"Solar" is a great buzz word, but the reality is that the technology has a far way to go still. Geothermal energy, on the other hand, already works and has the ability to do far greater good in northern climates than solar can on a dollar for dollar basis. Energy used to heat and cool building accounts for far greater pollution than cars do, and geothermal heat pumps can cut the amount of energy used for this down by 50-75%, and what's best, they do it in a cost effective way. We do need to find ways to create new energy, but it's often much more cost effective to reduce the amount of energy we initially use, which is exactly what a geothermal heat pump does. Instead of generating heat to warm up your home, it uses 25% as much energy as a conventional heating system to simply "pump" heat from the ground into your home, the same way that a refrigerator moves heat from inside out into the kitchen, or an AC system moves heat from inside your home out to the compressor on the side of your house. Unfortunately, very few people know about geothermal heat pumps and so the demand isn't there to make the market take off. Solar gets massive federal and state subsidies that make $70k worth of panels only cost $20k in some places (such as NY), but this isn't really the best way for our tax dollars to be spent when trying to "green up" our infrastructure. Goethermal heat pumps are a much better investment for us at this time.