A weekly look at what's new in solar, brought to you by Exact Solar. Clean energy news, policy updates, and stories that matter.
exactsolar.substack.com (https://exactsolar.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
Over the last three years, New Jersey has seen the biggest electricity rate increases of any state. Over the last five years, Pennsylvania has seen the third-biggest rate increase.
Listen to this episode here, or on:
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekInSolar)
Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-solar/id1812459488)
Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/6KBALbb3w1Dc864mbdM7P1)
This is according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report from July 2026. This federal agency tracks what Americans pay for power across the country and shows how bad things have gotten for New Jersey and Pennsylvania ratepayers:
New Jersey: up 36.8% in three years. That’s more than double the national average of 15.4%.
Pennsylvania: up 58.5% in five years, almost double the national average of 32.4%.
In the plainest terms possible, this means that if you live in New Jersey, and you used to pay $100/month for electricity, and have changed nothing about your life or electricity usage in the last three years, you’re now paying $136.80 per month for the same service that has not improved or changed in any way.
In Pennsylvania, if the same scenario is true, then you’re paying $158.50 per month, when you were paying $100 in 2021.
Now, it’s an imperfect comparison to go by percentage rise, because New Jersey’s energy was more expensive than Pennsylvania’s to begin with. But the fact remains that energy bills are going up at record rates.
It’s especially bad in the Northeast.
This Week In Solar is always brought to you by Exact Solar, your locally owned, twenty-one-year-old solar installer for Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
As we just said, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are in the top 3 for the fastest-rising energy costs in the nation, and no one has a good plan to fix it.
The only thing you can do to take control is opt out by putting solar on your home. Exact Solar has several different ways to help you do so that will meet your financial situation.
You can:
Pay cash up front
Finance and own the system over time with a loan
Or put $0 down with our PPA that will dramatically lower your energy bill as soon as your solar energy system is operational, and lock in the same price for power for the next 25 years.
We only work with ethical financiers that we trust, backed by the Amicus Solar Cooperative. Exact Solar will never pressure you to sign up for an unethical financing option that you barely understand.
If you live in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, we’d love to show you how much you can save by going solar.
Show Me How Much I Can Save With Solar (https://exactsolar.com/free-consultation/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=this_week_in_solar)
7 Oct 2026
Can AI Change People’s Minds About Solar?
Aaron talks with Eli Andrews, founder and CEO of civicIQ, a nonprofit that uses AI to help solar, wind, and battery projects earn support from rural communities. Eli also teaches sustainability and strategic leadership at Penn State.
If you want to know what makes people actually change their minds about solar (and why arguing with them usually isn’t it), this is the episode for you.
Listen to this episode here, or on:
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekInSolar)
Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-solar/id1812459488)
Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/6KBALbb3w1Dc864mbdM7P1)
Connect with Eli on LinkedIn here (https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-andrews/).
Learn more about civicIQ at civiciq.org (https://www.civiciq.org).
Want to reach Eli directly? Email him at eli@civiciq.org (mailto:eli@civiciq.org).
Expect to learn:
How an experimental AI moved more than 1 in 5 solar opponents off the “no” column in just five interactions (and why where a fact comes from may matter more than the fact itself).
The one question developers should ask a rural town before anyone shows up to a zoning meeting (hint: it isn’t “are you for or against solar?”).
How a nonprofit CEO with zero coding experience used three different AIs to build his own clean-powered AI on a home computer in three days.
Quote from the episode:
“We live here. This [solar] is going to be part of our lives for the next 30 years. You might have 30 years of revenue stream here, but we’re going to be living with this thing.”
— Eli Andrews
2 Oct 2026
Hundreds of Homeowners Are Showing off Their Solar This Weekend
What’s new
This weekend, October 2-4, the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Tour is hosting its National Solar Tour. This means that homeowners with solar are opening their homes to the public. This is one of our favorite times of the year at Exact Solar, and we are very proud to be a sponsor.
If you’re a homeowner interested in going solar but you’re still on the fence, this is a great chance to get all of your questions answered by real people with solar on their roofs (not by companies who are trying to sell solar).
One of Exact Solar’s customers, Curt Sawyer, is hosting a tour at his home in Doylestown, in person, on Saturday, October 3rd, from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m.
You can RSVP and find his address on the ASES Solar Tour website here:
See Curt Sawyer’s Home Solar Energy System In Person (https://map.nationalsolartour.org/sites/cmunegzlx0002o9k0xw9bzh5d)
Curt has a very large home solar energy system (21 kW), because his home is fully electrified and he and his wife drive EVs. His system is large enough that his local electric company pays him, not the other way around.
If you’re planning to see Curt’s system in person and you want to learn more about his system first, you can find the interview we did with him and his virtual video solar tour at these links:
Curt (Curtis) Sawyer — Doylestown, PA (https://exactsolar.com/solar-tours/curtis-sawyer/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=this_week_in_solar)
How it Feels to Own Your Energy With Solar: Curtis Sawyer (https://exactsolar.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/212070811?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts)
If you’re not in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, and you’d rather participate virtually, you can find a tour near you at map.nationalsolartour.org (https://map.nationalsolartour.org/)
If you can’t make it to any of these this weekend because you have plans, no worries! Exact Solar has put together video solar tour interviews with several of our customers over the last four years.
You can find them all individually listed below, or go to the Exact Solar Solar Tours (https://exactsolar.com/solar-tours/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=this_week_in_solar) page to see them all in one place.
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