(image credit: New Era Electrical - http://www.neweraelectrical.com.au/)

Sustainable solar power, the green electricity alternative.

Solar power is clean green electricity, that is either created from sunlight or from heat from the sun. Having solar electricity in your home usually means setting up a solar photovoltaic system on your roof, so lets go through a few definitions and explanations before we get into the benefits of solar.

Definition of photovoltaic: Photo = “light” and photons = energy particles coming from sunlight; voltaic = producing a voltage or volts.  Abbreviation = PV

Solar energy is a renewable free source of energy that is sustainable and totally inexhaustible, unlike fossil fuels which are finite. It is also a non-polluting source of energy and it does not emit any greenhouse gases when producing electricity. The solar electricity that is produced can supply your entire or partial energy consumption.

How they work:

A Solar Energy System or Solar Photovoltaic System uses UV from the sun which generates DC (direct current) electricity. This electricity is then passed through an inverter which converts it to AC (alternating current), which is the type of current needed to run appliances in a typical home. The amount of electricity generated is usually metered and then fed back to the grid. Depending on which state you live in you will either receive a payment for all the electricity you generate (gross metering) or the amount of electricity you have generated will be deducted from the amount you have consumed on your next bill (net metering).

The benefits of solar power:

The financial benefit of solar panels can be a long term investment for your home. Yes, there’s initial start up and set up costs of a home solar panel setup, but the up front investment can pay off as there are many ongoing benefits for homeowners that make up for the initial costs.

1. Reduce your bills - Using the sun to power your home can help reduce your electricity bills and carbon footprint significantly. Summer or winter does not matter, throughout the year Australia experiences more solar radiation per square kilometre on average than anywhere else in the world! The sun gives us 10,00 times the energy annually than Australian's consume in a year. Solar panels allow us to make the most of this incredibly large and renewable source of energy.

2. Sell back to the grid - Want to create your own energy, now you can. With solar you can create your own energy and use less from the grid. When your solar panels generate more electricity than your household requires, the excess electricity can be sold back to the grid, depending on the schemes in the different states of Australia.

3. Protect against rising energy prices - Solar panels can be a way of protecting your household against future price increases of electricity which are produced by energy sources such as coal, oil and gas. As a provider of your own electricity from a renewable source, you can reduce your households dependence on fossil fuels and energy providers.

Long term investment on solar panels can be a really great selling point for a house which is being sold and potentially adding value to the property. Buyers wanting the property will look at the aspect and if your house already has solar panels, they know they can save a huge amount of costs on the homes electricity bills.