DEL Articles

It warms up our faces and grows our food; energy from the sun is our life blood and gives us most of that we need to subsist. Using its potentiality, however, has escaped the earths people, or at least until lately. Commanding our sun’s full potency may be a long way into the future, but until applied science shows us the true possibilities of the sun’s power we can use what we have as a matter of necessity, economic need and personal responsibility.

Perhaps you are pretty happy with what’s going on today. Perhaps you feel all is fine and you don’t feel the need to change a system that’s worked for over a century. If you do, consider a few of these benefits to solar power and you may just recognize its potential in a somewhat more responsible, yet selfish, light.

But What If I don’t really care about the environment? Perhaps everything in the world is OK as far as you are concerned. The very last thing you care about are plants, clean air and pure water. Heck, the water turns up every time you turn on the spigot, the heater comes on when it’s freezing, the light switch brings you bright light. What is there to worry about? Consider that this is just the problem. If you don’t care for the state of affairs, the tap may not bring you pure water, the furnace may not go on and the car certainly will not start. If the environment is kept perfect and left to do what it was intended to do, everything will continue to work fine. But get in its way and everything you thought was hunky-dory won’t be for very long.

Financial savings - One of the greatest things about caring for the suns ability to serve its rightful purpose is that it can greatly save you money in the longer run. Once solar systems are procured and installed, they cost little, if anything to operate and maintain. In most instances, the government will even help to pay for the upfront costs of installing the system through tax incentives. Additionally, power companies in most regions are required to pay you for energy that you have generated and not used. Yes, you read correctly, the power company will pay you!

Profitable - In most instances, 75% of the northern hemisphere can generate more than enough solar electricity to run and heat their homes with existing solar systems. This means that whatever is left over goes back to the power grid if you so choose. Just think of your energy meter running backwards. The extra power you need for that cloudy day is stored in ever more efficient batteries. Most current users of the technology claim that the use of solar power systems only takes a small amount of thought in electricity management.

Take Yourself Off the power grid - Depending upon how you feel about the topic, another of the better reasons to use photovoltaic solar modules is that you can jump off the ‘power grid’ so to speak. Many people do not feel like being a part of the social collective that is interconnectivity. Going photovoltaic takes you away from this one aspect of community and puts you closer to self reliance.

Versatility - Just because the solar electricity generation systems of today have come a long way in providing energy, heat and a whole array of other services there is a long way to go. This is not to indicate, however, that solar power is not currently versatile in form and function. Photovoltaic Solar modules can currently be formed into thin sheets for car top electric powered vehicles. They can cover urban rooftops and not be noticed, unlike those 1960s units. Costs are also coming down, almost as fast as the Computer Memory of today.

It’s Everyone’s Personal responsibility - Past the cost savings and environmental benefits that solar power brings you should consider using it because you are part of a larger social order that will procreate. The human species has not been on this planet for all that long and is doing its best to end its run in one way or another. If you would like to give your children’s children a far better shot at continuing the human species’ time on this planet, solar power is one small contribution that you can make all by your self.

One way to attain the goal of holding onto all the creature comforts of home operating properly is by using other sources of power production like the sun, and not producing nasty things that get in the way of the earth doing its job. Most present-day sources of power include carbon based fossil fuels such as natural gas which are derived from fossilized plant matter. Environmentally responsible power, heating and cooling, and transport come from living or energized sources like water and O2 molecules. The Sun’s rays can be turned directly into useful electricity and used to power your boat, provide heat for your home and provide your light. But to make the process work, you need to be able to see the sun, which means caring for the environment and not getting in its way.