News > George and Mary’s Solar Story in Pennsylvania 

George and Mary’s Solar Story in Pennsylvania 

• Stories

June 5, 2025

• Solar United Neighbors

Solar United Neighbors recently sat down with George and Mary in State College, PA, who went solar in 2021. Read on to learn more about George and Mary’s experience. 

This solar story is transcribed from a live interview. 

How are you enjoying being a solar owner? 

We are very, very happy. We produce annually more than we use, and we haven’t had any problems since installation. The panels sit up there, quietly making power, making more than we need, and we get SREC (Solar Renewable Energy Credit) and true-up income.  

That excess production includes nearly all of our local driving with our Prius Prime hybrid plug-in. That covers our daily usage, so we are driving on solar.   

What has going solar enabled you to do? 

We use the true-up income each year to pay for that $10 fixed customer charge. So, we had zero electric bills starting in year 2. We can’t say we spent those savings on anything in particular, but we didn’t spend it on electricity, so we must have spent it on other things, or not spent our savings as quickly as we would have otherwise. 

Having solar on our house, I see at it as — this system pays for itself every day because I drive on it, I get to see it on my house, and I feel good about it. It also serves as an example. Everyone in the neighborhood asked about it when it first went in. So I can talk about it, either with people as they stop by, or as part of a presentation.  

What made you want to go solar? 

I’m an environmentally-conscious person, and I’ve thought for a long time about going solar. I thought about all those things that everyone going solar wonders: Will my house be worth more? Will I be able to recoup those costs if I sell my house? How long will it take to pay for itself?  

But what really decided it for me was a trip we made to the Pacific Northwest. We went to a beach in Ecola State Park on the Oregon coast. It is one of those rocky Pacific beaches with many outcrops that reach out into the ocean. I noticed a sea star, and when I approached, I saw that all the area in the tidepools was encrusted with different types of marine invertebrates: mussels and little anemones that look like crusty Spanish olives clustered along the rocks. But at the tide line, once they go underwater, they were opening into their anemone forms, which were these delicate feathery white forms. And it was very novel, and nothing I had seen on the east coast before. Then we came home, and the next year it was the big heat dome over the Pacific Northwest, around 2019. That just made me think, “Enough’s enough. I can write my legislature until my fingers are nubs, and I can call them until I’m hoarse. But going solar is something I can do myself. It’s time to get off the fence.” 

What would you tell someone who’s considering going solar? 

For us, it was definitely a good idea. We have heard for years things like, “State College is too cloudy to go solar.” Just ignore that and get real numbers from a real person. A good installer will be able to give you a good estimate for what your production and costs will be. If SUN does a co-op in your area, we would suggest joining that. They give good advice, and the co-op can help you save money.