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Sustainability February 17, 2017
If you want to save money, live greener and still have dependable electricity, solar power may seem like the holy grail you’ve been seeking. You aren’t alone in this thinking, either: the International Energy Agency predicts that, by 2020, renewable energy – particularly solar and wind – will make up 45 percent of new energy installations around the world.
Before you decide to invest in a solar energy system for your home or business, though, you should ask a few questions, like: How cost-effective is solar energy? What advancements are taking place? And what laws have been made about solar energy?
To find out the pros, cons and commonly misunderstood aspects of solar energy, ENTITY chatted with Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and Dr. William Hogan, research director of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group.
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Here’s what you should know about solar energy before you can decide if solar energy is the right choice for you.
Most likely, when you hear the words “solar energy,” you think “environmentally friendly.” Admittedly, there are environmental costs related to the production, transportation and installation of solar panels. However, Hopper still says that “every year, the solar industry is offsetting millions of metric tons of harmful carbon emissions.”
But solar power benefits the planet in more ways than just decreased CO2. In fact, research in the Netherlands found that “compared with electricity from coal, PV electricity [a type of solar power] uses 86 to 89 percent less water, occupies or transforms over 80 percent less land, presents approximately 95 percent lower toxicity to humans, contributes 92 to 97 percent less to acid rain, and 97 to 98 percent less to marine eutrophication.”
READ MORE: The Urgency of Change for Global Warming
Perhaps the best part of solar energy? Humans could (hypothetically) keep using this renwable energy source indefinitely. The U.S. Department of Energy even reports that, thanks to the sun, “173,000 terawatts of energy strike the Earth continuously” providing more than “10,000 times the world’s energy use.” Unlike other non-sustainable energy sources like coal or oil, solar power offers a nearly limitless amount of (environmentally friendly) energy.
Who knew that, just by adding solar panels to your house or office, you could help so many aspects of our environment?
Another major advantage of solar energy is that it is the chameleon of power. Besides providing electricity through PV panels, sunlight can be converted into heat (solar thermal) and solar energy materials can even be incorporated into buildings, as windows for example. Even when just considering solar electricity, large panels can power an entire school in Buenos Aires or a doctor’s office in Nairobi. Because solar panels can also be used to distill water in areas where clean water is rare, solar energy has the potential to make a life-altering impact on communities all over the world.
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Hopper also points out: “One in every 50 new jobs created in 2016 were in solar. Today, the solar industry employs 260,000 Americans across the country. An investment in clean technology benefits our friends, our neighbors, our communities, our country, and, in turn, our planet.”
If you want to make a difference in the world, maybe you should add “work in the solar power industry” to your list of possible future careers.
For years – and for homeowners in particular – the environmental considerations of solar energy did not outweigh its hefty price tag. From 2015 to 2016, however, the installation price of solar respectively dropped by 5 and 12 percent for rooftop residential systems and large solar farms.
Solar energy is also free from the hidden health costs found from traditional electric sources. When ENTITY reached out to Dr. Hogan, he directed us a recent National Academy Study on clean energy that he participated in. In it, Hogan and his co-researchers point out: “A 2010 National Research Council study found that air pollution from coal-fired electric power plants…caused significant harms to human health, including, among others, asthma and premature deaths. The human health harms from all coal-generated electricity thus cost about 33 percent of the value of all electric power produced [in 2005].”
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Besides the reduced financial and health costs, many homeowners also enjoy the idea of producing their own energy instead of depending on big energy companies. Some communities will allow you to live completely independent of your local energy provider by purchasing a battery that stores any unused energy. However most homeowners are not able to store excess energy, so they will sell it to a local energy provider who can then resell and redistribute the energy to other homes. On the other hand, those who consume more energy then they produce will pay their energy provider for the remaining amount.
Another major advantage of solar energy is that it can be harvested directly from the sun with no third party intermediary. Although the U.S. has decreased its dependency on foreign countries for oil, it still imports around 24 percent, as of 2015. As a result, oil – and energy overall – is often a political issue when it should be an environmental concern above all else. If the U.S. followed plans like scientists’ “Solar Grand Plan” and was able to get all of its electricity and 90 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2100, scientists hope the U.S. could “cut trade deficits [and] ease political tension in the Middle East and elsewhere.”
While this may sound like an unattainable goal, countries elsewhere are finding success. In 2011, Ukraine depended on Russia for 40 billion cubic meters of gas. However, after investing in renewable energy – particularly solar plants – the country cut its gas imports from Russia to 6.1 billion cubic meters by 2015.
READ MORE: 5 Ways Cities Can Reduce CO2 Emission
If America wants to be “great again,” maybe gaining energy independence is the first step.
While the cost of solar energy is going down, it still definitely isn’t cheap. According to Dr. Hogan: “In most locations within the United States, prices for increasingly clean power technologies are higher than those for less clean, incumbent technologies.” In fact, a 2015 report from the U.S. Annual Energy Outlook predicts that, in 2020, solar will be much more expensive than other energy sources.
One possible reason for solar’s higher price tag is a variety of “soft costs” included in the production of solar energy. These refer to the costs of installing and maintaining solar that don’t have to deal with the actual hardware. For instance, soft costs can include permit fees, sales tax, customer acquisition and supply chain expenses. The cost for solar panels themselves has dropped by 60 percent since 2010 – but the costs for just customer acquisition actually grew by 10 percent in 2016.
Until solar energy companies can tackle soft costs, the cost of solar energy may still be too much for some people to pay.
Another limiting factor of solar energy is the space panels require. In order to make solar energy worth the cost of production and installation, you need to make sure there is enough room for your system to run efficiently. Typically, a solar installation on a residential home features around 20 solar panels or 300 total square feet, which you can picture as five cars lined up. If you want to cover 100 percent of your home’s energy needs, you’ll probably need even more panels than that – around 28 to 34.
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Where you choose to install the solar system – in terms of the angle on your building and your geographical location in the U.S. – is also an important consideration. Research has found that south-facing solar panels are the most productive because sunlight can directly hit the panels for most of the day. You should also consider the weather of your home state. If you live in Seattle where direct sunlight is quite limited, solar might not be worth the investment.
On the other hand, people living in sunny states like Hawaii have been found to save over $60,000 on electricity in 20 years.
Can you say “aloha” to solar power?
Unfortunately for solar consumers, the sun does not shine continuously for twenty-four hours. The amount of daylight hours available for solar energy production differs depending on the time of year and where you live. People who live closest to the Equator can take advantage of the most direct sun and the longest daylight hours compared to those who live in more northern and cloudy climates. (Southwest states = solar paradise!)
Hopper has high hopes for the future of solar power, however. “[There is] skyrocketing employment and deployment of solar panels, particularly in states that have not in the past been very strong,” she explains. “In a few years, I believe we’ll get to the point where seeing solar panels on a house or in a field isn’t cause for conversation – it’s just the norm.” Advancements like molecules that could store solar energy for later use, as well, as increased support from Americans to expand solar energy (with 89 percent of polled Americans supporting solar panel farms and 40 percent considering adding them to their own homes), could make Hopper’s hopes a reality.
The biggest con of solar energy may have less to do with the panels themselves and more to do with the laws surrounding them. A 2016 report analyzed 10 states with the worst solar policies but the highest solar potential. Their conclusion? These 10 states could produce up to 35 percent of the nation’s solar energy supply…but laws (or lack of them) are getting in the way.
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First of all, seven out of these ten states either outlaw or don’t clearly state the legal status of third party ownership for solar panels. Third party ownership basically means that home owners let a company install the panels on their house and then sign a contract or lease to pay them for the electricity. This setup occurs in 72 percent of residential solar installations, so when it’s gone, so are people’s chances of solar energy when they don’t have thousands of dollars lying around. States like Alabama also lack policies promoting solar energy or mandates to expand their state’s clean energy supply.
According to Hopper, “word of mouth is the most important factor in a person’s decision to go solar.” However, people’s ability to easily and legally acquire solar energy might be an even more influential variable.
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So, is solar energy really out of this world? It’s impossible to deny that solar energy has plenty of benefits, ranging from saving money, helping the environment or even, on a national level, promoting America’s energy independence. However, you also can’t overlook the challenges that solar is facing as a new, renewable energy source – and the changes that need to be made before solar panels are as common as weathervanes.
The only fact that is for certain? Before you decide to say yay or nay to solar energy, you need to thoroughly explore the pros and cons and see what realizations come to light.
