the raw facts are always the most astounding to me; like that 82.8 million barrels of oil are consumed each day, or that one wind turbine can produce enough energy to power 300 homes, and that each day the sun creates enough energy to power the world for an entire year.

that last fact really stuck with me. if the sun creates that much energy, why aren’t we investing in ways to harness more of it? while researching solar energy, i consistently was surprised by the power and apparent affordability.

in order to harness the energy from the sun and turn it into electricity, it is necessary to have solar cells to collect and transform solar energy into useable electricity. to power the entire world for a year, we would need to fill just 25,000 square miles of our planet with solar panels. this area is only slightly larger than the state of west virginia, and can power the entire planet.

just to put the sun power into perspective, the amount of power that reaches the earth in one day is valued at $625 trillion dollars! that’s enough money to buy google, microsoft, apple and facebook 686 times over. meanwhile the amount of energy that reaches the earth in one year is valued at $228 quadrillion dollars – enough money to pay the u.s. national debt 16,294 times. yet putting a solar panel on your home isn’t nearly as expensive as i expected it to be.

solar panels are expensive initially, but your return on investment is quick. hybrid cars start at around $25,000 and the return on investment is 6.5 years. those high efficiency washing machines that you probably already have in your home will take 5 years to return your investment and home solar panels are right there with them. the return on home solar electricity is only six years, and is even shorter in places with government incentives. states like new jersey, massachusetts, and pennsylvania have incentive programs (srec) that make the payback rate drop to 4 years.

this left me wondering why more people don’t have solar panels on their home, immediately thinking of my parents who live in pennsylvania i realized that it is something they have never actually looked into or heard about doing. solar panels don’t really “sound” affordable and large start up costs without federal incentives would be hard for most people to justify, yet 92 percent of people in the u.s. feel the government should implement solar power programs.

a one kilowatt home solar panel could prevent 170 pounds of coal from being burned and 300 pounds of co2 from being released into the atmosphere. most home solar systems are between 3 and 7 kilowatts. solar energy isn’t affordable and effective for every house but everyone should be learning about the options that solar energy has to offer on both large and small scale projects. whether it’s to save the environment, or just save money, we should be looking into solar resources as we move toward the future.