Solar Panels

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One great alternative to fossil fuels is the use of alternative sources of energy. So far, we as a society have utilized wind, water, and the power of the sun. In today's blog we will be covering the use of solar panels as a way of gathering the energy of our sun to turn into a usable and green resource.

We are seeing many different ideas turn up for the effective use of solar panels. You can install them in your home, as a solar power plant, and even as roads!

Here is a quick video on how solar panels are installed on the house roof: 

While the cost of installing solar panels within your home may be on the more expensive side, with federal, state, county, and local incentives, you could be receiving a large amount of cuts to the initial cost of building solar panels in your home so that it would be much cheaper than full price. The following chart breaks down what the costs would be installing solar panels in your home


Typical 5kW Residential Solar Installation Cost Example:

System Size:  5 kW
Solar Panel Installation Costs:  $25,000
30% Federal Incentive: -$6,000
MD State Incentive ($500/kW): -$2,500
Local Incentives (vary): -$2,500
NET COST: $14,000
System generates: 6,600 kWh

Annual Benefit:
Electricity Savings @ $.15/kWh: $990
6.6 SRECs at $300: $1,980
Total Annual Benefit: $2,970
Payback period on initial investment: 4.71 years

Year 1 Return on Investment (ROI): 21.2%
Average Stock Market ROI: 4.1% (source: sscommonsense.org)

So according to this chart, you get about 50% cut off the initial price of solar panel installation costs, and combining with the benefit of the savings you receive, you would pay off the cost of your initial investment into the solar panels in less that five years! Any annual benefit that you get from that point forward would be pure profit!


If you still are not convinced about integrating this amazing new technology into your own home, perhaps this list of advantages courtesy of (http://alternate-power.org/solar-power-advantages-and-disadvantages/) would help change your mind!

Some advantages of installing solar panels in your house are:

•     The abundance, sustainability, and environmentally friendliness are not the only advantages of solar energy. Using solar energy also reduces your electricity bills. Even though the installations of the solar panels are costly, the United States government provides incentives, such as rebates of up to 50% and certain grants and tax breaks. Homeowners can reduce their electricity expenses, which offsets the cost of installation. Solar energy can be used in places that lack a grid connection and can even power satellites in space.
•     Community solar gardens can be established to generate solar electricity in neighborhoods so that not all houses need solar panels on their rooftops. Using solar panels also reduces noise pollution when compared to other green-techs such as wind turbines.
•     Another great thing about solar technology is that constant improvements are made in the industry and the majority of today’s solar power systems do not required a lot of maintenance.

Any of these advantages should be good enough for you to consider turn your home into a solar battery! Even if you think it might be a little too expensive now, if you are frugal enough you should be able to see that in five short years your investment would pay off and you would be able to make easy money just by installing some solar panels!

Although these advantages are great, there will almost always be disadvantages to using anything.

Disadvantage:

•     The Solar Cells and Solar Panels that are needed to harness solar energy tend to be very expensive when you first purchase them.
•      Solar power cannot be harnessed during a storm, on a cloudy day or at night. This limits how much power can be saved for future days. Some days you may still need to rely on oil to power your home.

Although these are some pretty significant disadvantages, science is constantly making strides in progress in these areas, and soon these disadvantages won't be a problem at all.

Here are some more facts to fuel your interest in solar energy!

•     Third world countries with an abundance of sunlight and a population currently without electricity, represents the fastest growing market for solar energy, with the largest domestic market being the utilities sector.(http://www.facts-about-solar-energy.com/)
•     Every second, 600 million tons of protons are converted into helium atoms in the Sun to be released as energy. Humankind only needs, on average, about 1/10,000 that amount of energy for its total consumption. (http://solarenergyfactsblog.com)
•     California gets so much sunlight that, according to a US Department of Energy report in 2000, San Francisco could supply all of its daily electricity needs by installing solar panels on the roofs of all of its government buildings and schools. (http://eco.allpurposeguru.com)
•     It would take only around 0.3 per cent of the world's land area to supply all of our electricity needs via solar power. (http://www.energymatters.com.au/)