1. Your electric bill is reduced
One of the major benefits provided by solar panels is they help you save a substantial amount of money on your electric bills. Utilities are required by many states to provide net metering. This allows homeowners to offset part of their electric expenses with the energy produced by their solar panels.
They can sell the extra energy to their utility company. Usually, this will be added as a credit to their electric bills which can be used to help offset their future electricity expenses.
Installing solar panels on your house can provide you with electric bill savings of more than $1,000 per year in many states. California residents who go with solar save $99,181 on average over their solar system’s lifetime.
2. Insurance against increasing energy prices
Most homeowners are well aware that electricity continues to get more expensive. Over the last 10 years, electricity prices have continued to steadily increase, with around a $0.2 per year average increase. In the future, electricity prices are expected to continue to rise, which means your electric bills will also increase.
Solar panels help to protect you against increasing electricity prices. Since you produce your own energy, that means you won’t have to purchase expensive power from the utility company. That means you don’t need to worry about increasing electricity costs any longer. When you install solar panels rising prices can actually be a positive thing.
For example, say that your utility company charges 12 cents for each kilowatt-hour of electricity. With net metering, this means your utility company will be paying you 12 cents for every excess kWh of electricity that is produced by your solar panels and sent to the grid.
If the utility company increases the price of electricity to 13 centers per kilowatt-hour, this means the power you are sending to the grid will be worth 13 cents as well.
Therefore, net metering saves you more money every time prices are raised by your utility company!
3. Solar is more affordable than it has ever been
As electricity prices continue to increase, solar costs continue to go down. Solar is more affordable than it has ever been. Over the past decade, the cost has gone down by more than 70%. The low prices help to make solar more accessible to an increasing number of homeowners.
Taking full advantage of the solar incentives that are available to you can make it even cheaper to install solar. For example, installing a solar system prior to the end of 2022 may make you eligible for a federal tax credit of 26%.
The tax credit is 26% of your solar system’s total cost and can be included on your income tax return. There are also many other local solar incentives that are offered along with the federal tax credit.
4. Earn a return on your investment
Not only do solar panels eliminate electric bills, but they also can provide you with an additional source of income. As previously mentioned, net metering makes it possible to earn money by selling the excess power that is produced by your solar panels to your utility company.
Other performance-based incentives are offered by some states, such as SRECs (Solar Renewable Energy Credits). Depending on the area where you live, they can potentially generate hundreds of dollars in revenue for you.
The money earned from net metering, along with other incentives and electric bill savings, helps to pay for the price of your system. In areas where all of the incentives are offered, a solar panel system’s payback time can be as few as four years.
After you pay off your system, the solar panels will keep providing your home with free power over the system’s lifetime!
Find out more about the benefits from Josco Solar Energy.
5. Environmentally friendly
Solar is renewable energy, which is one of its biggest selling points. That means as you use it, the source is not depleted. When sunlight hitting the earth is used and transformed into electricity, the sun’s energy is not depleted.
Also, greenhouse gas emissions are not produced by electricity that is generated by solar panels. When electricity is produced by solar panels, nothing gets released into the atmosphere. Clean energy is the only thing that is created.
6. Energy independence
When homeowners have solar panels they are able to produce their own energy, which provides them with energy independence. This basically means that a solar house does not rely on a traditional electric grid. That allows you to control your power and control where the energy is coming from for your home.
On a broader scale, the US switching over to solar as well as other forms of renewable energy will allow the country to become energy independent. The United States would not need to heavily rely on other countries as we do right now to get coal, gas, and oil.
When energy is used that is produced in the US instead of relying on sources from foreign countries, it is great for our country’s economy and for our national security.
