Solar panel installations in both commercial and residential settings have grown around the world exponentially in the last 10 years. Countries like America and Australia have shown incredible uptake. Taking Australia as an example, nearly one in three homes has its own roof top solar system installed.
However, true understanding and literacy in space has not grown at the same rate. Solar is still somewhat misunderstood, and people don’t fully understand the incredible financial and environmental impacts of solar.
How Does It Work?
Solar works by using our most abundant energy source in the world, the sun and harnessing it to create electricity for you to use. The sun's light hits the solar panels on your roof and is converted into DC electricity. This DC current then flows down into an electrical device called a solar inverter which then turns the DC current into AC current that can be used by everything in your home. It is that simple.
How Does It Save You Money?
There are two key ways that you save money with solar. The first is self-consuming your own electricity. When you buy electricity from the grid, it is not cheap. Every kWh (kilowatt-hour) you consume you have to pay for and as we all know, it adds up quickly. When you have your own solar system installed on your home or business, you have your very own power plant on your roof. For every kWh you generate and consume it is a kWh that you don’t need to buy from your electricity provider! That is cash in the bank.
The second is what is commonly known as a feed in tariff. It is incredibly challenging to use all of the electricity you generate yourself. Solar obviously generates electricity when the sun is shining, and you aren’t always at home when that is the case. This means there is surplus energy created by your solar system. This is where feed in tariffs come into play.
That surplus energy that you have created is then fed into the grid for other people to use. Your metre in your metre box keeps track of what is going out and what is coming in and on your next bill you will see a credit applied for the electricity you have fed back in. Pretty cool hey!
There is a third way that is becoming more popular. Due to a lot of talk, especially in Australia about these tariffs being capped or a more open market being created which has driven the uptake of solar batteries. Having a battery means instead of all the additional electricity going back into the grid, it is used to charge your battery. Then, when the sun stops shining (at night) your home will draw the clean green energy you have generated and saved in your very own battery before taking anything from the grid.
How Does It Help The Environment?
Solar power is considered a renewable energy. Renewable energy is energy that is created from a source that is considered endless E.G., the sun. Unlike more common energy generation like traditional coal power stations, solar needs nothing more than sunshine to make electricity.
For a long time, the recyclability of old solar panels has also been considered an issue and talking point for climate deniers and anti-renewable energy people. However, recently solar panel specific recycling plants have been set up that are capable of recycling 100% of old solar panels. So, you can rest easy knowing not only is the electricity you generate renewable, the system on your roof is fully recyclable at the end of its life as well!
Start Solar
If you don’t have solar on the roof of your work or business or you haven’t looked into getting it installed, you need to ask yourself, why not? Start smart solar now!
