Renewable solar energy is a great way to power your home or business!  If you live in Albany, Greene County, Columbia County, or the Capital Region, we are your solar installer. At D&M Alternative Energy we specialize in installing solar panels for residential or commercial customers. You can completely power your home or business with solar electricity! If you are ready to go green we can help you acheive your goals.  With a solar powered home or business you will drastically lower or possibly even eliminate your electric bill. 

A grid-tie solar system is the most common and least expensive type of system.  This system consists of solar panels, and an inverter.  Then, it is wired into an existing breaker panel.  This system supplies power directly to home or if you are not using as much as the system is producing, it supplies the excess power to your utility.  The downfall of this system is, if the utility power goes down, due to safety reasons, the system will automaticaly turn off. This system is mostly the same as a simple grid-tie system, although, if the utility goes down you will still have power.  The components consist of solar panels, an inverter, a charge controller (often built into the inverter),  and a relatively small battery bank (multiple batteries wired together).  The battery bank should be capable of providing about 1 or 2 days of power without a charge.  This type of system rarely uses its batteries so they will last quite a long time without replacement.An off grid system is used when it is not possible to be connected to utility power lines.  Usually found in remote regions.  This type of system consists of solar panels, an inverter, a charge controller, and a very large battery bank. The battery bank in this type of system must be capable of supplying several days of power without a charge, usually, about 5-8 days are required.  This type of system is constantly using its batteries so replacement is required every 8-15 years.