Solar Panel Benefits

Sustainable

The energy that your solar panel system collects is clean, efficient and most importantly free. The system collects the sun during daylight hours all year round and converts this free energy into AC current that powers every single appliance in your home. Obviously the production of the solar panels and solar inverter does expend energy and materials, but with solar panels lasting 30+ years and inverters 10+ years and producing all your houses energy in between, investing in solar is one of, if not the, best thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.

Environmentally-Friendly

There are many things you can do to make your home and life eco friendly, from energy efficient light bulbs to 5 star rating appliances, but there really is no better bang for your buck than a Government funded investment in solar. The current energy you use is powered by fossil fuels which are a mixture of dead plant matter and toxins from millions of years ago dug up using huge amounts of energy and carted all round Australia and then released into the air. The use of fossil fuels contributes to global warming, smog, and acid rain. Limiting the amount of fossil fuel that is taken from the earth will help alleviate not only global warming, but also the degradation of land resulting from gaining access to said fuels. Furthermore, many fossil fuels create the need to store dangerous, polluting and sometimes radioactive waste.

Silent

Solar panels have no moving parts and hence make no noise while operating, whereas other large scale renewable conversions like hydro and wind make a large amount of noise during construction and operation which can be a problem for your peace of mind, as well as your close neighbours. Solar panels are also becoming more and more contemporary in design and conversions really can be built with your house design in mind or if not, put into a place on your roof where they are out of sight, out of mind.

Low Maintenance

Solar panels have no moving parts, so other than an annual hosing down (for dust or any other natural build up) they can sit on your roof working efficiently with no extra support from you, for many years and decades. Think about other investments you make and all the time and effort you put into them, and then consider the minimal effort you have to put in to what many consider a similar return in converting to solar.

Financial savings

Our research of our customers confirmed what we already assumed to be the case, the vast majority of people that invest in solar do so for the financial benefits, all the other benefits of solar are a bonus, but are not the main impetus for considering the switch.

We have a ‘customer stories’ section that goes into a more detailed financial discussion and analysis, but in short, investing in solar can be up there with property and stock investments for security and value for money.

A realistic solar solution will set you back about $15,000, by realistic we mean a system that can significantly reduce or completely remove your bill, not a 6 panel $3000 system from China. Now $15,000 can seem like a hit when you are affording your $400 bill every quarter, but Sun Connect has a unique 84 month loan which can mean your weekly or monthly solar repayments are neutralised by the credits you receive on your bill from your power company.

We have several customers that have or are tracking to a complete return on investment within 4-5 years and they are now enjoying no electricity bill. They have also added value to their home and have protected themselves against the power price hikes that are expected from not only the impact of the carbon tax, but the billions they are expecting to spend in the next 2 years on electrical infrastructure investments.

 

Government incentives

The Federal Government has an ambitious target of reducing the countries greenhouse emissions by 20% by 2020. This is a huge undertaking and a huge promise and the Government are enacting a number of industry enabling funding sources throughout the renewable industry including ours, solar.

There are two main ways the Government are funding your investment, the first way is through Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). These are credits that are provided to you either as an upfront discount on the purchase of your solar system or as something you can claim back yourself post your solar investment. This rebate can be up to several thousands of dollars, which covers a fair percentage of your solar investment.

The second way the Government funds your investment is through feed-in tariffs. The feed-in tariff is a monetary figure you receive for every unit of energy that you pump back into the grid. During the day you might not use as much electricity or be at work so will be pumping a lot of excess power into the grid and receive as much as 66cents (Vic) for every unit of energy you sell back to your utility, that’s more than triple what you buy your electricity at. Some power companies provide you a credit on your bill and others make a monthly or quarterly payment to you, which for some of our customers, has been well into the several hundred dollar mark every quarter.

Autonomous

We deal in mainly grid connected systems, but occasionally we have requests for fully self sufficient solar power systems which are not connected to the electricity grid. This isn’t really an option for people in metropolitan areas, but for homes in regional areas of Australia it’s an increasingly viable alternative for solar and a realistic benefit of switching to solar.

With off grid solar power systems you have no connection or interaction with power companies meaning you have no annual connection fees or power bills, this also means you are saved from the power outages that seem to be happening with more and more regularity.

Obviously the solar investment is larger because the install is considerably more detailed and you have to invest in a solar storage facility, which are still fairly unrealistically priced, but as the technology improves and the price decreases these will become a more viable option and allow every Australian to turn their home into a micro power station.

Easy to Install

A final benefit of converting to solar is the ease of install. Sun Connect’s Clean Energy Council (CEC) accredited solar installers can have the system up and installed within one day. Thinking about the time involved in wind energy or any other large scale renewable conversions makes this one day installation another major reason and factor to choosing solar panels in reducing your impact on the environment and getting the best return on your investment.