Want to make your home even more green? Thought about adding solar panels, but can’t find the money needed? Saving on your monthly electricity bill is about to get much easier. The city of San Francisco approved a series of grants that will help every building in town add solar panels. You heard that right – every building in town.

Approved in June by city supervisors, the program creates a $3 million fund that will provide rebates to city residents, businesses and non-profits. The first year of the program will be focused on helping low-income residents and non-profits, but it will soon extend to all businesses and residents.

Just how much can you get? Individual homeowners can receive $3,000 to $6,000 to cover the cost of installing a solar panel set-up that produces at least 1 kilowatt of electricity. Businesses will receive $1,500 per 1 kilowatt production, up to $10,000. Currently, less than 800 of San Francisco’s 195,000 rooftops are equipped with solar panels – take a look for yourself on the San Francisco Solar Map.

Not only will these grants provide residents with an affordable, sustainable source of power, but solar installation businesses will see a dramatic increase in work. "This is just gonna spur the industry," said Kevin Gage, sales director for San Diego-based installer Borrego Solar in a CNet interview. "The market was essentially shut down in San Francisco. Now a lot of companies like ours are gonna move into San Francisco." We’ll be saving money, the planet, and creating new jobs. Sounds like a win-win to me!

You’re probably wondering how you can receive a grant. Visit the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission website for details on applying for a grant and upcoming GoSolarSF Fairs where you can learn more about how the new solar incentive program works.

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A while back at a press business expo conference I attended, there was this company LeakAlertor that was talking about losing money with your toilet. I had to hear about this one.. They told me that the flapper on my toilet deteriorates and allows water to fall down the whole to increase the demand for water. No good since I have crazy water taxes where I live in Briarcliff. Anyway, this LeakAlertor through electronics is a constant monitor for my toilet to determine water leakage. So far so good.

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As many of you know, I am Consulting Series Editor to McGraw-Hill on the Green Guru Guides. I have started an early launch of my book Green Lighting to kick off my book tour. Yup, seven states and a lot of sites. So my original story is on my site The Green Living Guy©. However, here is the most important point. There is a party tomorrow in NYC at the Hiro Ballroom for Green Lighting. I decided to kick off my Green Lighting and Green Guru Guides book tour at an event with Rock the Reactors on July 14th at the Hiro Ballroom in Manhattan. It symbolizes the essence of the book. If we go green with our lighting we will save energy at such a level that we would not need coal, nuclear or natural gas powerplants. Light emitting diodes (LED) like the Endura LED from Philips Lighting provide green solutions. It is so amazing to the industry that, like Mother Earth, Philips is giving us this bulb as the start of a global retrofit. For us, when photographer Courtney Dailey shot this picture with the amazing May Lindstrom whom I have known forever, it's an inspiration. Copyright 2010. Photographer, Courtney Dailey, McGraw-Hill Professional Royal Philips Electronics unveiled its 12 watt EnduraLED 60bulb a few weeks ago, the industry's first LED replacement for a 60 watt incandescent light bulb. They will be in stores in the fall. Shown for the first time here at the Lightfair International tradeshow, it marks an important breakthrough in the use of LED lighting technology in everyday applications. Consumers will now have an LED alternative to the most commonly used incandescent bulb, which will deliver up to 80% energy savings and last 25 times longer than its century-old predecessor. Recently, the state of Vermont voted not to renew Entergy's license to operate the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. On April 2nd, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation followed suit by denying Entergy a new water permit for Indian Point.

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