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Solar panels for your home - advantages and
benefits
While big solar farms tend to grab the
headlines, the rooftop revolution is quietly making its mark. Solar panels in
residential settings do so much more than generate free electricity. Here are
some more benefits and advantages in adding a solar power system to your
house.
Carbon emissions reduction
Conventional coal fired electricity generation systems generate emissions of
around 2 pounds of greenhouse gases per kilowatt hour; a solar panel, zero.
While it vary depending on local conditions, an entry level system consisting
of 1.5kW worth of solar panels (6-8 modules) can avoid around 3.2 tonnes of
greenhouse gas emissions year (compared to brown coal fired power generation).
Reduction in water consumption
Electricity generation can be a very thirsty business. A coal fired power
plant uses around 1.5 gallons of water to generate a kilowatt hour of
electricity (source).
A solar panel - none.
Insulating benefits
Solar panels can also act as rooftop insulators. Researchers
determined the savings in cooling through a solar panel's roof shading
qualities amounts to a 5% discount on the cost of the modules over their
lifetime.
Increases house value
A study of the real estate market in California found houses with rooftop
solar power system achieved better
sale prices than homes without a solar array.
Can be a better investment than money in the
bank
This will greatly depend on financial
incentives in your area, but where feed in tariff incentives exist that pay a
premium rate for the electricity produced by a system, investing in solar
panels can provide a better return than sticking the equivalent amount of cash
in the bank. This can also apply in areas where there are no feed in tariffs,
but where electricity costs are rapidly increasing.
Encourages further energy efficiency
Something I've noticed with some households
that go solar is a sudden awareness of and interest in electricity
consumption, which in turn leads to other energy efficiency and electricity
saving measures being implemented.
Durable and reliable
Most solar panels should have a useful life of
over 25 years - with no moving parts, there's very little to go wrong in the
panel itself. Solar inverters, the box between the panels and your switchboard
that converts the DC current to AC have a life of around 10 years.
Minimal maintenance
Time = money. Aside from *perhaps* needing to
wipe down the panels very occasionally, if ever (solar panel glass has self
cleaning qualities), and keeping the inverter dusted, that's about all the
maintenance involved.
Increased energy security through
distributed generation
It's never wise to put all your eggs in one basket, but that's exactly what we
tend to do with energy. We rely too heavily on massive power plants that are
subject to failure, human error and also targets for sabotage. In September
2011, 1.4 million customers of San Diego Gas & Electric were left without
power for 12 hours due to an "inadvertent operator error" - the
actions of a single employee.
Home rooftop solar power systems help provide a more secure electricity supply
through distributed generation - all that's needed is for mains grids
infrastructure to catch up with the technology.
Minimal line loss
The further from the point of electricity generation to the point of
consumption, the more energy is lost, usually as heat. It's estimated between
7 - 10% of all electricity generation in the United States is wasted through
line loss; which means millions of tons of coal are burned each year for
nothing. Rooftop solar power systems only have to transmit over a very short
distance, not miles - and no coal is burned in the process.
Reducing the need for peak load stations
In Australia, ten percent of capital
expenditure in electricity infrastructure goes towards providing capacity to
respond to peaks in electricity demand that occur for just
20 hours a year.
The massive uptake of home solar power systems in the Australian state of New
South Wales has delayed the need for baseload fossil fuel based electricity
generation capacity in the state being added for around 3 years - and the same
will occur wherever there are a high number of home solar power systems
installed.
Creates jobs
A
census carried out in August 2010 by the Solar Foundation found the U.S.
solar industry was employing 93,000 people, with that number expected to have
increased 25% by August 2011 (latest census figures expected soon.). A 2011
report prepared for Solar Energy Industries Association found 75 cents
from every dollar spent on a solar installation in the US makes its way back
into the US economy through wages and associated services.
Optimizes land usage
One of the prickly issues involved with large
solar farms (or any electricity generation plant) is the large amount of land
they require. Our cities and towns provide a sea of rooftops that could be
harvesting energy from the sun.
Encourages wider adoption
Solar farms stuck out in the middle of nowhere
are seen by relatively few people. A solar farm on your rooftop will likely be
seen by many - it helps keep the technology in front of people and stirs up
curiosity that results in research. It's been shown that a single household
installing a solar power system can act as a catalyst for other households
nearby to do the same. Be the solar pioneer in your street! :)
There's so much more to home solar power than just the free electricity
aspect. Aside from slashing your electricity bill, as you can see from the
above, the other benefits to you, the wider community and the environment are
substantial.
Courtesy : Michael Bloch
Green Living Tips.com
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