Comparing German Solar Power with South Africa
South Africa can look up to Germany when it comes to Solar Power. Here's why.
DISCOVER EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SOLAR POWER
Browse through the articles below, which are written with you in mind.
No complicated jargon, just solar simplified.
19
Oct
The Benefits of Solar Energy
- by Emma Patel
- |
- 19 October
The Earth receives approximately 1370 watts per square metre of solar radiation each year. That’s a lot of power!
Using this clean, renewable electricity not only saves you money, but it
is also kind on the environment and brings you one step closer to “off the grid
living,” where you are no longer reliant on less dependable resources. This is a very real concern if you are living
in South Africa right now.
Here are the main reasons why
you should switch to solar:
Solar Energy is cost
effective
The cost of materials and
labour has come down considerably, making the installation of solar systems
more affordable.
The energy you gain from
direct sunlight provides you with free electricity. So once you have installed a
solar power system, you will see an immediate decrease in your electricity
bills, and over the warranty
period of the system (25 years) the average household will see savings of more
than R90k.
Once you start generating
your own energy, you will be somewhat protected against the rising cost of
electricity and the unstable local power supply.
With the right power storage
system in place, any excess energy can be stored and used when there is no or
little sunshine, further increasing your savings and making you no longer tied
to the grid.
At present, any unused
electricity produced by your system cannot be fed back into the South African
grid. However, local politicians are keen to make a change here, and when this
happens you will be able to sell any excess electricity back to the
municipality, thus saving more money.
The installation of a solar
system also increases the value of your property.
Solar Energy is Reliable
The sun always rises and set
every day, and the energy generated from it never runs out. Even when there is extensive cloud cover, you
can still generated electricity from the sun.
You can access solar power
anywhere where the sun shines, even if there are no electricity cables
servicing that area.
Solar power systems have a warranty
period of about 25 years, with a 90% average efficiency over this time. There
is little to no maintenance required during this time, making it an easy and
reliable choice.
Solar Energy is
Environmentally Friendly
Unlike the traditional
methods of creating electricity, solar panels do not produce any harmful
emissions (such as greenhouse gasses like CO2). This means that there is no
impact on climate change or air pollution.
There is also no noise
pollution generated from the production of electricity from solar.
Solar systems conserve water.
They use 16 times less water than coal power plants, and 20 times less water
than nuclear power plants to produce the same amount of electricity.
Solar energy is renewable, so
you don’t need to worry about the ever-dwindling amount of fossil fuels.
What's more, solar panels
themselves can be recycled.
As technology improves, solar power systems are becoming more affordable and run effortlessly on their own. So with all these benefits, there really isn't a better to time to switch to solar. Click here to see just how much you could save.
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