Whatever your reason for looking into the facts about solar energy, you should understand that what you decide to do for yourself will have a much more long lasting impact on your own life than waiting for “them”, whoever they may be, to do something. Imagine if everyone took responsibility for themselves and started to supply some, if not all, of their own power needs through using solar and other alternative energies. The demand for publicly supplied energy would drop significantly. Ponder the implications of that statement as you learn some facts about solar energy.
1. Unlike tapping into an energy supply like oil, harnessing the power of the sun does not deplete the supply. The sun is unaffected by whatever we collect from it. The untapped energy the sun gives the earth in the span of an hour is enough to power the world for a year. It takes about eight minutes for this energy to go from the sun to the earth.
2. Unlike any other source of public energy, solar power plants do not draw any of their power from the use or burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, or gas. The use of solar energy would reduce the demands for oil, coal and gas.
3. Solar energy can be collected and used by the whole world, or by one person, photovoltaic panels can be put on every building on the planet to harvest the suns rays for use or just one home.
4. Using a residential solar energy system will save money on electric bills. A residential system can cut and even eliminate your electricity bill, depending on the size of the system and demand on it. Power can be supplied back to the electric company and you can actually be paid for providing electricity back to the grid.
5. Photovoltaic cells are long lasting and require little maintenance. Most if not all manufacturers offer a 25 year warranty on their products, which can imply an even longer life than the twenty five years covered by warranty.
6. The initial cost for a residential solar energy system has gone down. The price of the pv cells has dropped by at least 200 percent in the last thirty years. There may also be a rebate or tax exemption available to off set some of the cost. If planned correctly, a system can start small and be expanded over time to eventually power the entire house off grid, allowing the costs to be paid over time, which takes away from the potential burden of a larger one time investment. In short, the fact that cost used to be a prohibitive factor for many has been changed, and allows more people to have the opportunity to use solar in their homes.
These facts about solar energy make it clear that even without waiting for “them” to supply a form of energy that is not dependent on fossil fuels, individuals can start any time to reduce their dependency on the limited energies available from oil, gas or coal, and tap into to the sustainable power of the sun.
