Solar power has been gaining ground as one of the cleanest, most efficient power sources available on our planet. Many commercial building owners have installed provisions for the harnessing of solar power, such as PV panels on the roof or solar strips on their windows.
In the residential sector, though, many landowners have yet to adopt ways to utilize the power of the sun for their household needs. Although many of us are aware that the benefits of solar outweigh its costs, there are a lot of other factors that prevent homeowners from fully going solar.
For one, not many homes (or roofs, particularly), are built to carry the weight of solar panels. Sure, there are ground-level panels available in the market, but not everyone has enough unrestricted outdoor space for that, either. Additionally, there are huge costs connected with the installation and maintenance of residential solar panels.
Some homeowners are also apprehensive about the aesthetic quality of most rooftop panels because most of these look like they belong in industrial plants rather than in cozy city homes. There have been some efforts in recent years to make solar panels look more attractive so as not to mess with the architectural design of homes, but so far progress on this front seems slow.
Fortunately, there is one more way you can course solar power into your Illinois home, and that is through shared solar farms.
SHARED SOLAR POWER FARMS
If you look up solar energy companies, you’d be amazed to find out that there are companies that invest in industrial-grade panels that harness massive solar power in shared farms, which then distribute the harnessed energy to households and businesses near the area.
This system is absolutely great for everyone who wants to practice sustainable living starting at home. We say it is the best way to get solar power at home because it requires the least effort and demands the least capital investment from you.
For one, you wouldn’t have to go through the entire process of scouring the market for the best solar panels, and then finding a reliable contractor to install them, only to be burdened with maintenance costs for as long as you have the panels.
If you subscribe to a shared solar farm service, you can pass on all these costs and extra work to the company running the farms. You just have to pay fees for their service, but after that, you won’t have to worry about maintenance and other repair work. Your service provider will take care of all that.
It’s just like subscribing to a cable or internet service — you don’t really have to make any big changes to your power-consuming habits, you just reap benefits commensurate to the rate you’re paying.
BENEFITS OF SWITCHING TO CLEAN ENERGY
So what exactly are the benefits of shifting to solar power?
Well, for starters, there is a potential that you will be paying less than what you’re currently paying in electric bills. When solar power generation was first discovered, the costs were so high that it seemed only the wealthiest households would have the privilege of using clean energy. Nowadays, though, the costs of generating solar energy have gone way down.
Depending on how much rate/rebate you can get for making the pivot to renewable energy, you really stand a chance to be paying less than what you currently pay for electricity.
Still, the biggest benefit you can get from utilizing solar power in your home is the altruistic feeling of reducing your environmental footprint. Fossil fuels, while remaining to be the main source material used in the production of energy, are actually very harmful to the environment. Renewable energy is much more sustainable, especially with climate change still threatening to upend life on Earth as we know it.
If we’re trying to live a more sustainable life in the hope of leaving a better planet behind to those who will inherit it, replacing fossil energy with renewable ones like solar is a great place to start.