Biggest rate increase ever by a FL utility company.

''Wow,'' said Charlie Beck of the Office of Public Counsel, which represents utility customers, when he heard the numbers. ``Wow. This is the biggest rate increase I have ever seen requested by a utility in Florida. This is really something.''

Customers of Florida Power & Light will pay a base rate of $12.40 a month more next year if the state approves the company's rate-hike request.

FPL's base rate is currently $39.31. If the request is granted, the base rate next year will be $51.71. That's a 31 percent increase.

SAVINGS IN FUEL

In a press release, FPL estimated that customers will save about $5 a month overall starting Jan. 1, but that change included anticipated declines in fuel charges. The bill of a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month would drop on Jan. 1 from $109.55 to $104.63, according to that estimate.

In a follow-up e-mail, Villafaña wrote that those numbers include an estimate from February that 2010 fuel prices will allow a bill reduction of $17.83 a month. ``Actual 2010 fuel costs could vary from this projection.''

Looks like it might be a good time to look into solar energy as an alternative to these never ending rate increases by FPL.

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Bob Gentile Solar Energy Consultant with Abundant Energy Inc. www.Solar-FL.com 561.732.5181

Abundant Energy Inc. is Florida's leader in Solar Energy, celebrating 23 Years of Service.

**Solar Electric ( photovoltaic ) PV
Spin your FPL meter backwards.

**Solar Hot Water
Puts you on the road to FREE hot water forever.

**Solar Pool Heating
You can now have a warm swimming pool all year round.

Solar Hot Water for homes saves thousands $$$ over the years!

More Realtor are now recommending home owners to invest in a Solar Hot Water System (SHW), especially here in Sunny Florida.

A house with SHW separates the listings in the neighborhood because the agent can proudly say "This House has FREE hot water"

Separate yourself from the other Realtors that say "Well you need to paint the walls and get new carpet and upgrade some appliances" YES they are all good generic suggestions but BE Different, BE Unique. BE the Realtor that says to potential buyers : "THIS House here has FREE HOT WATER" by recommending a Solar Hot Water System.

Electric bills are forever increasing and an issue/concern for many homeowners... Now you can show them a solution NOT just talk about the problem.

Recommend that they part ways from that "ENERGY HOG" called the "Electric" Hot Water tank and move over to a Solar Hot Water system... The new owner will save $70-$90 per month immediately ($80 avg. x 12 months = $960 x 5 years is almost $5000 SAVINGS and that doesn't factor in any Electric Utilities increases, so it's actually way over $5000 and probably closer to a $6000 Savings :-)

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So whether you clients are selling or just moved into a new home make this simple recommendation to them:

When you invest in a Solar Hot Water System it puts you on the road to FREE Hot Water with a payback of 2 - 3 years and we all know how fast the years go bye....bye :-(

The Benefits to you:

• Reduce your energy bills by 30%

• Environmentally friendly

• Make a difference by helping to reduce greenhouse emissions by reducing your dependency on your electric or gas water heater

• Add Value to your home and if you sell your home, It's Nice to say "THIS HOUSE has FREE Hot Water". A way better upgrade then new carpet & fresh paint, even though that helps as well.

• Avg $10 INCREASED Market Value per dollar saved is the Value added according to the HUD appraisal journal

• Extends the expected life of your residential hot water tank.

• Qualifies for the 30% Federal Tax Credits

A Solar Hot Water System from Abundant Energy, Inc. is a great way you can offset the never ending increases. An average savings with Solar Hot Water per month is $70-$90, your payback is 2-3 years.

After that you can say “I have FREE Hot water”

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For more info. about Solar Hot Water contact Bob Gentile 561.732.5181 from Abundant Energy, Inc. Find out if Solar makes sense for your home or not

Solar Energy Farm I stumbled across :-) Very Nice Crops!!

Here are some pics of a Solar Farm I came across when I was up in NJ last week.... It is to offset a local Municipality by 30% ... YEAH!!! Can't wait to get a few of these projects here in FL :-)

click on pic to enlarge

click on pic to enlarge

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Bob Gentile Solar Energy Consultant with Abundant Energy Inc. www.Solar-FL.com 561.732.5181

Abundant Energy Inc. is Florida's leader in Solar Energy, celebrating 23 Years of Service.

**Solar Electric ( photovoltaic ) PV
Spin your FPL meter backwards.

**Solar Hot Water
Puts you on the road to FREE hot water forever.

**Solar Pool Heating
You can now have a warm swimming pool all year round.

Bus. Owner will earn an annual profit of $14K by selling his solar energy back to electric co.

Here is a great way for a SMALL BUSINESS OWNER to help combat a crumbling economy and still keep his doors open.

Thanks to a wealth of roof space at Mike Roach's Gainesville warehouse (owns a small mailing business with five employees), Roach will soon install nearly 100 solar panels and earn an annual profit of $14,000 by selling his solar energy back to the electric company.

The program is being hailed as a pioneering step in U.S. energy policy, one that would transfer power production from massive plants relying on coal, gas and nuclear power to individual homes and businesses using sustainable and pollution-free sunshine.

This form of distributed electricity (*Feed-In-Tariff) gives business owners an opportunity to now profit on making electricity and selling it back to Gainesville Regional Utilities. (see below on system works)

But this model has set limits on how much it will produce in the form of Solar from the ultility company, not a bad thing because in order for this to work long term it needs to set production limits.

A crawl before you walk business plan per say, and looks like the crawling has almost stopped.

Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) has announced that it has aleady reached its first year solar PV reservation target with this groundbreaking Feed-In-Tariff program. (first city in USA to use the Feed-In-Tariff model adopted from Germany*) The Florida municipal utility will continue accepting reservations for an additional 4 megawatts (MW) in 2010 on a first come first serve basis.

Gainesville's program went live on March 1. The 2009 solar PV tariff of $0.32/kWh for twenty years will remain in effect for 2010 reservations. Avg.normal rates people pay are around $0.11-13 cents/kwh)

*Germany, which pioneered feed-in tariffs 10 years ago and is now a world leader in solar and other renewable energies. The program has created approximately 250,000 jobs while electricity prices have only increased by about $2.50 a month for the average customer, according to the German government.

Here is how the system works: Anyone wanting to sell energy would receive two separate electric meters – one for the energy coming in and another for the energy going out. The solar energy would not be used on-site, but transferred to the grid where it mixes with the larger supply. As incentive, solar providers would be paid far more for supplying energy than the utility is allowed to sell it for.

Advocates say the benefits are threefold: More jobs, a cleaner environment and energy security.

Good news is this program has initiated conversations to roll this program out across the state of FL and beyond. Other states like MI has just rolled out a smaller type Feed-In-Program to test the model.