After watching the movie, The Inconvenient Truth”, Angela Mitchell and her family were moved into action to do their best to reduce their emission of green house gases. They began by making their house more energy efficient by adding insulation, purchasing energy star appliances, and replacing her light bulbs with compact fluorescent ones. When Angela first approached SunWind Power Systems, it did not take long for us to realize her determination to reduce her carbon footprint by going solar. We began by installing a solar hot water system for her and the family which eliminates approximately 6300 lbs of CO2 a year. Angela was soon ready to commit to installing a solar electric or Photo Voltaic (P.V.) system but was initially blocked by her municipal utility company, the Frankfort Plant Board (FPB). At the time, the head electrical engineer of FPB, David Carpenter, refused to grant approval to allow Mitchell to tie her system to the grid. In a grid-tied system, the customer may receive “pay-back” or credit when the P.V. system generates more electricity than is being used and when it does not, the grid supplies the energy.

Mitchell was not more…