finances

Morris County, N.J., plans to install 3.2 megawatts of solar panels on county property roofs with the help of some creative financing, the Morris County Improvement Authority (MCIA) announced Wednesday.

Self-dubbing it the "Morris Model," county officials said in a statement that the project was funded with a unique two-prong approach. Part of it will be paid for with $30 million in county-guaranteed bonds. The rest will be financed in conjunction with the energy utility Tioga Energy, which qualifies for federal solar tax incentives through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

The incentives … Read more

A deal between California utility Pacific Gas & Electric and solar company SunRun will eliminate the upfront cost of installing rooftop solar panels for 3,500 homes.

PG&E subsidiary Pacific Energy Capital has created a $100 million tax equity fund that will be used by SunRun to offer homeowners financing for solar electric panels.

SunRun offers a power purchase agreement through which consumers pay a small upfront fee and then a monthly payment for the solar panels, rather than purchase them outright. The financing, regularly used with business customers, allows homeowners to lower their monthly electricity bills with … Read more

The market for personal finance software has exploded in recent years, and the quality of these programs varies widely. We're happy to report that Simple Home Budget is one of the better budgeting programs we've come across; the program didn't blow us away, but it's easy to use, and we couldn't find any major faults with it.

The program's interface is well-organized and intuitive, with a helpful calendar in the upper left corner and its major features--transactions, recurring transactions, categories, and overview--arranged in tabs. Simple Home Budget easily passed our primary financial software litmus … Read more

Car-sharing service Zipcar announced Tuesday that it has filed for an initial public offering estimated at $75 million; the move is designed to pay off debt as the venture-backed Cambridge, Mass.-based company, which is not profitable, aims to expand its footprint in cities and college campuses in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

A regulatory filing explains that Zipcar plans to trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "ZIP."

Zipcar courts a young, urban, and tech-savvy audience through a notable Facebook and Twitter presence as well as an iPhone app with a horn-honking button. … Read more

Solar project developer SunEdison has secured a financing package projected to reach as high as $1.5 billion to install solar power at businesses and utilities, the company said Tuesday.

SunEdison and First Reserve, a private equity firm that invests in energy, announced a joint venture to finance, build, and operate solar photovoltaic projects.

The initial investment in the joint venture is $167 million, and First Reserve may later raise another $150 million in equity. To finance large-scale solar projects, the joint venture will borrow money. The combined project financing debt and equity could result in $1.5 billion worth … Read more

A global stock market panic forced many financial Web sites to their knees Thursday, including category leader Yahoo Finance.

At about 11:15 a.m. PDT Thursday, various U.S. stock indexes, including the Dow Jones, plummeted on fears that the current mess in Greece could spread throughout Europe. At one point, the Dow Jones was off more than 8 percent from its opening level, and investors flocked to the Internet in hopes of assessing the damage or understanding the causes.

It wasn't quite at Michael Jackson levels, but Web sites appeared to have trouble keeping up as the … Read more

Trying to stick within your budget is no easy task when you're guessing at your balance. Mint.com's free credit-card and budget tracker for Android phones may change that.

After going online and giving Mint.com access to your bank, credit card, and investment accounts, the passcode-protected Mint.com app can monitor your accounts, your budget, and even your cash flow. The app presents your money matters in summary form, with the capability to drill down to the item level of a purchase. Follow the trail to the end to edit an item's transaction details or jot … Read more

Article updated 5/3/2010 at 1:28 pm with new details about operating system compatibility.

About a year and a half after releasing a mobile version of its personal-finance service for the iPhone, Mint.com is bringing its free credit-card and budget tracker to Android phones.

As with the iPhone app, passcode-protected Mint.com on Android has you monitoring credit card, bank, and investment accounts; your budget; and your cash ebb and flow. The app presents your money matters in summary form, with the ability to drill down to the item level of a purchase. Follow the trail to … Read more

Facebook may pull in an excess of $1 billion in revenues, according to estimates and poking around on behalf of industry blog Inside Facebook. That's an increase from the same publication's estimate of $700 million last year.

Facebook board member Marc Andreessen said last year that he projected the company would break $500 million revenue in 2009, and that it had the potential to be a billion-dollar company already, but that it was acting conservatively.

(Naturally, Facebook says that as a privately held company it doesn't disclose its financials.)

What can Facebook credit this big jump in … Read more