Putting a halt to your ever-increasing power bill is a big reason to switch to solar energy, but we know that for most folks, they’re concerned with more than just their own wallet. So, you’re surely wondering if going solar is the environmentally responsible thing to do. Just how much of a difference will it really make if you go solar? Read this!
Solar energy is clean and abundant.
To put it simply, our dependency on fossil fuels is terrible for both our planet and our pocketbooks. It’s extremely expensive to extract and use fossil fuels. Solar energy, on the other hand, is abundant and there’s no extraction required — the sun provides it for free! And, thanks to all the technology we’ve seen in solar energy in recent years, it’s significantly cheaper to use than coal and natural gas, too.
Plus, unlike fossil fuels, it’s not limited. Here’s an astounding fact: Every hour, the amount of energy from the sun that reaches the earth is more than the entire world uses in a year.
To put it another way, according to Energy.gov, if the United States had photovoltaic solar panels on “just 0.6% of the nation’s total land area (it would) supply enough electricity to power the entire United States.”
Non-renewable energy harms the environment.
Elon Musk has said that using fossil fuels is the “dumbest experiment in history.” Burning them damages our atmosphere, and extracting them is difficult, expensive, and damaging. Plus, eventually, we’ll run out.
The good news is that solar energy, and other clean energies, are plentiful and their use is becoming more and more widespread.
We get it, saving the planet by going green is too big of a job for one person. But, every single home that switches to solar energy really does have a measurable impact on the environment. All of the solar energy your panels will produce will be free of greenhouse gases, which will shrink your overall carbon footprint. For a typical Motherlode home, going solar could reduce your yearly carbon footprint by several tonnes.
What about the energy used to produce solar panels?
Sure, it requires energy to make solar panels. But, the energy your panels will produce will far outweigh what it took to make them. Energy Payback Time (EPBT) measures how long it takes a solar panel to produce the same amount of energy it took to create the panel. According to stats released in 2019 by the US Department of Energy, a single solar panel reaches EPBT in under 4 years.
Your new solar panels from Aurora Energy will easily last 25-30 years or more! In other words, your panels will produce about 7x more energy than it took to make them.
To sum it up, yes, yup, affirmative, going solar is definitely the environmentally responsible thing to do! Are you ready to transition your Northern CA home to solar energy? We’d love to design a solar energy system for you that will get you to net-zero. Family-owned and locally-based in Angels Camp, California, we were founded to serve the Motherlode region! Email our CEO at Ali@AuroraEnergyOnline.com or fill out this form to message us.
