Are you considering “going solar”? If you are, you should carefully weigh the pros and the cons of a home solar energy system. These pros and cons will vary, because all homes are different and all locations are different. Here are a few pros and cons of solar energy to get you thinking about whether a solar energy system is right for your home. Cons Let's start with the biggest downside to solar power: Solar is expensive. Even with state and federal government incentives, if you want to generate enough solar energy to power your entire home, you can expect to spend anywhere from $15,000 to $45,000. Although this investment will eventually repay itself, it will take some time. With a government-funded tax credit, you can still expect to wait at least ten or even fifteen years before that investment pays for itself. In a worst-case scenario, it might take twenty or twenty-five years for your solar power investment to pay for itself, which is bad news as most PV solar panels have a life-expectancy of about twenty-five to thirty years. Another con is that solar is not very efficient unless you live in a place that gets a lot of direct sunlight. If you have a home whose roof doesn't face south or whose south side is obstructed by buildings or trees, your solar panel will still work, just not very efficiently. Likewise, unless you live in the Sunbelt, your solar panel system may not be as effective as you had hoped. Pros If you're thinking seriously about going solar, now is the right time to do it. Thanks to President Obama's Recovery Act, government incentives to switching over to solar have never been better. Tax credits and assistance with paying for installation can cut in half the amount of time it will take for an investment in solar to pay for itself. Furthermore, due to supply and demand, the price of solar panels is finally starting to drop. Solar is more affordable than ever before, but the tax credits probably won't last forever; therefore, now is the time to act on your dream. No matter where you live, there's sun. Granted, areas that get less sun make for less efficient solar panels, but even in Seattle, people are successfully using solar energy to power their homes. When your neighbors lose electricity because of a blackout, a thunderstorm, a hurricane, or an earthquake, you will still have power. You will have become energy independent. Besides the financial benefits to switching over to solar, there are also the moral benefits. When your home is powered by solar energy, you will know that you've made a significant step towards reducing the size of your carbon footprint. You'll know that you're doing something good for yourself, your children, and your grandchildren. This reason might be the best reason of all to switch to solar energy. **Shannon Bell writes for residentialsolarpanels.org a non commercial blog focused on her Photovoltaic experiences to help people understand how and why they should save energy starting investing in solar power. She writes on her blog to help people learn how to start save energy from the scratch and then apply those experience to the next level. BM
