BRISTOL – A year of record energy prices has helped SolarWrights Inc., a provider and installer of solar and wind systems, to reach a milestone: the company has now installed more than 2 megawatts of residential solar-energy generation in homes across the Northeast.

The company says it installed half of that capacity – or 1 megawatt of residential solar power – in just the past eight months. Each megawatt of solar energy is enough to power about 250 homes, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, an industry group.

At the end of last year, the U.S. had slightly more than 3,400 megawatts of installed solar power, according to the association.

“It took us five years to install our first megawatt of residential solar,” noted Robert W. “Bob” Chew, founder and president of SolarWrights and its parent company, Earth Friendly Energy Group. “But, incredibly, it took us only a matter of months to sell a second megawatt.”

Earth Friendly Energy Group, SolarWrights’ parent company, is crediting record-high oil prices for an increase in demand for alternative energy. The firm has expanded its reach in the past year with the acquisition of Conn.-based SunSearch and Mass.-based Kosmo Solar.

The company was also featured prominently in a Sept. 24 article in The New York Times about small solar-power businesses.

Chew said his company’s “second megawatt represents not only economic gain, but environmental gain.”

He added: “We will continue to grow; we’re aiming to hit ever more megawatts in the next year.”

SolarWrights’ announcement comes just after President Bush signed last week's emergency bailout bill, the final version of which also included an extension of sought-after alternative-energy tax credits.

SolarWrights Inc. – founded in 1977 as solar contracting firm R.W. Chew Co. Inc. – is an alternative energy contractor focusing on the design and installation of solar-electric (photovoltaic), solar-thermal and wind-energy systems for commercial and residential use. Based in Bristol, it also has offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont. SolarWrights was honored by PBN in both 2007 and 2008 as one of the Best Places to Work in Rhode Island. To learn more, visit www.SolarWrights.com.