Solar energy
It isn’t easy being green: electricity today
At Sungevity, we believe one solution to climate change is to increase the global use of solar power. With a rooftop solar installation, you make power exactly where you need it: your home.
The vast majority of households in the U.S. receive 100% of their energy from their utility via the grid. Over 70% of all electricity in the grid is supplied from power plants burning fossil fuels like coal, gas, and oil (see graph below).
It's difficult to imagine, but every time you switch on your computer, washing machine, TV, or toaster, pollution is being created somewhere at the other end of the wire. This pollution has far-ranging consequences and contributes to poor air quality and climate change.
It looks like this:
Learn more: Inefficient coal versus solar
Electricity and the environment
Electricity itself isn’t the problem. If we generated 100% of our electricity from the wind and sun, there would be significantly fewer carbon emissions. But instead, electricity generation is responsible for about 40% of America’s annual carbon emissions, contributing to air pollution in our cities and towns, and global climate change.
Energy does go into making solar panels. But according to the International Energy Agency (IEA 2006), the amount of energy used to manufacture a solar panel will be generated, and thus paid back, by that same panel in less than 2 years (when placed in California sunlight conditions).
Learn more: Climate change & electricity
Energy security
There’s another reason to consider going solar. Today, the US imports an increasing percentage of its primary energy needs, increasing our susceptibility to price volatility and shortages.
Going solar reduces US reliance on overseas oil and gas, and increases energy independence. It helps meet peak demand on our grid, creates local green-collar jobs, lowers our emissions, and powers the economy.
With resource crunches hitting the headlines, generating your own clean electricity is one small step towards shifting the world toward a more local, sustainable economy.
The solar solution
When your solar system generates electricity, you’ll reduce the amount of electricity you draw off the grid and decrease the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere, all without having to change your lifestyle.
You don’t need to go 100% solar to have a positive financial return and still benefit the environment. In fact, often it’s more economical to make your home a hybrid: getting electricity from both solar and your utility.