The overwhelming majority of San Diego homeowners and businesses that embrace solar power do so for economic reasons.
They use free energy from the sun to reduce their monthly utility bills. And as SDG&E continues to up its rates (12% to 30% this year alone), the economic incentives only become more powerful.
However, there are other important reasons to embrace solar power if you live in San Diego. Chief among these is the environment. Every kilowatt of installed solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity reduces your dependence on dirty fossil fuel.
But how big a reduction are we talking? True – solar helps to reduce your carbon footprint, but by how much?
In this post, we wanted to run some numbers – and put the environmental gains into perspective.
Let’s begin.
A Standard 5kW San Diego Solar Power System Is Enough to…
At Sunline Energy, we handle installations of all shapes and sizes. But 5kW is fairly common for most residential projects. So let’s use this as our baseline.
What does a 5kW solar power system achieve over the 25 years that come standard with most PV installation warranties?
Well, you reduce your CO2 by about 250,000 pounds?
Pretty impressive, right? That’s 250K pounds of toxic greenhouse gas that you would have pumped into the atmosphere had you continued with your fossil fuel-powered lifestyle.
But what does 250K pounds of CO2 really mean?
250,000 pounds of avoided CO2 is the equivalent of:
- Not driving 400,000 miles in a standard car
- Helping the planet avoid 830 pounds of acid rain
- Planting 124 trees (or roughly 2-3 acres)
- Not burning 150,000 pounds of coal
But it actually gets better – for 2 reasons.
Number 1 – most of these carbon offset calculations assume that you’re installing your system in Anywhere, USA.
But San Diego is most definitely not Anywhere. It’s nestled in Southern California – one of the sunniest places in the continental United States.
In other words, San Diego is ideally suited for solar. And an installation in Chula Vista or Imperial Beach will deliver a lot more power than a comparable system set up in Boston or Milwaukee.
More solar power = smaller carbon footprint.
Number 2 – We used 25 years as our timeline. But most San Diego solar power installations last considerably longer. In fact, there are systems that were erected during the 1970s that are still going strong more than 40 years later.
In other words, the above carbon offset calculations are on the lower end of what your system will actually yield – especially if you contract Sunline Energy to install your panels.
So are you ready to start greening the planet and reducing your carbon footprint?
If so, contact us today for a free consultation.
