Reasons to go Solar

Save Money

Electricity prices have been increasing at an annual rate of 6.7% since 1970. By installing a solar electric system you will see an immediate reduction in your electric bill and protect yourself from future price increases.

Increase your home value

In many cases, the value that a solar system adds to your home exceeds the cost of installation. A 2004 study shows that every $1,000 saved in operating costs from a solar system will result in a $20,000 increase in appraised home value. (Nevin, 1998). The rationale behind this claim is that the money saved on electricity costs is available to service a larger mortgage payment at no net change in the cost of living.

Secure Investment

The best way to determine the ultimate value of an investment in solar is to look at the return on investment (ROI). The “investment” is the amount you pay to have your solar system installed and your “return” is the electricity savings that you get. Many homeowners see returns of 10-20% on their solar investment. If you consider that the stock market has returned about 9.3% and governments bonds less that 5% annually over the past 100 years then you can see that it makes financial sense to put your money in solar. On top of that you should also consider that you do not pay taxes on the electricity savings but you do pay capital gains on the returns that you get from most other investments.

Clean Energy

By choosing to generate your own solar energy you will be helping to reduce air and water pollution that result from the generation of electricity at coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants.

Renewable Energy

The sun is going to keep shining for the next several billion years (~4.5 billion), so as far as we're concerned it's not going to be depleted or run out like the world's oil reserves might. Similarly, unlike growing plants (corn) for bio-fuel or Ethanol production or drilling for oil or mining for coal, no work from humans is needed to keep the supply of sunlight shining.