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Solar Power is Projected to Grow Six Fold In the Next 15 Years

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growth solarIs electricity from solar panels catching on in America? You bet it is because it’s cleaner and cheaper and safer than other sources like coal plants and nuclear power plants.

When an earthquake caused a tsunami that messed with the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan back in 2011, that was a wake-up call to the world that nuclear energy is not ideal. Meanwhile, coal plants in America have been shutting down left and right since the EPA has new rules regulating air pollution. Coal is dirty, after all, and it’s better if people aren’t breathing particles in the air from nearby coal power plants.

Solar panel-produced electricity is on the rise, as production grows and becomes cheaper in the years to come. It’s estimated that solar power will expand six-fold by 2030 (according to the International Renewable Energy Agency) as production costs fall as much as 59 percent by 2025. In other words, solar power will start to dominate globally.

In 2015, solar accounted for about 227 gigawatts of power worldwide, but within the next fifteen years, you can expect that number to steadily rise to 2,500 gigawatts, providing electricity for about 13% of the planet.

The USA and developed countries in Europe are leading the way for solar power to expand as they place an emphasis on replacing nuclear and coal plants with solar options. Meanwhile, emerging markets for solar power growth will include Russia, Brazil, and Mexico.

As innovation continues in the solar power market, expect increases in power storage to be made. Just like computers took a generation or two to become ubiquitous, solar power is going to be the new norm in the coming years.

If you’re ready for solar power now, Solar Solutions can design and install solar panels to meet your energy needs. Covering New Mexico and Texas, where sunshine is abundant, Solar Solutions has been working with solar energy for decades and has the experts to enable your residential or commercial buildings to save money by switching to solar power.

Make Your Home Solar Powered

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Solar PanelsHomeowners across America are turning to solar panels to help power their homes. If you’re unsure whether you want your house to go solar, here are a few benefits of making the jump.

Price is Right
Right now, solar panels and solar technology are being produced cheaper than ever before. This means purchasing it for your home won’t cost too much. Therefore, where you thought you would have to potentially take out a loan from small-cash.com from here to convert your home, you might have enough money to get it done without the help of a loan.

Tax Breaks
There is plenty of tax breaks and incentives for installing solar power on to your home. So not only will you save yourself money when you purchase the system, but you may also get more money back during tax season as well. Many of these breaks and incentives are first come first serve, however, so get your taxes done as soon as possible.

Energy Price
With solar panels, you will find out how much energy you use and how much you will have to pay for it. This will make it easier to balance your finances and adjust accordingly if by some chance money gets short.

Increased Property Value
Whenever you add something to your home it raises the property value and solar panels are no different. This can be helpful if you are planning on selling your home down the road.

Local Economy Support
When you get your solar panels installed, you more than likely will be hiring a local company to handle the installation. By doing this, you help support your local economy and give the company free promotion by having their product on your house.

Energy Reliability
If you were to install solar panels, you would no longer be at the mercy of rolling blackouts and power outages. Your home would keep running like normal, allowing you to go about your day.

With all these benefits, it’s easy to see why you should install solar panels on to your home. When you’re ready to, let the experts at GR Solar Solutions take care of it. We’ve been designing and installing solar electric systems in Texas and New Mexico for over 30 years and will have your home running solar energy in no time. For more information, call us today at 915-581-0461!

 

 

The History of Solar Panels

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Solar panels seem like they’ve been around awhile, don’t they? While the sun has been around since time began, solar panels are a more recent development, getting their start in 1955.

Though you’d almost expect solar panels to have been first developed in a sunny state like Florida or California, the solar panel got its start in… New Jersey. It was there, in the mid-1950s, that scientists from Bell Laboratories came up with the first practical photovoltaic cell. Using razor blade-sized strips of silicon, the scientists found success at converting sun rays into electricity. Soon after that, in 1958, Bell Labs provided solar electric power for NASA’s first permanent satellite.

In the 1960s and 1970s, New Jersey became the leader in solar research thanks to the efforts of a company you’ve probably heard of: Exxon. Labs were set up in Linden and Florham Park, and the company spent more money on solar technology research during that time than the U.S. government did! Exxon was convinced that oil was on its way out and solar was on its way in as reports that society would run out of oil in the coming decades surfaced. Exxon helped make solar energy a viable alternative to oil.

Interestingly, while practical solar panels were a mid-Twentieth Century development, it was way back in 1839 when Alexandre Edmond Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect which allows for sunlight to be turned into electricity. Attempts to make this effect work for practical purposes didn’t work out well at the time. Eventually, though, in 1941, Russell Ohl invented the solar cell. From there, Bell Labs utilized solar cell technology to develop solar panels.

Now that it’s 2016, something interesting has happened: solar employment has overtaken oil, gas and coal employment in the U.S. according to an article from Bloomberg.

GR Solar Solutions is one of the companies providing solar power to thousands of people in New Mexico, Texas and beyond. Find out how GR Solar Solutions can save you money through solar panels by calling 915-581-0461.

Solar Panels Could Soon Proliferate Up North

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Since solar power is fairly new to most people, questions arise about the details such as, “Will it work with a steep roof or a flat roof?” or “What if I don’t want panels on my roof– are there other options?”

In Madison, Wisconsin, a solar demonstration project exists to test out solar panel designs, directions and angles with a focus on figuring out what works best in northern climates like Wisconsin, where it’s more likely to snow in the winter than, say, Texas.

Solar panels capture sunlight and convert it to electricity which can then run the many appliances and gadgets in a home like TVs, computers and washing machines.

Since states in the southern part of the USA are well-known for their sunny climates, solar panels have become quite prevalent in places like Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and California. So what’s next for the industry as a whole? The idea is to adjust panels as needed in order to meet the electrical needs of people in the Midwest as well as places far north like Minnesota and Maine.

Overall, solar panels are like most technologies: over time they become more efficient as more people work toward developing smaller, better, faster models that improve on the generation that came before them.

There’s definitely a move away from coal-supplied energy in America and abroad. Solar power is emerging as a major player in the world for supplying people with energy to run their homes and businesses. After all, the sun is an amazing natural resource, and the technology to harness its rays to create electricity has arrived. Now researchers just have to figure out how to make the panels as efficient as possible so that even on cloudy or snowy days they’re still “up to par” with what people expect.

By the way, at the solar demonstration project in Wisconsin, there are solar carports with electric-vehicle charging stations. You’ll also find special “solar trees,” whereas panels are mounted on curved steel structures that look like trees or flowers! The day could come where everything is powered by the sun.

Could You Soon Make Photocopies With Solar Panels?

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For years Xerox was a company synonymous with making photocopies of documents using paper. However, the times, they are a changin’, like Bob Dylan once sang, and today Xerox-affiliated researchers are looking to help expand their business with something else… copied solar panels.

Could there be a machine that copies solar panels? It is possible. Xerox’s idea is to develop a new digital printing process to make it cheaper to mass produce “solar photovoltaic systems,” aka solar panels. Just like a lot of things, these items could be smaller, cheaper, and more efficient than what’s currently on the market today. Think about how phones used to be bigger and bulkier, as well as computers. Now imagine the solar panels you see on rooftops– they’re generally pretty large, aren’t they? What if a company like Xerox could design and make smaller ones that do a great job for people?

How can Xerox-affiliated researchers make this technology a reality? They’re developing a new kind of printer which can deposit tiny semiconductor chips on a flat panel. So, instead of depositing ink, like most printers and copiers do, this new version would be able to assemble together electrical and optical components, thus making improved solar panels on a mass scale.

Strides have been made by engineers to shrink components needed that concentrate and focus sunlight down to the millimeter scale. In a few years, it’s possible that precision-made solar panels will be able to be made like the way we photocopy documents today.

Since this technology isn’t quite ready just yet, you have the option of utilizing today’s solar panels on top of your roof to harness the sun for power. Solar Solutions Inc. is one of the most experienced solar power companies in Texas and New Mexico. If you’d like solar electric and solar pool heating systems designed and installed for your place, call 915-581-0461.