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Solar Energy harnesses clean, renewable sunlight via photovoltaic solar panels on your roof, to generate power for your home or business. When you invest in solar energy you can virtually eliminate your electric bill not to mention add value to your property.
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In spring of 2008, Renu Energy completed the design of an 11 million watt solar thermal power generating station to supply electric and steam power at a new chemical production plant currently being built in Dahej, India. For savvy businesses and consumers looking to find affordable, clean, renewable energy, solar thermal systems and photovoltaic solar panels are currently providing clean electric power for homes and businesses around the world. Be smart. Join the movement to clean solar energy today!
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| Solar power is the least polluting and most inexhaustible of all known energy sources. We are just beginning to tap its potential. In a sense, virtually all of the energy we use comes from the sun - even fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and coal, which are the stored, compressed solar energy of plants that lived millions of years ago. While energy radiating directly from the sun has always been available to humankind, we have not been able to use it as effectively as other sources. Creating a system which provides a reliable energy supply from solar power has been a difficult challenge. Today's systems, however, are cost-effective, reliable and simple to use. | ||||||||||||||
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| What is Net Metering? Net Metering is the regulatory ability to get credit for electricity you generate with solar energy and send backwards through your utility meter. Exact provisions vary with each state, but the effect is to allow you to generate excess power during the day, and use it at night, without needing batteries. | ||||||||||||||
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Solar Power's History The appeal of solar power is so direct that its history is measured by concrete results and in some cases the products of a run-away imagination. Silicon has the benefit of over thirty years of large scale, reliable use. 1883 Charles Fritts builds the world's first solar-electric module: Selenium coated with gold. It converts less than one percent of sunlight to electricity. 1953 Gerald Pearson shines lamplight on a Silicon transistor developed by colleagues at Bell Labs and discovers lithium doped silicon as a powerful photovoltaic material, superior to selenium in performance. 1953 Bell Labs' Pearson, Fuller, Chapin announce the first solar cell. The New York Times comments that this is “the beginning of an era, leading eventually to the realization of one of mankind's most cherished dreams—the harnessing of the almost limitless energy of the sun for the uses of civilization”. 1956 The first earth-orbiting satellite is powered by solar cells. Solar's cost/performance is at $500/watt but solar wins as the best electricity source for this application. 1970 Solar's cost/performance is down to $100/watt for solar cells produced with high-grade silicon feedstock (such as used by the microelectronics industry). All satellites are now powered by solar cells. 1973 Solar's cost/performance is down to $50/watt by virtue of using cheaper reject silicon wafers and maintaining the silicon wafer's original. 1978 Solar modules are deployed on large scale terrestrially in Australia to support telecommunication networks. 1985 Solar electricity powers 30,000 emergency call boxes along California's highways. Providing electricity for new streetlights and bus shelter illumination is now generally more economical than connecting to the grid. 1995 The cost/performance of installed solar systems reaches $15/watt and governments around the world begin seeking ways to support demand growth to achieve the cost declines to make solar power competitive with electricity from the utility network. 2004 Solar system cost/performance drops to less than $10/watt. The solar market surpasses 1 million kilowatts in shipments and $6.5 billion in revenue. Germany, Japan, and the United States lead the world in market growth. 2008 Solar system cost/performance drops below $5/watt for large scale solar systems. The market for solar systems continues to grow internationally at a rapid pace. The US government extends 30% tax credit for renewable energy systems through December 31, 2016. | |||||||||||||
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| What is the average cost of installing and operating solar energy systems? Like all forms of energy, the price of purchasing all forms of electricity varies by your location. In the case of using solar energy, recently enacted state rebates, coupled with rising utility costs and paybacks from local utility companies that pay energy producers, have reduced purchase costs of solar photovoltaic systems and made them economically viable and attractive. The amount of one's financial benefit from solar energy is also dependent on the amount of available annual sunshine. Savvy customers in sunbelt areas see a payback of their solar energy system investment in less than 7 years with energy savings and tax credits, and less than two years in those states that have cash rebate programs. Operating costs of a solar energy system are virtually nonexistent, so when a solar system is installed on your home or business it saves and/or makes you money every month.
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