Solar has the power to heal our planet
The Environmental Benefits of Going Solar
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"Climate change is happening, humans are causing it, and I think
this is perhaps the most serious environmental issue facing us."
– Bill Nye
It is well understood within the scientific community that Fossil fuels (coal, oil & natural gas) do substantially more harm to the environment than renewable energy sources do when measuring air and water pollution, damage to public health, wildlife and habitat loss, water use, land use and global warming emissions.
The costs of coal, natural gas, and other fossil fuels are not always obvious, but their impacts can be disastrous. While oil prices may seem low for the time being the environmental costs of extraction, processing, transporting, burning and waste and are high.
Our reliance on foreign oil has caused multiple conflicts overseas and has destroyed many lives in our pursuit to control the flow of energy. When you take the time to learn about solar energy and the many benefits it has on the environment and the significant positive impact it has on the world around us becomes obvious.
Harvesting your own energy from the sun using a solar electric system will help reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by limiting the amount of hydrocarbons burnt for power generation.
A 6 kWh system harvesting the suns solar energy for 25 years can reduce your carbon footprint by over 150 tons of carbon dioxide!
That is equivalent to:
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Just under 4,000 planted trees
Close to 16,000 gallons of gasoline that doesn't need to be burned
Almost 50 tons of recycled waste
Displacing carbon emissions from the total annual electricity use of 19 homes
We used our online monitoring software to check out the power output of one of our photo-voltaic systems to see just how much CO2 it has offset in one year.
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This average-sized 7.41 kW system, operating over the course of 1 year, produced 11,977 kWh of electricity. According to the EPA greenhouse gas equivalences calculator, this was enough to cover 120% of the electricity that the average American household consumes annually. By choosing to power with solar, the family is keeping 8.4 metric tons of CO2 gas out of the atmosphere every year. That's a breath of fresh air.
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There is no denying that now is the time to “Make the Shift” to efficient, clean, renewable energy sources. Burning fossil fuels continues to pollute the environment and has accelerated the warming of our planet. Clean, renewable energy sources provide an attractive substitute – by going solar, you can contribute to keeping the environment healthy for generations to come.
By choosing to go solar, demand for non-renewable energy decreases, putting less stress on the planet and contributes to keeping the environment healthy for future generations.
Source: Union of Concerned Scientists, ucsusa.org