You don’t have to save the world! But solar saves a ton of money & you do your bit for the environment too!
Solar wasn’t always cheap. One of our friends who was an early adopter installed solar in the early 2000s and paid $10 per each watt (this is how solar insiders measure costs – in this instance, for a 4kW system our friend installed, he paid 4000*10 = $40000).
Today those costs have fallen well below $3/Watt. Constant innovation coupled with globalization of supply chains has vastly reduced the cost of producing solar cells.
Meanwhile, the costs of buying power from the utility companies have only risen. A lot!
To top it, hurricanes, fires, and other unpredictable weather events have shut down power to our homes more and more frequently. Until recently your solar installation wouldn’t have produced power if the grid was down (a protection measure called anti-islanding that prevents solar inverters from feeding power back into the grid because it might harm utility workers fixing the power lines). Now we have grid-independent inverters (link) and back-up batteries that allow you to produce and consume power when the utilities aren’t able to supply power.
Read More: How Much Can You Save with Solar
Finally, there are all the incentives. From ITC that allows you to claim 30% of what you spend on your solar and storage installation as a tax break (over more than year in case you need it) to the utlities paying you for the excess power you generate and feed into the grid. States, counties, your utility company, even your installer may offer you further subsidies and discounts. All in all, solar pays for itself within six to eight years (also called the payback period) and the equipment is warranteed for 25 years!
The cherry on top: you control and own generating your own energy – no middle men, no regulators, no interventions.
What about saving the world?
Pretentious or not and whether you believe in climate change or not, we all love the outdoors, don’t we? Well, solar does too. Here’s how we can help nature by adopting solar:
- First the obvious: Electricity generation from fossil fuels can generate harmful carbon dioxide and methane gases that lower the quality of the air we and all other living organisms breathe. More than 60% of the power generated in USA is from burning fossil fuels. Solar produces no emissions and therefore prevents ailments such as asthma and even cancer that pollutants from burning fossil fuels can cause. For the average homeowner, powering 100% of your home with solar energy is equivalent to removing the emissions created by driving 19,316 miles per year in a gas-fuelled car.
- Reduce CO2 emissions: Switching electricity generation from fossil fuels to solar power for your home has the same effect as planting 125 trees every year or eliminating 8,440 pounds of coal production a year!
- Save Water: Traditional electricity production can use thousands of litres of water each year. Water is used for cooling generators, processing and refining fuel and transporting fuel through pipes. The operation of solar photovoltaic cells doesn’t require water at all, reducing the strain on this precious resource.
Fact is, all civilzations are solar energy based. Fossil fuels are nothing but solar power stored under the earth for millenia. Food comes from plants which convert energy from the sun or animals that eat them. A couple of decades ago, only the most ardent evironmentalists (like our aforementioned friend) adoped solar regardless of whether it made economic sense. Today we don’t need to make those trandeoffs. We can convert the most primary energy source for our planet into cleaner, cheaper, and healthier energy.
Convinced yet? No? It’s always best to speak to an installer local to your area to find out what works best for you. They know the electricity codes in your area, the state regulations, the fire safety rules etc. And they are community partners who are available round the clock for their prized customers. If you’d like to speak to one, click here and we will get you going.