In 2006, the state imposed rate caps in Maryland expired.

The result? A lot of pissed-off consumers, and a lot of scrambling politicians.

You see, instead of transitioning consumers to prepare them for higher rates, they were hit with price hikes in excess of 70 percent overnight.

And to this day, Maryland residents are still fired up. I discovered this firsthand last weekend after telling a few people at a neighborhood bar something their elected officials should've had the cojones to tell them from day one.

I told them that they are now paying the appropriate rate of electricity. Not a discounted rate, which is what they had been receiving for the past seven years.

I knew I wouldn't win any new friends by speaking the truth, so I paid my tab and walked out before I was thrown out.

It's no wonder so many local politicians blatantly lied to voters last year when the proverbial poop hit the fan. No one wanted to hear the truth. And no one was going to accept it either.

How does this all affect solar energy? Hold tight...

I came across an article just a few days ago where a local man said . . . "We are being enslaved by Constellation [the local energy company] and the political establishment is aiding and abetting. . . . We're not being protected."

Enslaved? Really? Don't you think that's a bit much?

Constellation is simply doing what it's supposed to be doing. Providing electricity and making money. And there's nothing wrong with that.

What are they supposed to do? Continue selling electricity at rates below their costs?

Nonetheless, what we're seeing in Baltimore today is something the rest of the country can soon look forward to.

Because like it or not, electricity rates are going up... and, subsequently, solar energy stocks are soaring to new heights.

And here's why: Recently, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reported that the average retail price of electricity increased by more than 9 percent last year.

The culprit?

Well, in the East it was primarily due to the lifting of retail electricity price caps.

But even if you disregard the price caps, electricity prices have increased at a 2.5 percent annual rate since 2000.

And there's little chance of that decreasing anytime soon. But despite being persecuted by local Baltimoreans, I have to say, there's a silver lining in all of this.

Money Changes Everything... Look Out for Cheaper Solar Energy Costs

One of the main reasons you don't see solar on every roof in the U.S. is because for years, it has just cost too damn much.

Sure, it would be nice to produce your own power and never get an electric bill. But not if it's going to take 20 to 40 years for a return on your solar investment.

Fortunately, those days are quickly coming to an end.

The fact is, those electricity rates will continue to climb (even if at only an estimated 2.5 percent). But the cost of solar energy will continue to fall dramatically.

Take a look in the following chart:

And Here's Why Solar Energy Stocks Are Poised for Massive Growth:

Sometime between now and 2015, the price of solar energy will dip into the average rates charged by utilities.

As a result, market penetration by solar will skyrocket . . . and investors who jumped in on solar energy stocks early will make a fortune, while the naysayers continued to sing their "too expensive" song.

The only question is, with so many solar energy companies, which solar stocks do you put your money in now?

This past year especially, we've seen some insanely impressive gains in the solar energy sector:

From major players like First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR), SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) and Trina Solar (NYSE:TSL) to smaller firms like Hoku Scientific (NASDAQ:HOKU) and my favorite, WorldWater & Power (OTCBB:WWAT)

Just look at this beautiful chart on solar:

Of course, while some of these will continue to head north, the big money's already been made.

But that doesn't mean there won't be a whole new class of solar stocks delivering massive gains in 2008.

The race to deliver cheaper, more efficient solar energy isn't over yet.

In fact, we're currently following two young thin-film players right now as possible recommendations in the next few months.

As well, we just recommended this solar stock to our readers a couple of months ago.

So far, we're up 17 percent. But 2008 is when this thing's really going to break out.

So if you've been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for a good time to get in . . . this is it.

Join Green Chip Stocks today, and get your piece of the solar energy bull market right now.

Until next time...

Jeff

"Energy stocks... The only way a human is going to make any money."

-- Matt Simmons, Peak Oil's first and most vocal proponent,
and founder of the country's last pure play energy investment banking firm.

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State governments should allow rural homeowners to install small 400kw wind turbine generators to produce power during the night hours and supplement the PV units during the day. PV units are expensive and good only during the sunlight hours. I have PV & solar water unit installed and my electric meter has yet run backward. Federal should give a greater tax incentive to all homeowners vice commercial business. Green America? Make it more affordable for fixed income homeowners who have to pay higher utility bills each month. Hawaiian Electric pass oil cost to everyone living in paradise, we have to just eat it so to speak.

Solar is a fabulous idea, but please cut the hype. Weve heard time and time again that solar is still something like 4 or 5 times the cost of electricity from fossil fuels - even in hot climates.
Your claiming solar will be able to compete with electricity from fossil fuels in a few years - at a large scale - less than 10c per kwh? Prove it!! I dont believe it.
Like I said - solar is great - but the underlying issue is our western lifestyle with ridiculous consumption. Once we learn EFFICIENCY and reduce consumption - then maybe solar will have some chance.

Jeff,

How much (gut level %) to you reckon someone can place on the limit of how a pending stock boom is measured? I think the fundamentals can only take you so far and the balance (what's needed to actually act and put one's money on the table) is in the 'gut feeling'.

Your thoughts?

Just subscribed to your service. I am looking at many different sets of 'eye's' take on the empending boom (one I think is on its way) as I too think I have seen first-hand the rational and emotinal reason this industry will and must move forward.

Looking forward to reading your forthcoming thoughts and anaylsis.

Jim Penny

Jeff, I must say the people you hang out with at bars seem to be very poorly informed about the state of the world! And I must also say as an aside that one of the best dinner parties I ever went to was when we covered all 4 of the taboo topics (Death, Sex, Religion and Politics). In detail.

Electricity is far too cheap. When I built a house recently I really wanted to go solar. I'm off the grid and the quote for grid connect was $20,000 but solar with diesel backup was $50,000. And that was for a 1Kw average power system and on a rural property 2Kw average is more realistic (48KwH per day, which includes heating, cooling and pumping water from a bore). So the $100k solar system still wasn't even close compared with grid connect for $20k. Now my whole house is essentially run by burning coal, as is most of Australia. I wish solar were cheaper, but the problem is not solar being too expensive, it is that coal is too cheap.

I have a theory that all forms of fossil fuel energy essentially end up being similar prices and electricity simply follows suit. Electricity is not a source of energy - rather a way of transporting energy from one location to another. If one form of energy were vastly cheaper than other forms, everyone would flock to that new form of energy and drive up demand and the price would rise. In the 1970’s oil went up and everyone got rid of their oil heaters and went over to natural gas. At the time natural gas was burnt off in flares by oil companies as they didn’t even want it. Now natural gas costs a similar amount to other forms of heating. Heck, Mr Putin is even starting to use it as a new form of diplomacy in Europe by turning off the natural gas in winter. The new “Cold War”.

So global peak oil will drive up oil prices which will bring all the other forms of energy along with it, including natural gas, coal, nuclear, solar and wind. Nuclear is a wildcard – a lot of countries that use nuclear hide the real costs as they need to make plutonium for missiles as well. Maybe Japan is an exception. So we don’t really know what nuclear costs. Fossil fuels will move in lockstep as they start running out (I think you guys are saying something similar with peak coal etc). Solar and wind have huge efficiencies to be made.

Despite my house being powered substantially by coal, I do have some solar doing some very useful work powering radio transmitters for tank level data and the like. And I have been playing with some of the new flexible solar cells that are coming out on Ebay. These things can be printed on plastic so they must end up with lower costs once the economies of scale start coming into play.

And this is where you guys with all your clever research into new companies must be able to locate some winners because I think the age of solar and wind is just beginning. Not for ‘green’ reasons, but simply because of the pure profit motive!