The Affordable Way to Produce Your Own Electricity

We are all aware of the threat of Global Warming from harmful emissions that are constantly being spewed into the atmosphere from our automobiles to the way that we heat our homes. It only makes sense to incorporate ways to live “greener”. We have only a limited amount of fossil fuels in the form of oil, natural gas and coal left on our planet on which we are 85 percent reliant. Coal remains in abundance, but its use creates the biggest build up of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. The cleanest and most untapped source of energy available to us is solar energy. Only one percent of the planet population is currently using solar energy to create electricity. There is growing interest in the harnessing of solar energy with the use of solar panels. Solar energy has already been put into use for years in calculators to satellites. A solar panel consists of a large, connected package of photovoltaic cells which when exposed to photons in the sun’s rays it generates electricity. The first modern photovoltaic cell was developed in 1954 by Bell Laboratories, but was not put to good practical use until 1958 when they were installed on the Vaguard1 satellite in order to extend its mission in space. Creating energy from the sun with the use of solar panels is now becoming a very viable source of clean and non-polluting energy in residential, commercial and industrial application. Currently, the photovoltaic cells are contrived of silicon materials that have electronic properties in theory, of a maximum efficiency of only 31 percent. However, with ongoing technological improvement, there are experimental cells being developed that show a promising 40 percent efficiency. Nanotechnology is another field being explored with hopes of reaching 60 percent efficiency with the use of nanocrystals. Afterwards other new materials were being engineered for solar cells and the ones being developed today will eventually and dramatically reduce the costs in fabrication thus becoming a very affordable way to produce electricity. As far as the costs of solar systems, the federal, state and local governments offer some very good incentives and tax credits (some more than 40 percent) to lower the costs in the initial installation of solar systems. Over time this can result into a profitable investment while employing clean energy and contributing to a healthier environment. Another way to profit is to sell excess electricity back to the grid. Serious energy generating systems will produce excess electricity and depending on the rules and regulations of the state that the excess electricity is being produced there may be profits to be had. This makes creating your own electricity not only affordable, but profitable as well. As solar systems continue to become more efficient and affordable with technological advancements, it only makes sense to look toward the sun as our next and heavily relied upon resource of energy. Only one minute of sunshine can meet our demands for an entire year if we can develop ways to perfect it’s capture and turn it into affordable and clean electricity, in order meet our growing planet’s needs.

For more information on renewable energy including solar panels, please visit Intelligent Energy Solutions who provide a range of green energy products such as heat pumps and sma inverters.