The National Solar Radiation Database was recently updated, providing new information (available here [www.nrel.gov] in PDF format) about what parts of the country are best suited to take advantage of the power the sun’s rays can provide (when absorbed by solar photovoltaic cells and inverted to useful current, of course). This information (a map of the findings is below), while interesting, is produced by the good people at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory [www.nrel.gov] (NREL) and reads like the dense scientific, governmental document that it is. Checking it a cool 472 pages, brevity is not a luxury its readers enjoy, but it is thorough and quite useful. But what the heck does it mean?

Looking at the basics, it’s quite simple: each of the colored dots is where useful data was collected: Class I (the green dots) denotes a good place to be for solar; Class II (the blue dots) represent a place that’s good (but not as good as green); Class III, the orange dots, are useful, but below I & II in terms of solar energy production potential. Simple, no?

So you can tell where’s good and where’s not so good, and how that relates to you; it can basically tell you if it’s worth it to consider adding solar as a viable way to generate electricity in your home or business. Southern California looks good, as does much of the upper Midwest and eastern seaboard. Once you’ve figured out if it’s a good idea or not, though, what happens next? You can’t exactly walk down the street to the local home improvement store and stock up on solar panels for your home (just yet). Thankfully, organizations and utilities across the country are there to help bridge the gap between having a sunny roof and generating clean power with solar.

One such opportunity exists in Long Island, New York, through Renewable Energy Long Island [www.renewableenergylongisland.org] (RELI), who has, among other features, a photovoltaic (PV) fact sheet [www.renewableenergylongisland.org] [PDF] about the technology that makes solar work, a calculator [lishines.org] to help determine how the numbers shake out and how much you can save, and a solar registry [lishines.org] to keep track of who’s gone solar on the island. There’s a bit more to the switch to solar than visiting a website and signing up, but it’s a great resource for more info and will give you a good idea about what you’re up against when considering the power of the sun. And Long Island is just one of dozens of examples around the country; stay tuned for more examples and quick finds (and more info on going solar) coming later this week.