Patrick Post - President/CEO
I am experienced in the residential construction industry. I believe that new homes and buildings can be constructed, and existing structures can be retrofitted, so that they will generate 100% more power than they consume. This will be accomplished by significantly improving the energy efficiency of homes and buildings as well as installing solar power, battery power storage, and other renewable energy equipment to generate electricity, which will reduce energy consumption and pollution. Any surplus power that is generated can be used to run our electric vehicles or sent to the electric grid. Implimenting this concept can make all structures power generation facilities instead of consumers of electricity. The main goal is to eliminate electric utility costs and provide free solar energy to power our electric vehicles so we can stop sending money on gas and diesel fuels.
The U.S. needs to reinvent our electric grids by creating a new national APOLLO scale solar, wind, and battery power storage project that will provide free, clean, and unlimited electricity for every American. Solar power is also the only energy source that is delivered directly to everyone on Earth. This critical and cost-effective national infrastructure effort will create millions of jobs, lower the cost of energy, reduce pollution, and eliminate America's dependence on fossil fuels. This project will help in protecting our fragile environment and our water resources, and it will reduce global warming, climate change, and rising sea levels. Another important benefit is that it will strengthen America's outdated and decaying electric grids, which will increase America's national security. Our grids are unstable and vulnerable to damage and shut down for prolonged periods of time from violent storms, terrorism, or from high energy demand which can cause blackouts.
The United States should begin by creating cost-effective sustainable grid-tided communities with solar farms and battery power storage located inside these communities. Larger systems should be installed near every town and city in America to provide free, clean, and unlimited energy every day from solar and wind power. Implementing this renewable energy project will ensure that every U.S. home and building will always have power, regardless of if we lose our electricity grid supplied power. In January 2020, California implemented revolutionary regulations requiring that all new homes, apartments, and condos that are four stories or less to include solar power and battery power storage as part of the architectural design and engineering. By adding solar and power storage into the original design of the structures, this will lower equipment and installation costs by 65% as compared to adding solar and power storage to existing homes, apartments, or condos.
An example is that installing solar and battery power storage equipment at an existing home will typically cost $45,000. The alternative is installing this same equipment in 100 new homes in a development, which will cost an average of $15,000 per residence. The return on investment will be 5-7 years for new homes as opposed to 15-21 years for existing structures. Other important elements are that installing these renewable energy systems in new structures will generate $100,000 in free electricity in their 30-year lifetime and the cost of the systems can be paid through low cost monthly mortgage payments. That will raise an average payment by $75 a month but it will reduce an average monthly electric utility bill by $150 a month. Existing homeowners also commonly pay $35,000 out of pocket for the systems, with the U.S. government providing $10,000 in subsidies to help reduce the total cost. As this concept for new construction develops in the future, the costs will progressively decline and the efficiency of solar panels and battery power storage will increase.
