When Betsy Janeway and her husband, Harold, built a new barn next to their Webster farmhouse this spring, adding solar panels to the roof made sense. For the past 30 years, they have invested whatever time and money they could to reduce their impact on the environment -hanging each load of laundry out to dry, growing much of their own food and now adding a $20,000 system to power their house with solar energy.

"It's a way of life," Betsy Janeway said. "It takes discipline. But I've loved it. I've always lived this way."

The Janeways are part of a growing number of people in New Hampshire and other states who are choosing to invest in solar power. The solar industry has long been seen as too high-priced and complex for the average consumer, but some experts say that is changing. Federal tax credits, better technology and soaring oil prices are prompting more consumers to take interest, they say, which will eventually drive down the costs of going solar.

Of all the energy consumed in the United States, solar is still by far the smallest energy source at less than 1percent, according to the Energy Information Administration. But the number of solar panels being manufactured and sold in the United States nearly doubled from 2003 to 2004, the most recent data available from the Energy Information Administration.

"Unlike the late 1970s and '80s, this technology has a lot of history behind it now," said Brad Collins, executive director of the American Solar Energy Society, based in Colorado. "This is not just being done by a handful of do-it-yourself, off-grid, back-to-landers or isolationists. It's grid-tied. It's at your public school, on your church building, part of the university at your local college."

Harnessing the sun

The 20 solar panels mounted on the Janeways' barn roof can produce 2,452 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, which is roughly half of what the average household uses. Silicon photovoltaic cells in the panels cause a chemical reaction when the sun hits that produces an electrical current. The panels are then wired to an inverter that turns the current into the type of electricity used in homes.

The systems - including the panels, the inverter and the wiring - cost between $20,000 to $40,000, depending on the energy needs, said Laura Richardson, president of the New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Association. Some systems can completely eliminate the need for any electricity from a utility company; others choose to stay connected to the power grid because it can be cheaper.

"The cost of a solar electric system is about the cost of a car," said Richardson, who has a $30,000 system to power her house in the White Mountains. "Putting it in perspective, most of your readers will probably have cars - they will have made the choice to invest in that because they feel its important for whatever they do in their life. A lot of the people that have invested in photovoltaics (solar power) feel that cleaner energy or reliability is that important."

The Janeways had already made their home extremely energy-efficient over the years, so they were able to spring for a smaller system. The electricity bill for their sprawling farmhouse is just $37 a month. They anticipate that once their solar system is working, they will be able to produce all the electricity they need.

The Janeways' is one of 100 solar rooftops in New Hampshire for a total of 162 kilowatts of electricity being generated by solar each year, according to a 2005 study done by the state Office of Energy and Planning. Nationwide, roughly 100,000 buildings are powered primarily by solar, according to the American Solar Energy Society.

Bob Cote, a Deerfield resident who just built a new house with a $30,000 solar power system, said going solar makes sense because the equipment is guaranteed for 25 years. This, he said, locks in the cost of solar while the price of traditional electricity will continue to rise.

"We (Cote and his partner) believe that the country just generally needs to be more energy self-sufficient," Cote said. "A lot of people are kind of just waiting for the government or somebody to act. We wanted to be proactive and decided there's something we could do on our own."

A growing industry

Solar technology has been around since the 1950s, but it wasn't until the 1970s that it started gaining popularity. Soaring oil prices prompted major developments in the industry, but it never took off. During the 1980s and 1990s, solar never grew to be more than a "garage industry" made up of small business players and avid environmentalists, according to Joshua Levine, a project developer for Tamarack Energy, a renewable energy company based in Manchester. Tamarack got into the solar industry this winter.

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