There is a push to go solar. Electric company customers are ready to get off the grid and with ever rising energy costs and no end to the rate hikes in sight those relying on the power company to keep their lights on and the air conditioner running in the heat of the summer are now looking to the solar cell to do the same. Unfortunately there are some problems with this approach and those in the field want to demystify the process that makes going solar such an expensive and sometimes not a feasible endeavor.
At the heart of the solar electricity panel is the solar cell and for those who would have you believe that these little cells are the answer to all of your problems the message rings out to be more accurate in their representation of the product. Due to the normal loss of energy that is part and parcel of the solar energy system, the odds are good that it will take a large number of solar cells to create sufficient energy to get off the grid complete. This, of course, requires an expenditure of many tens of thousand of dollars.
If you do not get a lot of sunshine, you may find that the energy provided will not be as readily available as it may be in other areas. This in turn leads to a continued dependence on overall electric energy.
If money is no object for someone ready to go solar, electric grids may be avoided if the consumer is willing to augment the solar energy system with a wind turbine to cash in on the available wind to carry the home through the times when sunlight is not as readily available either due to atmospheric changes or because of seasonal darkening. Since a wind turbine is expensive in its own right, this expense will indeed be staggering, but it does have the potential to take you off the grid completely and render you self sufficient.
Renewable energy may not yet provide enough of a boost to keep the lights on indefinitely, but it is a dent in the use of fossil fuels. Granted, the expense involved may seem out of this world, but to an environmentally conscious public this is a small price to pay for the potential of leaving the planet to the next generation in perhaps a slightly better condition that it was found when the consumer took on the responsibilities of a household.
Mind you, going solar – electric rates and associated concerns taking a backburner at this point – is a commitment that a consumer and her or his family make to a community and to society at large. Thus, it is the environmentally conscious mindset that comes into play when individual consumers seek out the opportunity to benefit in some small way from solar energy and in so doing also allow the planet to benefit. In this case the cost or lack thereof is not the driving force, nor is the consideration of ease or aesthetics but instead the greater good that may be achieved is at the root of the buying decision.
