Going Green: You Gotta Start Somewhere

For Earth Day, the TV show “The Price is Right” featured green and sustainable products.

One such featured product demonstrated a favorite concept of mine, “The Genius of the AND.”  That is, when something can perform two functions it is, by definition, green and sustainable.

Come on down for a Solar Canopy!

I am intrigued by this opportunity to generate clean power from the sun AND provide shade for residents and businesses for backyards or patios.  At under $10,000 it is affordable and practical.  This elegant look is perfect if a roof needs repair or a roof already has panels.  One can generate power for their indulgent outdoor amenities or connect to the grid to spin the meter backwards.  Either way you can eliminate the highest electrical rate during the day.

A call to the Newport Beach Planning Department for a permit is recommended. It can be as easy as approval at the counter, depending on things like height, setbacks and all those other fun code requirements.

This is no joke.  Two guys walk into a Clean Tech OC event and realize they are like minded and already friends on Facebook.  Deep Patel was a speaker and is also the founder and CEO of GoGreenSolar.com, the company that promoted the Solar Canopy on “The Price is Right.”  This fortuitous intersection of green and sustainable friends allowed me to hear Patel speak, and to answer a favorite question, “How do you know what to do, when you do not know what to do?”

The answer is to find a trusted source who does know.  And Patel is that person for solar, wind and other sustainable practices or gadgets.  If you want to install solar onto your home, isn’t it a good practice to know that your subject-matter expert has solar on his or her home?  In his talk, Patel shared the intimate knowledge that can only come from being on a roof, tools in hand, introducing solar to your own home.  Patel is proud of his 90-cents-a-month electricity bill.

“Information is key,” shares Patel, and informed customer decisions are the passion that drives GoGreenSolar.com.  He feels that a great many of us are interested in introducing solar energy into our lives, so he offers a no-obligation resource to get informed, do research or to get a quote.  As we become more reliant on smartphones, as one example, exploring a mobile green lifestyle is relevant.

So, solar phone chargers are a point of entry, like a white zinfandel is for the wine industry.  Before long, after a little taste, customers will move into the bold experience of red wine, or options of solar without an expense of $30,000.  With barriers to entry now low, customers are looking for options, to understand how these gadgets work and to then take it to the next level.

Like the late-night commercial on real estate, a bling gentleman with high-end cars, in front of a mansion says, “You can have aaawl dis, whit noooo money down.”  Solar leasing now offers a similar, not as cheesy, entry opportunity.  Patel, in a move typically wonderful in the green industry, offers up a cool yet competitive arrangement.  Go to Sungevity.com, plug in your address, a satellite image will come up, provide a little information and in 24 hours a no-obligation firm quote will arrive.  Great way to get your toe in the solar water, access some facts, without having to deal with a sales call.

If you go, or dare I say when you go to GoGreenSolar.com, you will find many simple gadgets on energy efficiency, education books or DIY wind and solar solutions.  There are gadgets to improve your air conditioner and save money, mobile solar chargers, power booster solar panel cleaners, oh my.

Like the genesis of his website’s passion, Patel started with CBS on a TV show, and is now dedicating green efforts and energies working with CBS on the expansion of placing solar in locations like Bus Shelters.  Genius of the AND works like a charm in locations such as this.  You can generate energy, provide shade in a neutral energy cost position and have the facility go cash flow positive with advertising revenues from companies with a green message.  Patel can also take a power or light pole and turn it into an aesthetically pleasing generator of energy.  Solar magic.

Where will you begin?  Where will your green journey take you Newport Beach?

Please share pictures of your Solar Cabana or other cool green gadgets to JimFitzEco@gmail.com.