In the United States and many other developed countries, solar power is considered one of the more affordable forms of energy and sources of electricity. According to a 2020 report published by Ember – a climate-focused organization, renewable sources of energy such as Solar are increasing their footprint across the globe. Carbon-free sources of power are nearly surpassing coal power generation. As a matter of fact, coal power generation dropped by almost nine percent in the first half of 2020, and a third of that drop is directly attributed to carbon-free power sources.

Solar Is King

Today, many forward-thinking organizations such as Lumina Solar are embracing the future and investing in future generations by providing a host of solar-energy-based services. As far energy and power-generation go, solar is king because of two reasons:

• It is renewable
• It is available all over the world
• It leaves no carbon footprint

That is not to say that solar energy is perfect. In fact, it has drawn a fair share of criticism – some of which is reasonable. The one thing coal power perhaps has over solar power is energy density. Think energy density as the amount of energy stored per unit volume. Fortunately, thanks to the advancement in solar panels and battery technologies, this can be resolved by making good investments in batteries.

Now, obviously, that means startup costs for solar power generation are likely to be higher than coal power generation. But what we save in environmental, health, and economic costs by embracing solar energy far outweighs its initial startup costs. Furthermore, solar energy systems are low-maintenance. Great solar panels can easily last 25 to 30 years. That’s an entire generation!

If that’s not reason enough to embrace solar, think of it this way: your household will spend much less money on utility bills in the long term by installing solar panels and batteries. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), solar energy costs hardly reach 6 cents per kilowatt-hour while that of fossil fuels can cost as high as 17 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Depletion of Coal Power Sources

For a very long time now, burning fossils to generate energy has been favored thanks to its convenience and low costs. However, that has been changing for two main reasons. You see, fossils are non-renewable, which means that their global supply is finite. Centuries of burning fossils have depleted the once plentiful resource, and now power generation costs from fossils are increasing. In other words, the rate of extraction of fossil fuels is much higher than the rate at which they are being replenished.

Coal Power Leaves a Devastating Carbon Footprint

Secondly, carbon emission from burning fossils is the leading contributor to climate change – quite possibly the greatest threat to future human survival that we face today. Coal power generation also releases toxic metals and compounds such as mercury and sulfur dioxide into the environment that cause a devastating ripple effect on human and wildlife health.

We all have an obligation to leave the planet a safer and better place than we found it. Adopting solar energy goes a long way in achieving that. Lumina Solar is more than glad to partner with you in the quest to protect future generations and save on utility bills.