Plug-and-play Solar at Lowe's

People in California can now walk into their local Lowe's and buy solar panels off the shelf. Twenty one California Lowe's stores now sell Andalay's Safe Household AC Power Systems.

The system is fully integrated with built-in racking, grounding, wiring and micro-inverters. With built-in inverters the system produces household AC power, so there is no high-voltage DC wiring.

The system uses Akeena's Suntech panels and Enphase micro-inverters and is featured in Lowe's Energy Center. The panels were honored with a 2009 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Product award.

This system allows do-it-yourselfers to install solar photovoltaic systems. Barry Cinnamon, Akeena's CEO, compares this to the PC industry boom, "We transitioned away from big mainframe computers to PCs in every home. Likewise, with panels becoming plug-and-play appliances, the solar revolution has started."

Lowe's will stock the accessories required for installation, so you can get what you need when you need it. The Energy Center will be in additional U.S. and Canadian stores in 2010.