd Davidson and Rita Flores. Todd and Rita were joined by Kristian Emrich and Phil Campbell of Solarponics to celebrate with local wine from Talley Vineyards, a solar-powered winery.
“We’ve been thinking about going solar for years. Solar energy really aligns with our business vision of environmental stewardship and conservation,” said Todd. “We feel good about our decision. It is a logical and responsible thing to do environmentally and economically and Solarponics was the perfect partner for this effort.”
These 20,000 San Luis Obispo County residential solar energy systems will save solar-powered homeowners roughly $600 million over the life of the systems. These systems alleviate grid stress and reduce the risk of grid outages. More importantly, these solar energy systems will offset 4,320,000,000 pounds of CO2, the equivalent of burning 216 million gallons of gas, or 4.5 million barrels of oil.
According to Construction Monitor, a site that tracks renewable energy permits filed with local and county jurisdictions, about 25% of all owner-occupied homes in San Luis Obispo county now have solar. For comparison, The Solar Energy Industries Association reports that solar adoption rate of all owner-occupied homes in California is about 19%, and just over 2% nationwide.
“Electric stoves, electric water heaters, electric space heating, EV chargers, all use a lot of energy. Because of this, and rising energy rates, people’s electric bills are skyrocketing. Homeowners who may have looked at solar in the past but didn’t make the switch, are now looking at solar again,” said Emrich. “It’s no longer a matter of if a home will go solar. It is a matter of when.”
