Energy costs are rising and home owners in southern California have been hit hard in the pocket book.  Fortunately, for Del Mar home owners there is an alternative to years of ever increasing electricity bills - Solar Power.  A good solar power system is costly to install, with some that run as high as $80,000.  Do not let this alarm you, if you are planning on staying in the home for five or more years.  This is the average time it will take for your utility savings to offset the cost of the solar system.  Help in financing a solar system is available for Del Mar home owners through the California Solar Initiative.  Under this program, homeowners can claim a $2.50, one-time rebate for every watt of solar energy their new systems are capable of generating. The rebate, which will initially cover about a third of the cost of a system, will drop annually and reach only 20 cents per watt by 2016 on the assumption that the price of solar systems will decline as more companies enter the field and the technology expands.  With California's solar subsidy program looking to follow similar programs found in Germany and Japan, investment is pouring into the industry.  This has pushed the solar industry to the brink of a breakthrough in both manufacturing costs and efficiency. Suppliers and contractors say solar systems currently cost about $9,000 per kilowatt to install, with a typical installation running about $27,000, not counting rebates and tax credits. In San Diego, as in the rest of California, the future of solar power lies in installing photovoltaic (PV) cells on existing rooftops.  Installing a solar power system to your Del Mar home will take a step towards cleaning the air, decreasing the countries dependency on oil, and saving you money.