Affordable Solar Energy Demonstrated for Earth Day

Augusta, Maine, April 21, 2005--

To promote Blue Link, an affordable, new solar power system, a ceremony was held in the capitol of Maine for a program called The Citizen's Solar Challenge. "A group of people got together and bought a Blue Link [unit]," explained Naota Inoue, one of Blue Link's inventors. "They told the governor of Maine that they would like to donate it to the state house as long as the governor would put out a Solar Governor's Challenge to the rest of the country.

"At 11:00 am today we had this plug-in ceremony with Governor Baldacci accepting the Citizen's Solar Challenge and putting out the Governor's Solar Challenge. About five TV stations showed up, and my grandson switched [on] the Blue Link."

Unlike other solar systems, whose costs can exceed $1,500, Blue Link can be purchased for $4,650, is pre-wired, pre-tested and with an ETL (test lab) listing to UL (test lab) standards as an appliance, and can be installed quickly. A Blue Link 480 unit provides on average 10% of a home's electricity. (See: http://www.BlueLinkSolar.net)

The solar device is simply plugged into a home's electric socket, and instead of drawing out power, it feeds power into the fuse box. Also, according to Inoue, if a house is vacant on a sunny day and all the appliances are turned off, the solar panels will cause the electric meter to go backwards, giving credit to the home owner and providing electricity to the grid.

Although the retail price of a Blue Link 480 is $4,650, Californians can pay as little as $3,250 thanks to state rebates, and some cities, including Yucaipa, offer additional rebates. A representative of Blue Link believes that the city of San Diego may soon be offering rebates as well.

Meanwhile, on the east coast, Inoue said that Baldacci's Governor's Solar Challenge may be accepted by John Lynch, governor of New Hampshire. Thus, "we have a group of people in New Hampshire who are willing to donate [a Blue Link unit] to the New Hampshire state capitol," he said.

Inoue tried to contact Arnold Schwarzenegger about participating in the Governor's Solar Challenge, but apparently the politician could not be reached.

"Although California has been a leader in the solar rebate program," continued Inoue, "offering $180 million to promote solar during past five years, 12,500 systems have been installed. This is a relatively low participation for the rebate program because the upfront cost for the end user has been very high. Blue Link attempts to get a larger participation by lowering upfront cost by 60%.

"What we need is for the government to actually walk the talk by doing installation, and this does not have to cost the state anything when Blue Link is donated to the state capitol building." To this end (i.e., instigating another Governor's Solar Challenge in California), Inoue hopes to find donors in the Golden State.