Inventors and Scientists have worked to crack the principles
of electricity since the 1600’s. The earliest accomplishments were made by giants
like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla.
Benjamin
Franklin established
that lightning is in fact electricity and not “the work of the devil”.
Thomas
Edison invented the
first incandescent light bulb; it lasted a whopping 13.5 hours before it needed
replacement.
Nikola Tesla pioneered the generation,
transmission, and use of alternating current (AC) electricity,
which reduced the cost of transmitting electricity over long distances. Tesla’s
inventions were critical to electricity being used to bring indoor lighting to
homes and for electricity’s use in powering industrial machines.
Despite its great importance to our daily life, few people stop to consider what life would be like
without electricity. Much like air and water, people have developed a tendency to
take electricity for granted, even though we use electricity to do many jobs
every day—from lighting, heating, and cooling our homes to powering televisions
and computers.
The average base price in 2015 people in the United States paid
for electricity was 10.33 Cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
for all sectors (Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Transportation)
. . . A typical U.S. household uses about 908 kWh a
month of electricity (nearly $94.00). But there’s a huge variation from
state to state . . . and too, these cost averages do not include various “taxes”
or “fees” that is far too often added to a typical electric bill.
On a state by state basis, people in Hawaii pay the most for
electricity, about 25.11 Cents per kWh in 2015; a Hawaiian household whose
electricity use is around the national average before taxes or fees should have
an electric bill just a bit below $227.00 a month. Alaska’s residents have the second highest
rate at 18 Cents per kilowatt-hour.
On the opposite end of the spectrum: Idaho had the lowest price, of about 8 (7.93) Cents per kWh. So the typical US household in Iowa should average
paying about $73.00 for electricity each month before government taxes and fees.
You see, Idaho generates a large segment of
its electricity from hydroelectric dams; a method that requires virtually no
fuel. In addition, the original cost for constructing the dams have been spread
out over many decades, this in turn has kept electricity prices in Idaho lower
than in other states.
For the past few months (November
2015—January 2016) a sales pitch by Dr. Kent Moors for his Energy Advantage newsletter has hit practically every Facebook account,
Twitter account, or e-mail inbox in North America. The sales pitch, and that is
in reality what it is, would have you believe the cost of energy needed to
sustain everything from your household, your car, and industrial equipment is
on the threshold of becoming nearly free.
The story line has come in under a bunch of different titles: “Say ‘Goodbye’ to Your Electric Bill…
Forever!”; “stunning breakthrough set to make OPEC obsolete”; “$5.00 stock makes
OPEC obsolete”; to “This could be the
end for big oil” and “it all starts
with a tiny grain of sand.”
The pitch is a ridiculously long one . . . if you were to
print it out, it runs 40+ pages long, and Moors doesn’t get around to admitting
that it’s solar power he’s talking about until page 13. He goes to some length
to push aside the concerns that many investors might have about solar by simply
saying that “it’s different now.” Yes, if you haven’t already guessed, in the
end he’s pitching the stock of—SunEdison, traded as SUNE, that according to Moors,
“have already locked in enormous long-term deals with the likes of Walmart,
Google, the U.S. Department of Defense, and New York City.”
SunEdison was a $5
billion company a year ago, and (very briefly) a $10 billion company back in
July of 2015, but now the market cap is under a Billion Dollars and its stock
is still falling. To add insult to
injury, they have $10 Billion in long-term debt.
Never-the-less, Moors
declares that “the
biggest energy consumers on the planet are rushing to harness this company’s
innovative technology.”
He claims “their patented
technology turns grains of sand, right off the beach, into highly efficient,
wafer-thin solar cells that deliver dirt-cheap energy” a process
that “reduces
the cost by a stunning 99%.” * To be fair, you should know that SunEdison really does have about 750
patents, and they claim to have a technology, much as Moors describes, for
creating high purity silicon, a primary ingredient for manufacturing solar
panels; however the
fact is that no one company is responsible for the drop in costs that have been
on-going for the last 40 years. Plus nearly all purified silicon is a derivative
of sand.
And too, the “hype” or as some might call it “propaganda” of
recent date that’s been submitted by Dr. Moors in regard to SunEdison’s bright future in Solar Power production may in actuality dissuade your
interest and or respect for the benefits of Solar Power’s future. But before
writing-off Solar Power completely, you might ponder on a few basic facts,
absent the hard sell:
Solar module / panels costs was about $76/ kWh back in 1977—during most of the
1980’s and through the early 2000’s the cost per kWh had reduced to the $5 to 10
per kWh range. These days (2015 &
early 2016) the cost per kWh that utility
companies are actually paying for electricity that is derived from a
utility-scale solar project averages about five Cents (5¢)
per kWh but the truth is this low cost per kWh isn’t really accurate
because it does not include the production cost of the modules / panels, the
mark-up the typical utility company is entitled to, or taxes and fees that is often
added by local government regulations.
Regardless, the process of converting solar energy into
direct current electricity or Photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation costs have fallen more than any other
electricity generation costs over the past five years.
Perhaps one of the most unfortunate solar myths is that Solar
Power is only for rich people and/or environmentalists . . . however if that
was ever true, improved technology and lower production costs now allow many
homeowners to choose to go solar simply because it eliminates their monthly
electricity bills. Actually, Solar Power
is now a sensible choice for many people who could use the extra couple hundred
bucks a month they would normally pay for electric service for their home or
business.
The truth is, Solar Power is one of only a few purchases that
will actually pay for its self in large part because a system last up to 35
years before a replacement need arises. Studies show that on an average basis,
solar panels return two to four times their cost in saved electricity bills and
usually pay for themselves completely within 7 to 15 years. If you live in a
state with good incentives, the payback term can be as little as 2 to 4 years.
The tired argument that solar power is
limited to a hot sunny climate is now most assuredly simply fiction. Case-in-point, Germany (see map above) leads the world in
residential solar power production (2016),
and is geography located closer to the Arctic Circle than to the equator.
These days, most modern solar panel systems are “grid tied”
which means they’re connected to the conventional electricity grid. The system
generates power during the day and excess production is fed back into the grid
through a system called “net metering”. When this happens, your meter spins
backwards so your electricity provider in effect is crediting you for that “extra”
power production. At night or on overcast days, you’ll generally use grid
power, but you will not get charged for it because of all the credit you’ve
generated via net metering during the day. The alternative to this system is batteries
but they’re still rather expensive, bulky, and have to be replaced every five
to ten years.
Solar panels have no moving parts and require little
maintenance. However, most instillation experts recommend hosing off the panels
once a year or so, but many panel owners never clean the panels and instead
rely on the rain to do the job for them.
But before you run out and invest in Solar energy you should
know it only makes financial sense for your home or business if the solar
panels installed can produce electricity at a lower cost than what you normally
pay a local utility company for electricity. [The most recent state by state publication
regarding average utility costs can be found in the Electric Power Monthly for 2014 and 2015 (CLICK HERE FOR A DIRECT LINK)] The key point here is that you should be
aware that although a sunny climate matters — high electricity costs charged by
local utilities is an important part of the decision making process.
Regardless in sunny states that have above average
electricity costs, such as Hawaii and California, make ideal locations for solar
energy. But it also means that states in the New England region, where the
average residential customer pays nearly 16 cents per kWh for electricity, have
become a great place for solar power too.
The “peak”
sunlight hours per day (“Peak sun-hours” are not
the same as “hours of sunlight”) for your particular location will have
a direct impact on the energy you can expect your solar system to yield. For
example, if you live in Phoenix, AZ (Zone 1)
you can expect to have a greater number of peak sunlight hours than if you
reside in Seattle, WA (Zone 6). However that
doesn’t mean a Seattle homeowner / business owner wouldn’t enjoy significant
solar energy production; but it does mean the system would need more panels
which will in turn increase the cost of instillation.
Below is
a Ball-Park Cost for a “Grid-Tied” Solar System Instillation (Zone 3):
System
Size 30-Day Monthly Output Cost Estimate
1,000 - 3,600 W 150 - 540 kWh $3,000.00 -
$7,376.00
3,700 - 6,000 W 555 - 900 kWh $7,400.00 -
$11,000.00
7,200 - 12,000 W 1,080 - 1,800 kWh $11,361.00 - $21,643.00
14,100 - 19,100 W 2,115 - 2,865 kWh $22,607.00 - $34,800.00
Oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear power generating plants
have created a huge number of environmental problems. We pay for these man made
complications with ever increasing tax dollars, higher prices for consumer
goods, and with a lower quality of life resulting from acid rain, smog, water
pollution, global warming , nuclear waste disposal dumps that require hundreds
of years of on-site management, the steady depletion of our natural resources,
and the “inadvertent” destruction of natural habitats.
Solar technology will allow us to avoid many of these
potential & on-going catastrophes.
One last point, the silicon from a single ton of sand has the
potential to produce as much electricity as 500,000 tons of coal!
Sources:
