Solar panel price

For decades, there has been discussion in the media about installing solar panels on our rooftops. However, until recently, few homeowners actually installed them -- only those with extraordinary enthusiasm and concern in regards to the environment. The reason -- the cost of solar panels upfront, between $10,000 to $60,000.

The hope was that solar panel costs would gradually fall to an affordable range for the common homeowner. Solar panel price as costs have gradually declined through the years, they've not even become widely affordable.

However, an entirely new business design has changed all that. A number of companies now install solar panels on the home's roof free of charge, and the homeowner pays a regular lease fee. The homeowners utilize the solar power generated to cut back their reliance on the electrical utility company. The lease payment in addition to the reduced electrical utility bill, when combined, usually are less than the homeowner's monthly electric bill had been pre-solar. So, the homeowner does not have any upfront costs plus has a lowered electric monthly bill.

Businesses can make the most of a similar kind of solar panel installation plan. Solar companies offer businesses a Power Purchase Agreement instead of a lease. The solar company installs the panels without any upfront investment by the business. The panels may be installed on the roof, or if there's space, in a ground-mounted array.

The company pays the solar installer a fixed rate for the solar power so it uses. This reduces the amount of electricity that the business enterprise must draw from the electric utility. Usually the business enterprise customer experiences a lowered total electric bill, despite the payment it generates to the solar installation company for solar electricity.

Businesses experience reduced monthly electric bills and protection from volatility in electric utility rates going forward. The solar electric rate is fixed, and experiences no volatility. Reduced rate volatility may be particularly helpful when planning profitable operations.

Once the cost of solar panels is no longer an issue, people often mention worries about reliability of solar power generation. What goes on through the night or when it rains? Before, many thought that people would generate electricity with solar panels and, on sunny days, store the extra in batteries to use through the night or on overcast days.

However, the current business design is different. Your property or business remains set up the utility company's electrical grid. Through the night or on overcast days or anytime your solar power generation is insufficient for your requirements, you draw electricity from the electric grid. This happens automatically and takes no effort on your part.

Then, is the extra solar power of sunny days wasted? No. You profit by an automatic system that sells your excess solar power back into the electrical grid. Your utility company credits you with the sale by winding the readings on your electric meter backwards. You can actually watch it spinning backwards!

With this specific new business design, homeowners and businesses can spend less by installing solar panels while retaining a reliable way to obtain electricity. Furthermore, they could do what many of us have looked forward to ever since we found out about generating solar power on our rooftops -- help the environment.

Solar energy, needless to say, creates no pollution. Every kilowatt that we generate with our solar panels is one less kilowatt that power companies must generate by burning fossil fuels. Actually, one kilowatt generated by solar panels replaces even multiple kilowatt generated by power companies, as, with rooftop solar panels, there are without any losses of power due to electric line transmission over long distances.

Replacing fossil fuels for generating electricity creates numerous benefits for the environment. The mining of coal, oil, and gas all harm the environment. Transmission of fossil fuels by pipeline (with possible leaks), or trucks (with resulting air pollution) also harm the environment. Of course, burning these fuels for electrical energy, even if burning relatively clean natural gas, also adds pollutants to the atmosphere.

Dependence on foreign oil has major consequences for our economy when conflict in the Middle East erupts. Interruptions in the oil supply raise gasoline and home heating prices and harm our economy. Our dependence on foreign oil also constrains our foreign policy options. Some think that it has gotten us into wars that we, otherwise, might not have fought. Addiction to foreign oil has been costly to Americans in several ways.

We are currently making good progress in becoming independent of foreign oil. Solar panel price and domestic oil production has increased, energy efficiency measures are working better -- including tougher auto gas mileage standards -- and resources of clean, green energy are coming online. When commercial and home solar panels are installed, they're causing our clean, green energy future.

As many folks are involved in our environment and dependence on foreign oil, when one homeowner installs solar panels on their roof, neighbors often follow suit. Seeing that solar panels are for-real and are now actually affordable in their own neighborhood, they go ahead with what has seemed like a dream for way too long -- generating our personal electricity on our personal rooftops.