News
Solar Leasing In Texas Now Available
APS is proud to announce the launch of our residential solar leasing program. With the APS Leasing program your system is insured, monitored, and maintained with guaranteed power production at no additional cost. A prepaid solar lease is less expensive than purchasing a solar system outright.
- Our Lease term is 20 years
- Easily transfer your lease if you move
- Little to no ($0) upfront cost
- Subject to credit approval
If the upfront cost of installing solar has been holding you back, wait no more!!
Call us today for more information on our Leasing options and a free estimate.
APS Makes 10 Spot on Houston Environmental Companies!
APS Makes No. 10 Spot on Houston Bunisse Journal's List of Houston's Top Environmental Companies.
The list was comprised of the Largest Houston-Area Environmental Companies, Ranked by 2010 Local Gross Billings.
APS CEO, Larry Atherton, Published in Four Texas Business Journal Articles
APS Completes Another Big Texas Sun Installation: Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame
Fort Worth, Texas (Vocus/PRWEB) February 23, 2011 - The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame is now being powered partly by the sun, thanks to Green Mountain Energy Company and its customers. Green Mountain, Texas' first competitive retail electric provider to offer cleaner energy, donated $50,000 to the Fort Worth landmark - through its Big Texas Sun Club® - to fund the 19.44 kilowatt (kW) solar power system. The solar array is the first in the Fort Worth Stockyards and believed to be the first for a Hall of Fame non-profit museum in Texas.
The solar photovoltaic (PV) system, which was installed on Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame's roof, will help reduce the building's energy use and carbon footprint, as well as educate people visiting the museum about the benefits of solar energy.
SOLAR DEDICATION
U.S. Congresswoman Kay Granger (District 12) and Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem, Danny Scarth joined Green Mountain's Super Earth mascot, Fort Worth City Council members, Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame officials, Green Mountain officials and Hickman Companies representatives to "flip the switch" of the solar array today during a ceremonial dedication. Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame is located in the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District at 128 East Exchange, Historic
Barn A.
"Green Mountain Energy Company is especially pleased and proud to donate the solar array to Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, a Texas institution," said Paul Markovich, President, Residential Services, Green Mountain Energy Company. "Green Mountain has been serving customers throughout the Forth Worth metropolitan-area since 2002. Donating solar arrays like this helps us give back to the communities where our customers live, work, shop and play, while supporting our mission to change the way power is made."
"We are excited to be able to work with Green Mountain on this project and hope it is just the beginning for solar energy in the Historic Fort Worth Stockyards," said John Bills, Hickman Companies, Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer. The Hickman's were the original owners of the Hall of Fame exhibits which they donated to the museum.
"Who would have ever guessed a near 100-year-old building could use the sun's rays to operate more economically," said Jami Hoffman, executive director of Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. "This solar-array panel will complement our original green-energy transportation -The Sterquell Wagon Collection. I will now add a couple of words to Amon G. Carter's phrase: "Fort Worth, it's where the West begins...to go green!"
BIG TEXAS SUN CLUB
Green Mountain funded Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame's first solar array through its Big Texas Sun Club®, a unique program in which Green Mountain's Texas customers can choose to support solar energy installations in Texas by contributing an additional $5 on their monthly Green Mountain Energy® electricity bill (for Texas Sun Club. With this installation, Green Mountain's Big Texas Sun Club will be responsible for creating over information, visit www.bigtexassunclub.com). This was the 26th solar project built in Texas thanks to the Big 270 kW of new solar energy capacity in Texas since 2002.
The mission of the Big Texas Sun Club is to fund, build and promote solar power in Texas while assisting organizations with a socially responsible focus to reduce their environmental footprint.
GREEN MOUNTAIN ENERGY® SOLAR AT TEXAS COWBOY HALL OF FAME
The solar array is expected to produce more than 25,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year by converting sunlight into pollution-free electricity. It was built with 72 large solar panels and is expected to offset over 33,000 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year. That's the equivalent to nearly 10,000 houses turning off all of their lights for a day, or of not driving more than 36,000 miles annually- like avoiding almost 200 road trips from Fort Worth to Austin! Additionally, the solar power system is expected to save the Museum about $180,000 in energy costs over its 30-year lifetime.
An informative display about the array and renewable energy will be placed inside the Hall of Fame to help educate patrons on solar energy and its importance. A monitoring web site will also be linked to the array to display real-time energy output data that anyone with Internet access can view. The solar was installed by Alternative Power Solutions (APS). This was APS' 4th solar installation for Green Mountain on behalf of the Big Texas Sun Club.
About Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame
Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame honors Texas men and women who have excelled in the sport and business of rodeo and the western lifestyle. Now honoring over 100, a few of our Inductees include: Nolan Ryan, Tommy Lee Jones, Carol Rose, Quail Dobbs, Trevor Brazile, Don Edwards, Buster &Sheila Welch, George Strait, Lane Frost, Ty Murray, Barry Corbin, Red Steagall, Tuff Hedeman, J.J. Hampton (17-time PWRA World Champion), Charmayne James, and Don Gay (8-time PRCA World Champion Bull Rider)! Each of our Inductees has their own individual booth which contains personal memorabilia for our guests to view. In addition to the displays dedicated to Inductees, the museum includes the Sterquell Wagon Collection, The John Justin Trail of Fame and Chisholm Trail Exhibit. The museum also houses The Zigrang Bit Collection, Amon G. Carter's 1933 Cadillac, The Adventures of the Cowboy Trail (a child's four-station exploratorium), The Jersey Lilly Old-Tyme Photo Parlor and a wonderful western Gift Shop.
For more information, visit:
texascowboyhalloffame.org.
1 Estimated savings calculated by APS based on assumed current electricity price of $0.009 per kWh and annual inflation rate of 7% over the estimated 30 year useful life of the facility.
Reduce Energy Costs 20% with Solar Pool Pumps
Solar Pool Pumping is one of the most cost-effective and logical uses of solar energy. Using only a few solar collectors, the DC pool pump has enough electricity to run all day using free green electricity from the sun.
APS Offers Easy Financing
Alternative Power Solutions is excited to have partnered with several lending institutions to offer effortless financing for your new solar system. hese tools include extended lines of credit towards interest only payments, straight financing, second mortgages, unsecured loans and same as cash options.
NAVFAC solar system
APS Corp proudly announces that it has procured the design and Installation of a 202 KW DC system for the NAVFAC fitness center, the system has 826 x 225 watt solar panels and in its 30 year life span will produce 6,360,499 KW of electricity and will off set 8.9 million pounds of CO2, we thank NAVFAC for choosing renewable energy to power their facility, and APS as their partner to design and install the system.
APS Has New Services
Alternative Power Solutions has expanded its company services. We are now providing our first class Electrical Contracting services to you. If you have a project as small as a electrical outlet repair, or as large as a complete home re-wire, call us for our competitive quote. Please contact us at 713-595-6375 for more information on our services.
RENEWED ENERGY: Solar Power Proves Evasive For Sunny Houston
HOUSTON (Dow Jones)-Houston, capital of the world's fossil-fuel industry, has gone out of its way to embrace renewable power: The municipality buys a third of its power from wind-power sources, according to Mayor Bill White. But harnessing power from the sun is a much taller order.
Not that the fourth-largest city in the U.S. lacks sunlight: The sun's relentless love every summer results in soaring air-conditioning bills for the city's inhabitants. But solar energy remains far more expensive than conventional sources of energy-including wind. And the area's excessively humid and muggy conditions make it difficult to capture sunshine for power.
"There so much humidity in Houston that light diffuses differently than in other parts of the country," says Gavin Dillingham, director of special projects at the City of Houston. "We are trying to figure what works best in the city."
Houston's struggle to embrace solar power underscores one of the hurdles to the spread of renewable energy: The same formula isn't applicable everywhere. Alternative sources of energy are highly dependent on local natural factors such as wind, sun, or the availability of hydro-power. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, are widely available and more economic but the emissions from their combustion are said to contribute significantly to global warming.
Solar-minded Houstonians have to rely on photovoltaic panels, which are groups of cells containing materials such as silicon that convert solar radiation into electricity, Dillingham said.
The city government is also experimenting with thin-film solar technology that can be rolled onto buildings' roofs like wall paper, making it a lot easier to handle than traditional, bulky solar panels.
Houston is far behind its Texas neighbors Austin and San Antonio in offering rebates to citizens who want to use solar technologies because, unlike those cities, it doesn't own utilities. Municipality-owned utility companies can afford to offer generous rebates for a technology that doesn't make economic sense, while private companies don't have that luxury, said Peter Bishop, associate professor of strategic foresight at the University of Houston.
High costs of installations are also a major hurdle, according to Steve Stelzer, program director for Houston's green-building resource center.
"People in Houston like the idea of getting energy from the sun," Stelzer said. "But when they find out how much it costs they say: "That is ridiculous'".
Installing a solar system that will quench 30% of the energy needs of a three-bedroom house has a price tag of about $25,000, said Ralph Parrott, president of Alternative Power Solutions, a privately owned Houston-based company that provides residential and commercial solar-power systems.
However, Parrot said his business has grown steadily this year as people are taking advantage of the tax credit offered by the federal government for those willing to invest in renewable-energy projects. President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 aimed at jump-starting the struggling U.S. economy. According to the law, consumers who install solar-energy systems before the end of 2016 can receive a 30% tax credit.
The city government isn't giving up. It expects that at least 5% of the municipality's energy purchases by 2015 will come from state solar farms and it is planning in 2010 to unveil low-interest loans to residents who want to install solar systems in their homes. Four large facilities in Houston have solar systems, and the city is finalizing agreements with two solar-energy companies that would provide roughly the amount needed to power more than 7,000 homes, Dillingham said.
Solar energy is seen as especially appealing to Houston because it can help to reduce energy-price volatility. About 50% of the city's electricity is generated by natural gas and, in the past, prices of this commodity have spiked higher when hurricanes hit production areas and pipelines in Texas, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico.
(Isabel Ordonez covers U.S. integrated-oil companies for Dow Jones Newswires. She can be reached at 713-547-9207 or isabel.ordonez@dowjones.com)
Alternative Power Solutions is NABCEP Certified
NABCEP is committed to providing a certification program of quality and integrity for the professionals and consumer/public it is designed to serve. Professionals who choose to become certified demonstrate their competence in the field and their commitment to upholding high standards of ethical and professional practice.
NABCEP is the national certification organization for professional installers in the field of renewable energy.