Stellar Solar Customer & Energy Pioneer’s Peder & Julie Norby Celebrate 100 Megawatt Hours of Electricity Harvested on their Home

Stellar Solar, one of California’s leading commercial and residential solar installers since 1998 owes a good portion of its success to the advocacy efforts of Peder and Julie Norby, whose first solar system Stellar installed in 2008.”The Norby’s have opened our eyes to what is truly possible by combining solar and electric cars,” said Stellar Solar CEO Kent Harle. He added, “Their efforts, be it speaking at our events or telling their story through our marketing campaigns have enabled us to tell their story to the entire region so we wanted to share this milestone.”

August 15 of 2012 was the first day of energy independence for the Norby’s. It was the day they fully recovered their Solar PV systems cost in gasoline and utility savings thus paying off the $29,750 in less than five years. Over half of their $750 monthly savings resulted from not buying gasoline for their 2 electric BMW i3s. While their choice of electric cars was not inexpensive, there are now similar and longer-range electric vehicles from most manufactures at all price levels.

Since August of 2012 after their energy independence day, they have saved an additional $36,000, money that has enriched their family budget instead of the wallets of the oil and utility companies. Think for a moment of not having to pay for gasoline, never going to a gasoline station again, and not having to pay for an electric bill. What would the savings be for your family?

Their solar PV system will continue to make the electricity needed for their family home and cars for the next 25 years and beyond, generating an additional 300-megawatt hours of power and enriching their family budget by $210,000 measured in 2016 dollars.

Peder also had this to say about the environmental impact. “Equally as important to us is that we have also slashed our carbon emissions from over 20 tons per person per year, to fewer than 2 tons per person per year according to the EPA emissions calculator. As native Californians, we remember the incessant brown pollution cloud of the 70’s and 80’s, primarily caused by our transportation choices and we cherish and support each incremental improvement in our shared water quality and air quality. The air we breathe and the water we drink and recreate in, are two of our most valuable public commons. As such, we all have a small role to play in improving both thus making San Diego County cleaner, healthier and better each day forward. Our experience has led us to encourage San Dieagan’s to think of solar first and foremost as a transportation fuel. It is when we use sunshine to replace gasoline that our greatest family wealth generation occurs. It is when we use sunshine as a transportation fuel that the emission reductions yield is the greatest, 500% more than the same amount of renewable energy when used to power a building or a home.”