Just a few years ago solar toys and tools were relegated to yard lights, waving cats and chirping crickets. However, as solar has gained popularity, the gadgets and devices that use solar—and their quality has increased significantly. So if you’re looking for a gift for a friend or a family member that likes solar, here are some great options.

There is something undeniably appealing about having solar panels installed on your roof. They bring a sense of modernism, of independence and of environmentalism. The decision to go solar is an exciting one, but it should be done with the foresight of the pitfalls that others have made before you. If you go about the process correctly, you too can feel the thrill of seeing your electricity bill dwindle or, if you have an older energy meter, actually watching the meter go in reverse as you sell excess electricity to the grid!

MISTAKE #1: NOT REDUCING CONSUMPTION BEFORE GOING SOLAR
Solar is sexy, energy efficiency is not, that’s just the way it is. But if you are thinking of having solar panels installed on your house, you would be wise to reduce the amount of energy you use in the first place. A home energy audit by a certified professional (with a BPI Certification or HERS Rater certification) can identify where your biggest energy losses are and how to address them. Energy retrofits, smarter purchasing decisions and a few behavioral modifications can save you around 30% on your electricity bill. That makes a big difference when you end up making the purchase for your solar panels, possibly to the point of completely eliminating your electricity bill.

The Presidential contenders in a side-by-side comparison of where they stand on the issues, or at least where Gov Romney stood on Oct. 3rd, 2012.  Might be different in an hour from now.

Earlier this week CleanEnergyAuthority.com got a lead from our friends over at the Navy about a new process that the scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory was working on that would create jet fuel from seawater.  We promptly posted the information on our Facebook wall and watched the story go viral.  Since then the story has made the usual rounds of Green blogs but nary a mention in the national press.  

Having covered various topics around the military's programs that are attempting to make the various branches less dependant on fossil fuels we see this newest development as probably the biggest breakthrough we have heard about to date.

Many people have tried to make energy from water over the years with the common result of violating various laws of physics so we are approaching these new claims pretty warily (even though seawater not fresh water is being used in this instance).  We sincerely hope that the Navy will be more forthcoming about these new technologies as it's not hard to make the leap and wonder how there might be some benefit to the whole world at work here.