FORGET PV – SOLARFLOW IS COMING!

Congratulations to our customers who had the vision and foresight to invest in Solar Thermal Evacuated Tube Collector systems. We are happy to announce that your smart decision is about to pay off in a big way. Within the next year, you will be able to upgrade your Evacuated Tube solar system to generate grid-quality electricity from the excess heat it produces at a fraction of the cost of installing a separate photovoltaic system. The upgrade is guaranteed to reduce the cost of your combined gas and electric bills by 75%.

Cool Energy Inc., the developer of this new solar technology, calls it the SolarFlow System. Although a production schedule has not yet been announced, we expect to hear something soon.

So how does this new technology work?

Do you remember learning about Stirling Engines in science class? Developed in 1816, it is a simple engine that powers a turbine using heat. On the Antiques Roadshow today, they featured a fan built in 1919 that used a Stirling engine. A kerosene lamp heated air that turned a turbine that spun the fan blades.  By using solar thermal heat, electricity is generated through a low temperature Stirling Engine. It is simple, quiet and clean.

Stirling engine technology has actually been used for the past several years in large commercial solar applications with a large powerful sun dish providing concentrated heat. The technology has been scaled down and will soon be available for residential applications. These small Stirling Engine-based systems have been designed to use Evacuated Tube Collectors only. ETCs are the only solar thermal collectors that will generate the proper amount of heat to power SolarFlow.

Mirasol Solar Energy Systems recognized the advanced capabilities and future potential of Evacuated Tube Collectors from the beginning. We started our business using ETCs exclusively. We knew that ETCs would be the core of all new developments in solar for heating, air conditioning and electricity generating. We are the only solar company in the state to have the experience and the engineering capability to offer the new SolarFlow System as soon as it becomes available.

For the past several months, we have advised our customers to wait for new technology announcements before they buy a photovoltaic system. Check back with us for news about the release of SolarFlow. We think we will have an exciting announcement for you very soon!

Why the Best Solar Thermal System Money Can Buy is NOT Expensive!

Mirasol Solar Thermal Systems with Evacuated Tube Collectors are guaranteed to:

1. Meet and exceed winter home heating capabilities of standard flat-plate collectors.

2. Work more efficiently than flat-plate collectors in cold weather when you need heat the most.

3. Provide the high hot water temperatures required for forced air or baseboard heating that cannot be done by flat-plate collectors.

4. Generate as much energy with one Evacuated Tube Collector as two flat-plate collectors.

5. Use standard, non-proprietary parts that can be purchased from any plumbing supply retailer at any time if a repair is ever needed. Expensive special solar parts are not needed.

6. Use parts that are MADE IN AMERICA at all times possible to strengthen the economy of our country!

7. Be custom designed to fit the system to your specific needs, using as much of your existing equipment to save you from unnecessary costs.

Good News for Businesses--The Stimulus and Solar

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of February 2009 made a major improvement in the solar tax credit program for commercial installations. The Investment Tax Credit (ITC) of 30% of the total cost of the installation of a solar system remains unchanged for the next seven years. But now, a business owner can elect to receive a cash payment from the Department of Treasury in lieu of the ITC. A quick refund of 30% makes a lot of sense for business taxpayers who may happen to be carrying losses in these tough economic times, or for other reasons, would prefer to receive a cash payment rather than a reduction in taxes. This cash grant arrives from the Treasury 60 days after your system is placed in service. Information on the Treasury Department payment is available at the DOT's recovery website.

Of course, if you are able to take advantage of the ITC itself, the possibility exists that you can monetize the incentive even sooner, by withholding the full amount of your ITC from your next quarterly income tax prepayment.

Clark Howard, Money Guru on CNN, HLN Got Scammed on Solar

On Clark Howard's show on CNN & HLN, he did a piece last week about installing a solar thermal system in his home in Atlanta for JUST heating his domestic water. He paid $12,000.00 for it. He got two cheap, Chinese flat-plate collectors. I did notice that the solar company installed the most expensive tanks, controls, etc. They had to have sold the equipment to him at more than double the wholesale price. Times are tough and business is poor but that kind of pricing is criminal!

For $12,000, Mirasol Solar could have heated his domestic water AND HIS HOUSE in the winter AND HIS SWIMMING POOL in the summer. I was one of several people who wrote to Clark to tell him that he should have paid less than $5,000 for his system.

Clark calculated that his payback would take nine years. He thought that was a good deal, especially since savings and investments are paying so little. We would have had his ROI down to less than five years!

I hope that people will take this as a cautionary tale. We run into a lot of people who think they know all about solar and tell us how they think it should be designed. They've read an article or two online and they are sure solar thermal is easy to do. Maybe if they can just weasel out some information from us on the specific parts they need, they can do it themselves? (It's like going to the doctor, giving him your diagnosis and your instructions on how to treat your condition with OTC drugs and then wondering why you don't get better.) Those are the people who are most likely to get scammed in the end. I wonder if Clark wasn't one of those people.

See the story about Clark's solar system at:
http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shownotes/2010/06/24/18697/

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