How about a big two thumbs up, and make it your green thumb for some neighbors living in Berkeley, California.  It’s such a great site to see not only one, but two houses next to each other that are both making their own electricity from the most powerful thing known to man, the sun.  Although you might be living in a city or town somewhere in America where solar power is relatively new, or maybe even unheard of, that’s just not the case for the residents of Berkeley.

two neighbors with solar in Berkeley

Long known as a hippie idea, or tree-hugger initiative, PV solar cells used to generate kilo watt hours is still going strong.  And with the help of higher oil prices and higher energy costs slamming the economy over and over again, more and more “non tree hugger” types are looking into alternative energy ideas.  Call it green technology, call it doing something good for the earth, call it whatever you want, but this type of energy is here to stay.  And it is saving some lucky homeowners who are used to paying very high PG&E bills quite a bit of money.

So what if the street view of solar cells makes the houses look ugly, that’s usually not a concern anymore from neighbors.  Instead, neighbors are jumping on the band wagon and figuring out how to get solar panels installed themselves.  If you really are worried what your neighbors are going to say about you going green and getting panels on your roof, just go and sack up and ask them.  You’ll be surprised how happy they are to help you out and say “go for it”.  That was the case with these neighbors.  And, by the looks of the number of panels on the roof, it is quite possible that they are saving roughly $200-250 dollars per month off their combined electric bills.  That’s great news!