Overview of Solar Energy

Solar energy is the ultimate renewable energy.  Clean, plentiful and thanks to today's technologies, easy to harvest.  Every single day enough solar energy strikes the planet to meet the world's energy needs for four to five years.  In an era where global warming and CO2 buildup are of critical concern, solar energy can become an incredibly valuable solution for helping to protect our planet.

Solar energy systems are often classified into two categories, passive and active.  A passive solar system uses the light and heat from the sun directly for both heating, cooling and lighting.  The best potential for passive solar approaches is if you are building a new home and can design your home from the beginning to leverage the power of the sun.  However, even existing homes can be retrofitted to better leverage passive heating and cooling. 

Active solar systems are those that involve the active use of technology to harvest the energy of the sun.  This includes the use of both photovoltaic panels to capture the sun (PV) as well as home solar hot water systems.  There have been extraordinary strides in solar panels in the last 10 years.  Solar cells have become more efficient and less costly to produce which makes them an even greater value than they were a few years ago.  There have also been great strides in our ability to install and implement PV technology as contractors and builders have begun to treat PV as a mainstream building technology. 

The economics of solar energy are compelling, particularly as the costs of conventional oil and gas continue to climb.  Most PV systems are warranted for at least 25 years and usually pay for themselves in much less time, even assuming that gas and oil costs don't rise. Because of federal legislation, every state is required to allow homeowners to feed electricity into the electric grid.  With grid-tied solar energy systems the meter on sunny days can actually run backwards which means the energy companies have to pay you rather than the other way around.  Now isn't that a nice change!  Moreover, grid-tied solar electric systems avoid the need for batteries to store the electricity making the overall system even more cost effective.

Thanks to the 2005 Energy Policy Act homeowners get a 30% tax credit for money they invest in home solar energy systems.  In addition, nearly every state has begun to get on the solar bandwagon.  Many states now offer additional financial incentives for home solar systems.  With the combination of federal and state financial incentives, and the improved efficiency of modern solar technology, solar energy has become an extremely sensible option for nearly every homeowner. 

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