14 Reasons To Fall In Love With Solar Energy

Love is in the air this week, can you feel it?! And Southern Current’s team of solar experts has all the feels for providing you with some lovely information you might be surprised to learn about solar power.

Reasons To Fall In Love With Solar This Valentine’s Day

#1 Solar energy is free from the sun

The sun rises each day, emitting an unlimited amount of solar radiation that costs nothing to use.

#2 Solar is clean, no carbon emissions

Solar energy is clean energy, a resource that has zero carbon emissions. By producing your own clean energy with solar, you are reducing the amount of dirty power used from fossil fuel-based power generation. Solar power has ZERO greenhouse gas emissions! Click to learn more about the environmental benefits of solar in South Carolina.

#3 Solar is renewable and will not run out anytime soon

Fossil fuels are non-renewable, meaning they draw on limited resources that will eventually run out. By contrast, solar energy is constantly replenished and will never run out. As long as the sun shines with each new day, we’ll always have solar energy!

#4 Solar can be used as a fuel source to power and electric car

Another lovely aspect of solar energy is that it can be used as the fuel source to power an electric car. PV2EV is a buzz phrase sometimes used by members of the solar and electric car communities which refers to a scenario where solar panels (photovoltaics or “PV”) provide the electricity to recharge an electric vehicle (EV). You can drive on sunshine when you charge your electric car with energy generated by solar panels on your roof!

In fact, a Southern Current residential solar customer has a rental property which he uses as a “sustainability model home” and serves as a charging station for other EV owners. When not used by other electric car drivers he charges his Tesla – a premium electric car that has earned top automotive safety and design awards. Click to learn more about solar power and electric cars.

#5 Solar can be used as a resource to power a home

Installing solar panels on your roof allows you to essentially own a solar power plant that delivers power to your home each day. The system gets connected to your electric panel, and your utility meter, and can pull power from the grid when needed (like on cloudy days and during the night).

#6 It can even be used to power a business

Just like the above scenario, business owners can power their facilities with sunlight harnessed by solar panels. Southern Current has helped a large number of commercial entities go solar, including Target stores in Anderson, Florence, Greenville, Simpsonville & Spartanburg, South Carolina!

#7 Solar energy can power the entire world

More power from the sun hits the Earth in a single hour than all of the world uses in an entire year. Researchers have said that if we covered an area of land about the size of Spain with solar panels we could generate enough solar energy to power the entire Earth! And Elon Musk has said that if we covered just a corner of Utah or Nevada with solar panels, we could power the entire United States!

#8 Going solar helps people save money on power bills

In 2017 a new solar project was installed every 84 seconds across America, as more and more home owners turned to solar to help them reduce their carbon footprints and energy bills. Southern Current helped Steve V. and his family in Greenville reduce their power bill by 60%, helped Brenda and Gary S. in Charleston save $243.62 on their August power bill, and helped other customers like Marv N. eliminate their power bills completely with solar panels!

#9 Going solar increases home resale value

Another benefit from going solar is that the value of your home will increase. This is according to researchers at the Department of Energy who found that, on average, adding a new set of solar panels increases the value of the home by $15,000 dollars.

#10 The solar industry employees hundreds of thousands of Americans

According to the 2017 Solar Jobs Census conducted by The Solar Foundation, the solar industry now employs more than 250,000 Americans! The solar workforce increased by 168% in the past seven years, from about 93,000 jobs in 2010 to over 250,000 jobs in 2017.

#11 There’s a 55% of SALE on solar thanks to federal & state tax credits

Both the state of South Carolina and the US federal government currently offer tax credits to make going to solar a lot more affordable. A federal tax credit worth 30% of the total system cost and installation is available for home and business owners, while an additional 25% tax credit is available from the state of South Carolina.

Plus, Duke Energy Progress and Duke Energy Carolinas, South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G), Santee Cooper, and other local electric utilities have unique solar rebate & incentive programs which provide additional savings when installing solar power systems! Click to learn more about South Carolina Solar Power Rebates and Incentives.

#12 Solar power can even be used at night when the sun isn’t shining

Batteries and energy storage applications are being developed world wide to allow the use of solar energy at night! Technology currently exists so that batteries can store energy to be used in emergency applications, like a weather-related grid-outage, and as costs come down over time you will be able to afford batteries capable of storing 100% of your energy needs.

#13 Solar powered mass transportation is on the horizon

Solar Impulse 2 is a solar powered electric plane that successfully traveled the entire planet using only sunlight as fuel, the Tiny Solar House is an off-grid tiny house on wheels that was towed across America’s National Parks using only solar power for electricity, and PlanetSolar is the first ship to circumnavigate the globe on solar power alone.

#14 Using solar power feels great

Opening your power bill each month to see how much money you’ve saved is a delightful feeling after you’ve installed solar panels!