Summer Energy Saving Tips

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Most homeowners use a great deal of energy during the summer months. It can be difficult for an air conditioning unit to keep a home cool when it’s extremely hot outside, and as a result, many AC units end up staying on all day long and burning through a significant amount of energy in the process. Outside of the fact that it wastes a lot of energy, it can also become costly for homeowners. Here are some summer energy saving tips that can help you cut back on the amount of energy you use and cut down on the amount of money you pay in energy bills every month.

Update your thermostat and learn how to use it properly.

Are you using an old thermostat that doesn’t allow you to program it? Or are you just unfamiliar with what your thermostat does and what you should be doing to control it? Either way, you need to make sure you have an updated thermostat in your home that you can program to cool your house as efficiently as possible. You should set it to go on and off during the day based on when you’ll actually be home, and you should also avoid cranking the temperature as low as it goes if you don’t really need it to be that cold in your home.

Install ceiling fans and use them appropriately.

Ceiling fans can help to keep home cooler without having to turn the thermostat down. According to Energy.gov, you can raise your thermostat about 4 degrees if you have ceiling fans turned on in the main areas of your home and feel no change in the overall comfort level. But if you have fans, you should be sure to shut them off when you’re not in the same room as them since they really on the wind chill effect to cool people off. They won’t be doing anything but wasting energy if they are turned on and blowing when no one is actually in a room.

Invest in solar panels.

Taking small steps like swapping out an old thermostat for a new one and turning off fans when you aren’t using them will improve your energy situation slightly, but if you want to see bigger changes, you should consider installing solar panels on your roof. These panels will help you save money on your energy bills in the long term. They will provide your home with a lot of the electricity it needs on a daily basis.

Do you want to learn more about how solar panels could benefit you and your family? GR Solar Solutions would love to tell you about how a solar electric system could benefit you. Call us at 915-581-0461 today for more information.

Where is the World’s Largest Solar Energy Storage Farm?

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If you grew up in the 1980s– if you were alive in the 1980s– you probably remember Americans developed a certain fascination with Australia thanks to several movies, like Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. We learned there was a great desert expanse there known as the “Outback.”

When one thinks of the desert, one usually thinks of heat, sand, and sun… and not much else. It’s the perfect kind of place for a gigantic solar “farm” to harness the sun’s rays and turn them into energy we can use to sustain our electricity-dependent lifestyles.

Solar energy has really taken off in the past couple years, and in South Australia the Lyon Group is developing a billion dollar solar farm with 3.4 million solar panels and 1.1 million individual batteries. Read that sentence one more time please and take note: 3.4 million panels and 1.1 million batteries! The overall capacity of this place will be a whopping 330 megawatts of power, 100 megawatts of which will be stored in all those batteries and used when the sun sets. This facility’s renewable energy will help ensure that South Australia’s residents do not face power outages. Meanwhile, it means less focus on using finite fossil fuels for energy needs.

If you haven’t actually visited South Australia, know this: it’s a state in Australia, much like our Texas. Actually, it has an even more extreme wilderness than Texas. With a total land area of almost 380,000 square miles, most of the area is arid and empty of people. There are 1.7 million people calling the state home, but the majority of them live in the capital of Adelaide and its suburbs, which is near the ocean and decidedly not desert. That leaves plenty of wide open space for solar farms that can quietly and efficiently take in sunshine and convert it to energy.

Utilizing decent batteries to store solar energy is a good step forward for the solar industry. Meanwhile, the more solar farms there are, the better off our planet will be. Coal and oil are dirty and can “run out,” while solar is clean and infinite.

 

Amazon is Utilizing Solar Panels Atop Their Buildings

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What’s one thing buildings have that they could be better utilizing right now? If you answered their roofs, you are correct. Think about it– countless buildings around the world have roofs that don’t do much except protect what’s underneath them. However, imagine if these roofs were collecting solar energy in order to power the building and property below? It’s not that far-fetched an idea these days.

The famous online company Amazon is realizing what other companies are also realizing: they can save money by putting solar panels atop their buildings. It’s becoming cheaper to install and use solar panels than to pay the local electricity provider.

Amazon is known for e-commerce, whereas millions of people shop on their website for all sorts of items. These items are generally stored in giant fulfillment centers– humongous warehouses full of stuff. Amazon has 15 fulfillment centers that they plan to install solar panels on top of, in order to generate 41 megawatts of power. By the year 2020, they expect to be covering 50 of their sites with solar panels for power.

It’s a win-win situation for Amazon and its customers. In the long-run, Amazon saves money and is able to pass savings on to customers, who are always looking for a good deal. Meanwhile, solar energy is clean as can be– unlike fossil fuels and their dirty smokestacks. Therefore, what Amazon is doing is great for the environment.

Amazon believes in renewable energy, and the power they’ll be generating could power more than 30,000 homes, to give you a clear idea of what’s at stake.

More and more companies, along with residential homes, are installing solar panels to capture the sun and put it to work. Indeed, in the U.S.A. last year almost 36 gigawatts of solar power generation capacity was reached. It’s a number that continues to grow.

Small, Portable and Flexible Solar Panels Could Be In Your Future

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Have You Ever Held a solar panel? If you have, you would know that carrying a solar panel around with you for a day would be a fool’s errand. However, thanks to new technology, the ability to carry a several solar panels around with you could quickly become a reality.

Interestingly, the days of five foot long, glass-enclosed solar panels mounted on top of van roofs and homes and other places might be numbered… Did you know that miniaturization efforts are underway to the point where the solar panels of the future will be smaller and– get this– flexible? That’s right– there’s the potential to fold up tiny solar panels that still work well. Using high-efficiency silicon, developers are able to put the technology into smaller, more flexible forms than previously imagined. For instance, “solar panels” have the potential to be incorporated into wearable clothing! Think of the possibilities– your clothing, worn outside in the sun, may one day charge your smartphone device wirelessly.

Traditional solar panels are crystalline. You can’t bend them or else they’ll break. Future solar panels, however, are likely to be bendable, making them much more convenient for a variety of uses.

In the coming years, it’s entirely possible that people will be using “new form” solar power in order to charge and use their devices. Indeed, this improved technology could literally reshape the way people live, work, play and function in daily life. The future for solar power shows much promise.

If you have any questions about solar panels or the future of solar panels, contact GR Solar Solutions today.

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The Reach of Solar Energy Could Be Limitless

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“Space, the final frontier…” are the words used in the famous TV show Star Trek. All you have to do is go outside and look up toward the stars and there it is: space.

Right now, we all tend to think of things on our planet. After all, space travel is not available to the majority of people on Earth. Only a select few have had the honor to venture “up there.”

However, what if space, the final frontier, became used for something more than just a research space station and some satellites? What if space could be utilized for, of all things, harnessing solar energy to supply electricity to people on Earth?

Think about it this way: here on the planet we’re living on, we deal with sunrises and sunsets daily. Solar panels exist in places where it gets dark, right? But, what if solar panels were placed in space where the sun never sets? Interesting idea, right?

This concept of putting solar panels in space to collect the sun’s energy to then send solar power to people on Earth could very well become “the next big thing.” As a concept, for a long time it was just too expensive to make it work. But over the years, teams of scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs have used their collective brainpower to come up with ways to make it economically viable.

How would the concept actually work? Modules would be launched into space where they’d end up in geosynchronous orbit. Mirrors, solar panels, and converters turning sunlight into electricity would work together to then beam microwaves to receivers on the ground (of our planet) where they’d be re-converted back into electricity and utilized by people on Earth.

How much would a solar power plant in space cost? All together, it would probably cost $5 billion dollars. Could this become a reality in the coming decades? Yes, it could. We shall see…

Why Big Corporations Are Utilizing Solar Power

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If you’ve ever shopped at Walmart (and most of America has) then you’ve probably noticed how their newer stores differ from their older ones. For instance, newer Walmarts often have a lot of skylights letting in natural light from above. This means they don’t have to spend as much money on light bulbs and electricity. It’s nature’s way of lighting the aisles. The sun not only provides light, but it also helps make electricity. Solar power is popular these days.

Interestingly, corporate America is getting better at utilizing the sun to ultimately save money. For instance, many corporations are installing solar panels atop the roofs of their buildings because they recognize solar energy as a good investment in more ways than one. Not only does solar energy save them money on their electric bills, but it’s also a clean energy that’s good for the environment. Consumers appreciate knowing that the corporations are doing their part to care about the environment by utilizing solar energy.

Consider the statistics. Over 1 GW of solar power is being utilized by corporations these days, according to the Solar Means Business 2016 report by The Solar Energy Industries Association. To give you an idea of how much 1 GW is, it’s enough to power 193,000 homes. Wow. There are plenty of corporations with names you know who are using solar energy to save millions of dollars. Among them are Target, Walmart, Apple and Costco. Solar panels are not only used for retail stores and office buildings, but also for data centers.

GR Solar Solutions of Texas has a partnership with UMA-Solar and Centrosolar America. This allows the company to bring residential and commercial clients efficient solar power solutions. If you want to know more about having solar panels installed on your home or at your business to ultimately save money, please call GR Solar Solutions at 915-581-0461.

A Big Announcement From GR Solar Solutions!

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GR Solar Solutions is pleased to announce we’ve been chosen to be the service providers for Home Depot of El Paso regarding solar power systems. In working with Home Depot, GR Solar Solutions will be responsible for solar power system installation services and repairs, helping Home Depot customers convert to solar energy.

Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement retailer. Last year, the company released its Sustainability Report, which stated they’ve been able to reduce supply chain carbon emissions by 35% (over 2008 levels) and to reduce energy use in their stores by 30% (over 2004 levels). They have a continued commitment to becoming even more energy-efficient by the year 2020, with an emphasis on using onsite fuel cell and solar installs as well as offsite solar and wind developments.

As a company, Home Depot is serious about solar energy. It uses solar power systems for its own energy needs and provides solar energy solutions for its customers.

Home Depot generally gives potential solar energy customers a free quote to show them the advantages of solar power. They recommend homes with a mostly-sunny roof facing south, east or west as the best for utilizing solar power systems to save money on energy bills.

Since Home Depot is committed to using local, licensed and insured solar providers and panel installers, it makes sense they’ve aligned with GR Solar Solutions of Texas. With more than 30 years of experience in designing and installing solar power systems, GR Solar Solutions is the kind of company Home Depot’s customers will appreciate.

When working with Home Depot, customers will find that there are a wide range of flexible financing options including the company’s Consumer Credit Card and Project Loan. If you happen to live in the El Paso area, visit your local Home Depot to ask about solar power systems. If you choose to move forward with an install, know that GR Solar Solutions will be the ones doing the physical work to put solar panels on top of your roof.