Solar Power reduces the equivalent of over 13,000 pounds of pollution annually, per household! (average U.S. household consumes 8,900 kWh/year)

• Generate and deliver your own electric power, with free fuel from the sun
• Run your electric meter backwards, receive credit for your excess power back to your utility
• Lower or even eliminate your monthly electric bill
• Hedge against future increases in electric power costs
• Add value and security to your property
• Reduce greenhouse gases annually by over 1,780 pounds per installed kW!

Benefits of Solar Energy

Aside from the tangible economic reasons for purchasing a solar system, there are excellent intangible benefits as well. Centralized power generation (including coal, liquid natural gas (LNG), and nuclear-fired), is extremely inefficient, with power losses of as much as 40% because of power line resistance and transformer losses required to ship electricity from far-distant power plants to the end consumer.

So why do we centralize most of our power? Mostly for historical reasons. When electric power generation technology was first developed over 100 years ago, it was so complex for that time that it had to be centralized to make it readily available. The government provided many subsidies to oil companies and utilities to encourage and help develop the technology.

Today, the requirement that power be centralized has been greatly reduced because we have reliable, cost-effective distributed technologies like solar that can meet many power needs directly at the point of use. And doing so is much more efficient than transmitting power via the grid.

Solar power provides many other benefits that enhance our quality of life:

• Environment: For every megawatthour of solar electricity produced, the Earth is spared over 1500 pounds of greenhouse gases like CO2, SO2, and NOx. For the typical residential system (2.5kW), that works out to almost 3 tons of greenhouse gas avoidance per year, or 90 tons over 30 years. Solar power is clean, plentiful, and fully renewable - nothing is consumed to produce it and the power source is perpetually renewed.
• Economic Benefits: Because solar power reduces our dependence on the grid, it also reduces the need to build new conventional power plants. There are at least 5000 megawatts of untapped energy potential just on the available space on existing roofs of houses and small businesses in California. Turning even a small percentage of that potential into solar power generation would reduce or eliminate our need to build new power plants for many years to come.
• Complementary to Utility Power: Solar power correlates well with the daily load patterns of utilities because the power is available when it is needed most - during daylight hours when utilities are subject to their peak loads.
• Low Operating Cost: Once installed, photovoltaic cells operate continuously for decades with few ongoing operating costs. They generate electricity through a wide range of temperature and light conditions.
• Reliable: With no moving parts and a warranted life for PV panels of 20 to 25 years, solar PV systems are highly reliable and require little routine maintenance.