Why Solar?

In one hour, the sun gives the Earth the same amount of energy as that consumed by all humanity in one year. Put another way, every 2.6 days the Sun delivers energy equivalent to the word’s entire reserves of oil, coal and gas. With photovoltaic technology, 18% to 22% of this energy can be converted directly into electricity.

Solar power is the result of converting sunlight into electricity. Sunlight can be converted directly into electricity using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly with concentrating solar power (CSP), which normally focuses the sun's energy to boil water which is then used to provide power.

Some technologies, such as solar thermal concentrators have an element of thermal storage, such as molten salts. These store spare solar energy in the form of heat which is made available overnight or during periods that solar power is not available to produce electricity.

Unlike fossil fuel based technologies, solar power does not lead to any harmful emissions during operation. There is no pollution, noise or fossil fuels.

Photovoltaic installations can operate for many years with little maintenance or intervention after their initial set-up, so after the initial capital cost of building any solar power plant, operating costs are extremely low compared to existing power technologies.

Over its 35-year expected life, a 10 kW system will provide the equivalent CO2 reduction as planting 1450 trees. (Based on typical utility pollution, it will prevent emissions of 963,125 lbs of carbon dioxide, 4,237 lbs of sulfur dioxide, and 1,364 lbs of nitrogen oxides.) It will produce 575,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, as much as would be generated by burning 583,000 lbs of coal.