Why Go Solar in Arizona?

Solar Power Saves Money

The single most common thing that all customers love the most about installing a solar power system is opening up their electric bill each month. In the middle of the summer when most Lake Havasu City resident electric bills are several hundred dollars a month, solar customers bills can be lower than $20 a month.

Solar Power Produces Free Electricity

Each day a typical power generation station burns around 10,000 tons of coal at a cost of $1,000,000 per day or $365 million per year. As the price of coal and natural gas continues to go up so does your electricity bill, but not if you have enough solar installed.

The best benefit of solar is that the price for sunshine is free. It never goes up. Once your phoenix solar system is installed it requires nothing but solar energy from the sun to produce free electricity for a minimum of at least 25 years.

Solar Can Be Utilized to Make Money

Arizona has a net metering system in place that allows solar customers to produce extra solar electricity during the day and sell up to 125% of the home energy back to the local utility company.

Solar Rebates Pay Up to 75% of Solar Installation Costs

The most common question a potential solar customer asks is, “How much does a solar system cost?” Every house is different and costs vary based on the number of stories and the distance that wiring and conduit pipe needs to be run to the breaker box. The answer is usually somewhere around $4 per watt installed. So a 5,000-watt solar power array might cost around $20,000.

The good news is that there is a 30% federal tax credit, a $1,000 Arizona State Tax Credit and a Unisource Solar Rebate of $3.00 per watt, which pays for up to 75% of the solar installation.

Do the math. If the cost of the solar power system is $20,000, the customers out of pocket cost is only around $5,000. Where else can you get than kind of a discount on anything?

The only problem that solar is getting very popular and customers are using up rebates fast. If you want to learn more about the incentives in your area, check out Solar in Phoenix.

Solar Parties Earn the Host a $500 Discount on a Solar System

Customers that want to become solar advocates for their neighborhood can earn another $500 discount by holding a solar party for their friends, neighbors and family members.

A solar expert visit your home and hold a mini-solar seminar to educate the group on how solar works, what kind of rooftops work best, how much room is required for solar panels, how much they cost and what their total out-of-pocket costs will be. It is any easy way to get an additional $500 discount on your solar system.

Solar is the Only Appliance that Will Pay for Itself

Many customers want to know how long will a solar power system take to provide a return on investment. It is hard to say for sure because no one knows how much electric rates are going to rise over the next 25 years.

The easy answer is usually about 5-7 years. In 2008, APS rates electric rates went up 10.55%. In 2009, they went up another 7.6%. That is 18.15% in less than two years. The more electricity rates go up the faster the return on investment becomes.

Solar Saves Water, Reduces Carbon Emissions and Produces Zero Pollution

There are 26 carbon-emission power generation stations in the state of Arizona and they due to federal subsidies they produce cheap power, but at a heavy cost to the environment.

Did you know that each year, these plants generate a combined total of 66.4 million tons of carbon-dioxide (Greenhouse Gases), sulfuric acid (Acid Rain), nitrogen oxide (SMOG), and Mercury into Arizona’s atmosphere?

In addition, these generation stations waste millions of gallons of water per year, which is boiled into steam to turn generation turbines and then released into the atmosphere.

In addition to coal and gas, Arizona also has the United States’ largest nuclear plant. According to Wikipedia, a typical 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor produces 27 tons of highly toxic nuclear waste per year that will be dangerous for the next 10,000 years.

The point is not bash carbon or nuclear produced electricity, but most people simply do not realize how much air pollution they emit. Carbon-based electricity is a necessary evil, but it does not take environmental expert to understand the fact that using free solar energy to produce clean green electricity is very good way to improve the air that we breathe in Arizona.

The good news is that solar power system do not burn any fuel or produces any type of carbon emissions. They also do not use any water. Solar power is a clean source of energy that simply converts sunshine into free electricity. And in a place like Arizona, why not harness our most abundant natural resource and make as much clean, free electricity as possible. Solar in Arizona is practicable.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. backs up to this point in a recent Larry King interview when he said, “We give a trillion a year in subsidies, direct and indirect subsidies, to oil, and somewhere near a trillion dollars to coal. Nuclear energy is also highly subsidized.”

“If we had a real free market that does what a market is supposed to do, which is to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior and inefficiency, wind, solar, geothermal and tidal would easily triumph in the marketplace,” Kennedy continued. “You would see them immediately taking over the marketplace. The biggest impediment is these huge subsidies we’re pouring into incumbents.”

Solar Can Reduce Ratepayer’s Bills by $375 Million by 2025

Not only is solar good for the air we breathe, but it has the potential to significantly reduce the electric rates that ratepayers see on their monthly electric bills. According to research report by RW Beck on behalf of APS, Arizona’s largest utility company, a high penetration of solar would save their ratepayers more than $375 million dollars by reducing line losses, fuel costs and capital expenditures on new generation plants and transmission lines.

Solar Adds Valuable Home Equity

According to an article published in the Appraisal Journal adding solar to your home adds twenty times the yearly energy savings in value to your home’s equity. If your solar power array saves you $1,000 a year in energy per, it adds approximately $20,000 to the value of your home. Few home improvements both add value to your home and produce free electricity for 25 years.

Solar Provides Protection Against Utility Rate Increases

With rate increase like this, it is easy to see installing solar makes so much sense. Installing a solar system that zeros out their electricity use will not see a electricity bill increase for 25 years.

1. APS 2008 rate increase of 9.4%

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2008/07/31/20080731biz-apsearns0731.html

2. Rate increase helps APS boost profits 23%
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2009/12/16/20091216biz-aps1217.html

3. APS calls for additional 5.3 percent increase

http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/05/04/daily10.html

4. APS asks for 20% rate hike
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/1105aps05biz.html?&wired

Solar is a Great Investment

Using the figures above, it is easy to see why investing $10,000 in solar makes so much cents. You can either put it in the bank and earn 5%, or you can invest it in solar and earn more money by protecting your family from electricity bill rate hikes every year.

Solar Can Provide Emergency Power

For customers that are worried about natural disasters or terrorist activities installing a set of backup batteries guarantees that you will have power no matter what happens to the utility electricity grid.

Solar Creates Jobs for Arizona Construction Workers

Over the past two years the solar industry has been the only industry that has seen significant growth. In 2008 there were about 40 solar installation companies in Arizona. It 2010 there were more than 300 solar installation companies. And the growth is not expected to slow down because more and more customers are realizing the unlike most appliances or expensive toys, investing money in solar is the best way to save money and actually earn a great return on investment.

Solar Power Systems are Guaranteed to Produce Power for 25 Years

Solar panels are very durable and have no moving parts. They are actually guaranteed to produce solar power for a minimum of 25 years. There many systems that have been in service for over 30 years.