Four years ago last month, we had our first set of solar panels installed. Pennsylvania law prohibits being able to produce more electricity over the course of a year than the consumer would use, so that limited us to 27 panels. It has been satisfying even though the Pennsylvania laws end up making it difficult to recoup the cost of installation in a reasonable amount of time. This array was capable of producing as much as 53 kilowatt-hours per day, with a peak power of 6.5 kilowatts.
Last year we bought a Tesla, and the increased electrical demand from charging the car legitimized our expanding the system. We added 8 additional panels, and now our peak (observed) power is 8.5 kilowatts. The maximum energy we’ve made in a single day is about 71 kilowatt-hours.
The broker for our electricity sends me a monthly e-mail informing me of how much electricity our panels have produced over that period, as well as comparisons to make those amounts comprehensible, including a carbon offset. I was a little bit stunned on reading the e-mail covering production over the month of July this year, in which, since the expansion, we have made the most electricity we ever have. It said we had produced 1.52 megawatt-hours, and our carbon offset was 1.05 tons! We have produced more electricity in the past month than can be produced by burning an entire ton of carbon, just from a fairly modest residential solar panel array! I then looked back at the June statement, and discovered that our carbon offset for that month was 1.04 tons.
I know that in the business of electrical production, the combustion of a ton of coal is a relatively small thing, but to think that our solar array has reduced the need for coal by more than one ton is two consecutive months strikes me as pretty awesome, in a literal sense. I know that not everyone can afford these arrays, but if there were more of them, think of the tonnage of coal we could just leave in the ground.
Before moving on to the comments, I want to mention that our favorite quilters, the Reed sisters (SaraR and Winglion) are in danger of losing their house due to horrendous medical expenses. Please help them out by either purchasing pootie pads here, or by donating to their gofundme site here.
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