If you've been hankering after an alternative energy solution for your home to avoid the costs and whims of your public utility, but you just can't quite find the money to finance that purchase of solar panels, Google (News - Alert) may have a new program just for you.

Google recently announced a new program in which it will invest $75 million to help 3,000 homeowners install solar panels on their roofs, reports the Associated Press (News - Alert). The money will be established in a fund that solar panel retailers can tap into to enable them to offer financing plans to buyers (and encourage prospective buyers to make the purchase).

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that this $75 million is just an “initial investment” in a new fund operated by Clean Power Finance, a start-up company that is backed by Google's venture capital arm and other investors.

“We're excited about the opportunity to really help accelerate residential solar,” said Rick Needham, Google's director of green business operations.

The solar panel industry needs all the help it can get. While costs for solar panels have come down – somewhat – as of late, the costs for implementing a home solar power system can still run up as high as $30,000. Thanks to the the fund, the customers who participate in the program will pay only a monthly fee that works out to about the same (and possibly less) than what they would otherwise be paying their electric company for power off the grid, says the AP. Basically, Google will own the homeowners' solar panels, and the homeowner will pay for them over time little by little, in a way that resembles a monthly utility bill.

This new program will fall under Google's renewable energy investment arm, which covers a series of alternative energy products that thus far have totaled about $850 million.