Why You Should Install Solar Panels on Your Home
By: Billy Fetzner
Tags: Home Improvement, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, Solar Energy, Solar Power

Photo by Vivint Solar on Unsplash

I always had a fascination with solar power because of the awesome potential that the Sun has to provide us with unbelievable amounts of electricity. The Sun bathes the Earth in almost 3 times as much energy as the entire Earth uses in a year. In 2019, the entire globe utilized approximately 583.90 Exajoules (EJ: 1 x 10¹² MegaJoule); however, the Sun provides us with 1,575.0–49,837 Exajoules of energy. So at a minimum it is providing us with 3 times as much energy, and at a maximum potential it is providing 85 times as much energy! One study done by a masters student, found that about 25,000 square miles (about the size of West Virginia) of solar panels could power the entire world. Now we obviously wouldn’t just kick everyone out of West Virginia and replace the state with solar panels, but it just goes to show how if we were to spread that amount up across the entire globe, there would be no need for any other type of energy resource. Just think about if we were able to just put one on top of lakes where no real estate is, or in the middle of the desert.

Photo taken by Author

You might be saying to yourself right now that, “oh that is well and good, but that doesn’t take into account for the reflection off of clouds, ice, etc.” Well, to that, my friend, I say that in this analysis done by the UNDP, they took into account all of those factors when considering the potential energy that the Sun provides, and the numbers provided above are after these factors are taken into account. It is just incredible the amount of energy we are sitting upon just waiting to be harvested, and yet we are busy trying to harness power from nonrenewable sources like coal and oil…

However, before now it somewhat made sense as to why we were not using this amazing resource. It was expensive! In 1975, the price for a photovoltaic cell to produce a single watt of energy was $105.70. Whew! While now the cost is less than 20 cents per watt (1). This is a dramatic decline. Today, the cost to produce 1 Megawatt hour of electricity with solar power is only $50 compared to coal which costs $102 per MegaWatt Hour. This now just seems like a no-brainer. Solar panel technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the past couple of decades. Solar panels were once too expensive to consider as a viable option for renewable energy, prices have fallen drastically to make the installation of solar panels a perfect option for your home.

Not only has the price of solar panels declined significantly over the past 45 years, but the efficiency of each Photovoltaic cell has increased dramatically. Now if we take it back even further, the first solar panel was developed in 1883 by New York inventor Charles Fritts by coating selenium with a thin layer of gold (imagine if we still used gold today…there would be absolutely no way I’d be writing a post about solar panels…), it was less than 1% efficient at capturing the rays of the Sun. However, today on average most commercial solar panel systems, which use Silicon wafer technology based on polycrystalline or monocrystalline silicon, have an efficiency of around 18%–22%. Although, keep your eyes on the future folks…The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems announced in 2013 the development of a multi-junction photovoltaic cell with 44.7% efficiency. More recently in 2018, Solar-Tectic announced a patent for Tandem perovskite solar cells which theoretically can achieve 45% efficiency; however, the goal is more likely to be around 30%.

Photo by MICHAEL WILSON on Unsplash

Thus, solar panels have not only upped their game in efficiency, but also drastically reduced their cost and at the end of the day, it is putting money in your pocket.

Money in Your Pocket

How exactly is the money going to be flowing into your pocket? Well, I am glad you asked. Right now the time has never been better to buy solar panels. The government is giving away huge tax incentives for those willing to invest in solar panels. In addition, if you are out during the day, your solar panels are hard at work making that energy; however, since that energy is not being used by your house, the extra energy goes back into the electric grid. You have now become a power plant, fancy right? That means that your energy company will then be writing you a check for adding power to their grid instead of the other way around!

Not only will you be receiving the monthly benefits of a reduced or negative energy bill each month, but you also will be adding value to your home. It has been sited that you will be adding at least 3% to your home’s value when you install the solar panels.

There is also incredible return on your investment (ROI). It can generate 10–30% of your investment per year, many owners pay off their solar panel system in 7–8 years and then are able to reap the benefits of the system for the remainder of the 25+ year lifespan of the solar cells.

Have you heard of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SERCs)? they are a way for you to sell your kWhs for a certificate that you can then sell to potential buyers. 1000 kWhs will equal a single SERC that you can sell for up to $300 in some states!

Must I go on?

I don’t know if you have been keeping track, I know I haven’t. Especially with all the moving the I have been doing throughout my life so far, I haven’t really noticed this, but utility prices have steadily increased from 8.58 cents per kWh in 2001 to over 13.01 cents per kWh in 2019. That increase may not seem like a lot, but multiply that number by the amount of kWh you are spending and it will surely make you change your mind. In general, I use about 750 kWhs for my home each month, so just on a monthly basis I would be paying $33/month which is $397/year; however, since you will be generating all of your own electricity, you aren’t impacted at all! I don’t know about you, but there are plenty of things that I would rather spend that $400 on.

Chart from US Energy Information Administration. Average retail price is indexed in comparison to the average retail price in 2001. As you can see an increase extremely consistently over the 18 years.

This also coincides with U.S. Energy independence from other nations. Instead of depending on other places for fossil fuel resources like oil and natural gas, we would be able to generate all of our own resources here on America soil. Not only would there be our own resources, we also would be creating jobs for people to be solar technicians, installers, salesman, etc. here in the US rather than middlemen over in the Middle East. There would also be a positive job growth and outlook since there isn’t fear of the Sun going out anytime soon like the fear of running out of coal or oil. Solar is here to stay, and will always stay in the same place as well. Many times coal or oil mines will go from one site to the next until they extract all that is profitable for them to extract, creating a bunch of migratory workers; however, with solar those same workers will stay in an area, creating growth for the economy of the town by bringing in consistent wages into the local market, buying houses, getting married, having kids, etc.

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

Reduce Fossil Fuel Consumption

Now, not only are you getting the benefit of no longer having to pay your energy bill any more, and getting paid by the electric company. You will also be gaining the benefit of no longer being a consumer of fossil fuels and contributing to the climate crisis. You will be a member of the solution, instead of part of the problem. The climate crisis is the one thing that will change the outlook of our lives for the rest of our lives. If we can solve this problem, we will in turn be solving a variety of other issues (Animal conservation, public health, social injustice, climate refugees, etc.) at the same time.

Now you may say that you are just one person, one house in millions of houses in the United States. It is not going to make a difference; however, consider the fact that we as human beings are very social creatures. We are influenced by those people around us, if we see that another person in our neighborhood has solar panels, we are more likely to purchase solar panels as well.

Solar panels are the future of energy…are you ready to make the commitment to start having an energy system that works for you?