It’s that time of year again to celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To thankfully remind us of our freedom every year, we have our most beloved summer holiday, the Fourth of July, which is finally here. Undoubtedly, you’ve got the cooler already filled, the lawn chairs set in place and the grill all ready to go for Saturday. Why not celebrate the holiday by going solar this summer and enjoy the long-term benefits of energy freedom?
Why Energy Freedom Now?
- Federal Income Tax Credit expires in Dec. 31st, 2016. The FITC covers 30% of your system. If you go solar now, you can claim the tax credit for the 2015 and 2016 tax years.
- Utility Rebate – Austin Energy gives a rebate to customers currently at $1,000/kW.
- Lowest System Prices – due to an increase in panel and inverter supply, the prices are the lowest they’ve ever been.
- Own Your Energy – most of us rent our energy from our utility, wouldn’t you rather own what it takes to operate our daily lives?
- $0 down financing options – You can have energy savings from day one.
Solar energy systems are an attractive asset for Homeowners looking to sell their homes, as rooftop panels have been shown to increase the value of the home while reducing its time on market. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, homes with solar sell at up to twice the rate of their conventional counterparts.
The cost of electricity for homeowners has gone up in 28 of the past 30 years, with an almost 40% increase in the last decade alone. History indicates that Homeowners who remain completely grid-dependent will pay more in utilities next year than they do now, and will continue to pay more with each coming year.
According to the Berkeley National Laboratory, a standard 6 kilowatt hour (kWh) system performing for 25 years can reduce your carbon footprint by over 150 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to planting over 3,500 trees, not burning 15,750 gallons of gasoline, recycling 50 tons of waste, and displacing carbon emissions from the annual electricity use of 19 homes.
As it stands right now, the majority of us are merely renters of excessive amounts of nonrenewable energy, and based on what your electric bill said lately, it is downright expensive. In 2012, the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that 9.8 million homeowners in Texas had an average monthly electricity consumption of 1,168 kWh, paying an average of $128.27 every month. Although we blindly associate it with the cost of living, it is unfortunately a great deal of money to be spending on what is really a one-way investment in favor of the electric company. In this business model, you are completely dependent on the electric company for your energy needs.
Consider how you could change that around simply by using the resources available to you, namely the sun and photovoltaic technology. Going solar means that you become a producer of energy, not just a consumer of it, and with the excess energy you can sell back to the grid, you are now more of a partner to the electric company. Unlike the standard consumer approach, a professionally installed and optimized solar panel system is an investment of your hard-earned money not only into your home, but your future. Want to ensure you have a stronger selling point to your home? Want to make sure you are taking an active role in going green and normalizing the use of solar energy in the American home? Want to stop wasting time and money? This is how you do it – by going solar today.
Now, ready your fireworks and get creative with how you display your red, white and blue this Independence Day! You might surprise yourself at how financially rewarding and environmentally smart going solar can be for your home or business.
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