In the last few years, the cost of solar energy has gone down significantly, and more and more companies and brands are taking advantage of this fact to produce more energy from less expensive solutions.
The standard solar panel can produce up to 10 watts of power, enough for small electronics like mobile phones, wrist watches, or for some small appliances like rice cookers or espresso machines. However, if you need more power, you can either connect a number of smaller solar panels in series, or you can purchase larger solar panels that produce higher voltages and more amps.
Which One Is Better?
When choosing a renewable energy source for your home or business, capacity (how much energy you produce) is usually the most important consideration. But, with solar energy, there is another factor to consider: how much energy does it cost you to produce?
For many, the answer is simply: it doesn’t. The cost of solar energy is on a downward trend, and with solar panel prices expected to continue to decline, the cost of kWh production is decreasing.
The other important consideration is how long will it take for you to see savings? The amount of time it takes for you to recoup the cost of equipment and installation varies from person to person, but it’s usually not instant. The payback time for solar energy is commonly between 4 and 10 years, depending on your investment. During this time, you will see your electricity bills decrease, and eventually, you will become independent of fossil fuels.
Get The Most Out Of Your Solar Energy Investment
In addition to being a safe and environmentally-conscious energy source, solar energy offers a number of advantages as a source of electricity for your home or business.
The first and most obvious is that it’s free. You don’t have to pay for electricity from traditional sources (such as coal or gas), so there’s no utility surcharge when you use it. In some places, like Germany, there is even a charge for using power generated by wind and solar, so it’s more efficient to use those clean energies than traditional sources.
Secondly, it’s abundant. Wherever there’s sun, there’s opportunity to generate power. Even in cloudy or cold locations, you can still get some sun exposure, so you don’t have to worry about running out of electricity. The world’s largest solar power stations are even located in Scotland, where it never gets dark, so the sun always exists to provide electricity.
Thirdly, it’s flexible. With the development of residential solar power, people can now generate their own electricity when and where they need it. If you live in a country where it gets dark at night (such as England or Ireland), you can store the electricity you generate during the day in a battery and use it at night, when you need it most. This allows you to be more independent of fossil fuels and reduce your carbon footprint. In addition to nighttime electricity generation, many solar panels can also generate power when the sun is directly overhead, so you can use this energy to charge up your devices as soon as you get up. This is commonly known as ‘peak shaving’, and it’s a great way to cut down on your monthly electricity bills.
Last but not least, solar energy is scalable. Because it’s relatively easy for anyone to install a residential solar power system, the industry has developed a number of techniques to make electricity production as efficient as possible. The most common way is by using inverters that increase the output of solar electricity by about five times. If you have a smaller plot of land, you can also use less efficient techniques, like the conventional photovoltaic panel, to generate the same amount of electricity. In larger plots of land, you can have PV arrays connected in series, which makes the whole thing look like one big solar panel and therefore, maximizes the amount of electricity generated.
The Bottom Line
When choosing a renewable energy source for your home or business, the capacity (how much energy you produce) is usually the most important consideration. But, with solar energy, there is another factor worth considering: how much energy does it cost you to produce? The answer is: it doesn’t. The cost of solar energy is on a downward trend, and with solar panel prices expected to continue to decline, the cost of kWh production is decreasing. The other important consideration is how long will it take for you to see savings? The amount of time it takes for you to recoup the cost of equipment and installation varies from person to person, but it’s usually not instant. The payback time for solar energy is commonly between 4 and 10 years, depending on your investment. During this time, you will see your electricity bills decrease, and eventually, you will become independent of fossil fuels.