Slash Your Power Bills With Solar Energy Benefits - It's Not Too Late

I used to believe the installation of solar was too expensive, however now I understand that solar energy benefits make the whole exercise good value for money.

As the price of power routinely increases every year, opening our electricity bill usually creates a sense of distress and almost panic. I've just learned that the power company has in typical fashion packed in yet another price rise. Although leaving civilization and living in the forest is impossible, I have started to seriously consider the option of going solar. Is it truly plausible for me? My skeptical partner has given me many reasons why this is too difficult a venture and that the expenditure might be a lot greater than the benefits. So strong is my desire to prove her wrong, that I started a quest to determine if it is really possible as well as cost effective to build a solar panel.

I've read about wealthy properties which were so well equipped with solar, the owners made an income selling power back to the power companies?) Picture my surprise to discover this is becoming a really workable business. There is currently a ton of literature available to consumers showing them how to sell electricity back to the electrical companies.

I found out that there is a difference between making use of the sun's rays to create heat, for example to warm your swimming pool, and benefiting from the sun's rays to generate electrical energy. Solar power generation is called photovoltaic, or PV, but harnessing the sun to create heat is known as thermal. Thermal is much more straightforward in comparison with photovoltaic, but it doesn't have the capacity to create electricity. It will help, however, to warm your home or your pool, which is what has been happening in European countries for a while now.

President of European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), Olivier Drücke, states that European cities have been able to employ this kind of solar technology to replace 15 % of their home's heating and cooling. This is quite an accomplishment considering that 50 percent of most power in Europe is used for heating and cooling. This figure can be expected to rise over the next twenty years. Public credits will definitely make make the whole concept much more appealing.

Are solar energy benefits similar here? According to the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allows taxpayers entitled to the federal renewable electricity production tax credit (PTC) to take the federal business energy investment tax credit (ITC) or to receive a grant from the U.S. Treasury Department rather than using the PTC for new installations." The credit would average approximately 30 percent; Yet, factoring in heating expenditures only, the money invested in solar power creation could rapidly come back to you during the next few years - 3 to 5 is generally the norm.

Creating a solar panel isn't a thing to sit back and consider for too long, because many of these grant programs are scheduled to expire by October of 2011. Anyway, why would you want to carry on shelling out hundreds of dollars to energy companies, when performing your own solar power generation could retain a significant amount of that cash in your wallet instead?


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Does your stomach sink when that quarterly electricity bill arrives? Do you realize that there is something you can do about it? Sometimes you just have to stand up and say "No More" You can enjoy solar energy benefits and help our planet too. Take a look at Solar power generation where you can learn ways to save on your energy. My name is Gail Dobson and I'm an environmentalist.