The Advantages of Solar Power

The residents of Santa Cruz county should be aware of all benefits of converting to solar power.
When over 13,000 households use solar power systems, it’s time to take an in depth look at the reasons. Allterra Solar has built to capture them.  There aree a variety of different uses, or for lack a better word: motives to utilize new innovation.  There are benefits to solar power such as helping the environment, preserving capital, assets/net income, investing in your home or business equity while supporting the valuable clean energy economy.  Renewable energy is clean and quick….and affordable. Allterra Solar

Affordable Electricity Costs Benefiting Society

When you go solar with Allterra Solar you immediately save on electricity, and, in most cases, this can be achieved with no out-of-pocket expenses.  The bulk of most solar customers realize energy bill savings of 15-20%– this can add up to over $35,000 over a twenty year period. In today’s economy, annual utility increases are about 6.7% a year.  Even focusing on the last three years, we have witnessed a 30% jump in electricity costs.  Protection from these drastic utility rate increases for 25 years or more is also a major incentive because lower financing options are available.   Also, more savings where a time of use billing method is implemented, substantial savings occur due to the fact that solar panels operate most efficiently when electricity rates are at their peak. Contact us to see how switching to solar can save your family thousands of dollars.

Unparalleled Investment Returns

Solar power is a great investment as typical calculations indicate somewhat modest returns between 3-4% in the first year of installation. This “modest” return is somewhat misleading though because projected utility rate increases are not taken into account. On average, pre-tax internal rates of return for a 25 year period can be anywhere between 10-25%.  Utility rates will not be decreasing anytime in the near future, if ever, making an IRR of 10-25% for the investments that solar power customers make and how this will provide them with higher returns than stock, bond, money markets or long-term CDs.

Watch your Home Equity Increase

It is not uncommon for homeowners to be uncertain of how long they will actually own their home.  This may lead to questions as to the benefits of solar power if you are concerned that there are only long-term benefits to solar power.  Good news for customers with this concern: recent studies by the  National Appraisal Institute have shown you can increase your home’s value by $20 for a mere $1 reduction in annual utility bills. Solar homes have also proven to have a faster sell turnaround in the housing market.  Not to mention, your property taxes won’t increase.

Cost Effectiveness

Solar energy used to be conceived as simply too expensive for residential use.  This idea can now easily be discounted and there are many more advantages than only the environmental benefits of solar energy.  Did you know that the entire world can be powered for a whole year by the energy produced by the sun in just one day?!  Because of new technology which allows us to utilize the sun’s energy via more affordable and advanced ways, it is now a certainty that solar power works for all consumers- residential and commercial.  The national and international communities need a reliable solution to a looming energy crisis.  Our solution fits the bill in the following innovative ways:

• Coal – Our nation maintains a surplus of coal resources but sourcing and mining are becoming increasingly dangerous and destructive.  Devastating effects from the burning and processing of coal result in pollution.  For example, 200 billion gallons of water are affected by this and asthma-causing particulates and neurological disorder-causing mercury is released into the air and 200 billion gallons of water is used each day!
• Natural gas – Even natural gas, though highly promoted because of it’s less destructive side effects is not without fault because of it’s highly controversial extraction methods, otherwise known as hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as “fracking”) and the direct linkage to the contamination of drinking water and protection of an already existing air quality issue.
• Hydroelectricity – Hydroelectricity, albeit a safer energy source, has still been responsible for flooding which destroys human and wildlife habitats.
• Nuclear power – The excessive costs of uranium extraction associated with nuclear energy is off the charts.  This is in addition to necessary precautions that must be taken with most storage of the uranium fuel waste which needs to be monitored over a 200,000 – 500,000 time period…and those figures are in years.
• Wind – Wind is a valuable resource- but the sun is just as valuable.  The danger associated with fossil fuels can be mended with the wind because wind is the backbone of the grid which ties in with solar power and allows for the creation of expansive hybrid systems which can avoid fossil fuels.  Energy that comes from the wind is free.  The supposed energy deficit caused largely by the manufacturing of wind turbines (also known as the the mechanics which manufacture embodied energy) require less than one year to see monetary or fiscal benefits to residential, commercial or government properties.
• Solar – Embodied energy discovered within solar equipment capabilities compensates for the environmental cost of deployment.  Current studies show a positive return within 3-4 years but, amazingly, effective and solid solar panels still remain producing electricity at least up to 60 years after installation.  In this day and age,  that is a remarkable environmental ROI. The future is now and while skeptics may anticipate rooftop solar may not be the solution to every energy deficit we all face, we are confident of it’s monumental contribution to a leader in the clean energy future!