We no longer need to burn fossil fuels to produce usable energy. Today there are many alternative forms of usable energy available to us. Choosing to utilize other forms of renewable energy such as solar panels not only reduces our carbon footprint and the impact that we have on the world, but also provides us with a sustainable energy source that will be around for years to come.

The importance of solar power

The surface of the earth receives enough energy in one hour to meet all of the world’s energy needs for one year. By harnessing this energy using solar photovoltaic (PV) technology, we can meet all of our energy requirements. Solar is the perfect example of a form of energy which is truly renewable, as harnessing solar power puts no additional strain on the sun and can be seen as utilizing a vital resource. Scientists believe that the sun will begin to run out of hydrogen (its fuel) in about 5 billion years, thus solar power is a viable option for years to come.

There are many reasons to invest in solar panels. For a domestic installation, the government-introduced Feed-in Tariff ensures a great return on investment of 11% on average. This is significantly higher than savings accounts or ISAs. Another key reason is that by generating your own electricity, you need to buy much less from the national grid, meaning savings on electricity bills, another financial incentive.

The environmental benefits are a key reason for investing in solar panels. These have been overshadowed recently by the financial incentives that were introduced by the government with the Feed-in Tariff (FIT). Yet it is important to remember that the FIT was introduced for environmental reasons, as a way of encouraging individuals and organizations to invest in renewable energy sources as this would help to meet the country’s environmental targets and reduce our nation’s carbon footprint.

Our carbon footprint

Your carbon footprint is a gauge of the impact that your activities have on the environment, measured by CO? emissions. Our carbon footprints are mainly produced from the burning of fossil fuels for transportation and heating, production and shipping. These can be reduced by making lifestyle choices reducing the amount of CO? produced. Buying local produce where possible is an easy way to reduce our carbon footprints, as these items will have no carbon emissions associated with them.

Choosing to heat or power your home or organization through renewable energy sources is one of the most significant choices that you can make to reduce your carbon footprint. This is because heat and power are some of the biggest producers of CO? and can therefore result in some of the most significant reductions.

The UK government is responsible for ensuring that the carbon emissions for the country are reduced, but in order to succeed this needs to be tackled by individuals. Crucially the clean green electricity that a solar PV system produces will be used in the home, replacing the electricity that you would have bought from your energy supplier. Thus you are significantly reducing the amount of energy derived from burn fossil fuels that you consume.

Other sources of renewable energy

Once you install solar panels on your home, the environmental benefits are immediate and significant. The source of the energy that is generated is free, as the sunlight hitting the panels is converted into free, clean green electricity. However there are other forms of renewable energy such as ‘clean fuels’, which, because of physical or chemical properties, create less pollution than fossil fuels do. In general, the hydrocarbons emitted from these fuels are much less, and the hydrocarbons they do emit are much less toxic. Clean fuels can be chosen as alternatives to petrol and gasoline which fuel road vehicles. These will allow individuals and businesses to reduce their carbon footprints from the life-cycle of the products that they use.

Solar power installations are growing worldwide as the cost of the panels and equipment used to build them see their prices fall and their efficiency increase with new technology. Some markets are exploding either through consumer demand or through effective support form governments who hand out incentives to stimulate the solar power market.

Germany is an example of effective government support bringing about a huge explosion of solar panel installation. However in the past year the German market growth has caused a shift worldwide in solar panel availability. I guess you might say this is a nice problem to have in a growing new market. Not if you are in an area where you can’t source enough solar panels but this situation has caused a large number of new solar panel factories to pop up worldwide including a huge growth in Chinese companies entering the solar energy market.

Solar panel rebates have contributed to the growth of this alternative energy source. In the US one could argue that these rebates have done more to stimulate the consumer based market than any other method. I would agree though with critics who make the case that in a nation like the USA it will take some new advocates for the cause in order to make a real difference in market growth. The current solar panel advocates are well know celebrities or political figures who only appeal to a small portion of the population. Until someone from the other side of the equation jumps in and support solar will it really gain the attention of the greater part of the US population.

Well after a long road of planning and some delays due to the financial meltdown in our lending industry here in the USA we are now at installation day for our Solar City solar energy system on our house.

Pretty exciting to finally have it put in place and maybe be turned on later this week. Good timing too as we are in a spell of very nice autumn weather with lots of sunshine. I look forward to soaking up some of those rays into our system.

As you can see from the image on this post our house has a low slope roof that has a white solar reflective coating on it that was put on by our friends at Blue Turtle Roofing. So when we combine the cool roof and the solar panels on our roof we should have a terrific energy saving system.

For background on the process check out our project history here.

Step one today (wwatch for video to be posted later) is to shore up our rafters int he attic so the system can be supported by our existing roof. That will entail removing our solar fan so the carpenters can load the lumber into our smallish attic space. Then once the rafters are upgraded the solar install begins and should be in place by end of week.

ViroPOP has a very unique show this week. You have to check it out. A cargo ship with a sky sail, a pedal powered car, and best of all a great resource for solar panel installation for your house.