How Solar Cells Save the Environment
May 30th, 2009 | 
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Sure, we all know that solar panels are green and clean, but how really green are they? Wouldn't it be nice to actually see some facts and figures for a change instead of hearing phrases like solar cells save oil or solar cells reduce air pollutants? Anyone can say that about anything green, but here we will now look at some honest to goodness hard facts to ponder.
First things first, a 2.5kw solar panel array, which is very common, will supply about 380 kilowatts per month calculated with 5 sun hours per day. The average house, meanwhile, burns about 700 kilowatts of electricity per month. In raw terms, those electrical savings will amount to over 300 barrels of oil saved per year, or the equivalent mileage of 270,000 driven miles.
Want more details? Having that system saves 2 tons of coal burning which generates the same amount of electricity. Needless to say, that cuts down on the equivalent amount of acid rain emissions, and literally reduces all greenhouse gases by over one quarter of a million pounds!
Over 25 years, in a botanical and environmental sense, this is like planting 5000 trees, doing all that good from the roof of your house! Now, , couple those figures with the rising cost of electricity, and you are doing just as much good for your pocketbook as you are for the environment.
Those are just the facts. But maybe best of all, knowing about all of this and then going solar gives you something much better then just facts, it gives you some piece of mind.
By: Tina Metcalf
About the Author:
Cooler Planet is a leading solar resource for connecting consumers and commercial entities with local solar Installers. Cooler Planet's solar energy resource page contains articles and tools such as our solar calculator to help with your solar project.
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