Affordable Solar Power

Save the planet! Explore energy alternatives! We’ve all heard it, and we’re trying to do what we can, we really are. We’re constantly being reminded that every little helps when it comes to conserving energy, and using renewable energy sources. And one of those energy sources is solar energy.

It has, for a long time, been seen as a great way to produce energy without digging even deeper into the ‘well’ of fossil fuels. But there’s always been a problem. Solar panels have, until recently, been quite expensive, so the whole solar energy route isn’t one that many people felt they were able to tread.

The price of solar panels has fallen

However, as reported in Upworthy, that’s all changed. Solar power is much more affordable now, apparently. The cost of a solar panel has dropped by about 70% in recent years, so it now makes much more sense to ‘go solar’. In fact, since 2008, the total solar capacity of the US has risen from less than one gigawatt to a very healthy 97 gigawatts.

To put that in perspective, one gigawatt of power is roughly equivalent to what would be produced by about 3 million photovoltaic panels, based on a representative model panel size of 320 watts (source: energy.gov).

The Upworthy article points out that perhaps the best way to benefit from solar power is to make use of all the unused roof space of America’s huge retail stores (e.g. Walmart, Amazon, Costco, Kroger, Target, Home Depot, etc). Apparently, the average Walmart has 180,000 sq.ft. of roof space (roughly equivalent to three football fields). And just one of those Walmart roofs, if fitted with solar panels, could power 200 homes.

Make use of all that superstore roof space!

There are well over 100,000 big superstores in the US, and that means about 7 million sq. ft of roof space. Space that, at the moment, is wasted. If solar panels were fitted on all of them, they could potentially power nearly 8 million homes. That would be an absolutely huge saving of fossil fuels!

Ikea has already committed to using solar power and is now using it on 90% of its US stores. Surely it’s time other retailers followed suit. They should realise that showing they care about the environment goes down well with their customers, and adopting solar power does just that. Also, going solar is such an easy thing to do now, considering that the cost of solar panels has fallen so much recently.