Going Green – The Benefits of Solar Power
With all the talk of global warming and rising energy costs, many Americans have turned to more environmentally- and economically-friendly alternative energy sources in an effort to reduce their carbon footprints and energy bills. The most popular source since the advent of the twenty-first century has been the introduction of solar power, or the use of solar panels to harness the natural, abundant, and free power of the sun. So, why have over 1.5 million Americans invested in solar energy?
Solar energy is a renewable resource, which means that as long as the sun continues to shine, solar panels will continue to convert its power into usable energy. Sunlight does not need to be mined, extracted, combusted, or imported it to be useful. It is readily available, even in the least-insulated regions of the U.S. Enough sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface each year to produce approximately 1,000 times the same amount of energy produced by burning all fossil fuels mined and extracted during the same period.
When contemplating the switch to solar energy, a major consideration is the cost involved. Although there is a substantial initial investment involved, most solar-powered water-heating systems pay for themselves in four to seven years, and continue to provide hot water for many years thereafter! In fact, when considering that the US Department of Energy estimates that Americans consume approximately 2.5 quads of end-use energy annually to produce hot water at a cost of over $20 billion dollars using current non-renewable resources such as coal and oil, how much longer can we afford to refute the power of solar energy?
Some will attempt to convey that somehow, solar energy is un-American, that it effectively puts hard-working Americans out of work. In reality, when measured in jobs per million dollars of annual expenditure, coal, oil, gas and nuclear technologies support among the fewest jobs of any economic activity. The relatively new solar water heating industry is a good example of the type of manufacturing needed to create both new skilled and unskilled jobs.
To show their support of the research and implementation of solar energy, many state and federal government officials have acknowledged the importance of solar hot water systems in many of their programs. In 1992, the US Department of Energy, along with the Edison Electric Institute, American Public Power Association, and their utility and industry members established "Utility Solar Water" or USH2O. USH2O will serve as a forum for interested parties to develop and expand utility programs for residential and commercial solar water heating.
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