The largest home improvement company in the world, The Home Depot, is now partnering with BP Solar, one of the world's leading solar energy technology companies, and has developed a complete turnkey solar power package that includes:

* Total project management from initial consultation to the six-month after-installation system check-up
* Handling all the paperwork - taking care of the building permits and utility agreements; completing and submitting all rebate and tax credit forms
* Custom system design to fit the purchasers needs and budget
* BP Solar's maintenance free solar panels with their 25-year warranty; and all system components
* Guaranteed installation by carefully screened, licensed and insured professionals
* Helping with attractive financing options

The joint program has offered residential solar-power systems made by BP at The Home Depot stores in California, New Jersey and Long Island, New York since 2004. The program recently expanded to Home Depot stores in other areas of the country where incentives have made solar electric power more accessible and affordable, like Denver and Boulder, Colorado; Austin, Texas and Arizona.

Students at Arizona State University's School of Global Management and Leadership spent the past semester penciling out the payback and savings of residential solar-power systems, coincidentally using data provided by Green Fuel for BP panels. Their analysis reveals it would take 18 years for a 3-kilowatt system that covers about one-third of an average home's electrical needs to pay for itself, but the remaining seven years under warranty would provide $9,000 in utility-bill savings.

The research was based on the assumption that electricity rates would continue to rise. If rates rise more than their 3.78% annual increase, or solar-power incentives improve, solar-power savings could increase.