Sometimes I wish that more people were excited about the prospect of solar power.
I mean, I understand that it’s still kind of expensive and all, but I’ve got to think that it would be a big step in the right direction even if every new home that was built these days had its own solar panels, thus requiring only a fraction of power from the grid as existing homes … if not being able to sell back a little excess to boot! It just seems like with resources becoming more and more limited and pollution going through the roof, maybe it’s time to invest in clean energy solutions that don’t come with the harmful effects that buying coal or nuclear-based power from the local utility is associated with.
This post was inspired by a couple of links that I stumbled across the other day – the first being a really cool infographic citing the financial impacts of homes going solar:
http://1bog.org/blog/infographic-what-if-solar-were-on-every-roof/
And the second (possibly from the comments of the first) being a 1-year review of solar power from a consumer who installed it in his home last year:
http://snorkie.com/post/2011/07/27/One-Year-of-Solar-Power.aspx
The second blogger does make mention that part of his motivation for doing this was being conservation conscious himself, which I know some folks may not put a priority on over cost, but I’d like to think that if enough people who were in that position to make the choice began err’ing to the side of solar, one would think that eventually the costs would work themselves down to an area that would be more affordable for the average Joe. Besides, after seeing some of the crazy electric bills that we’ve gotten this summer, who wouldn’t drool at the thought of not getting a bill in the mail each month?!