Environmental problems associated with climate change and global warming has made the move towards a global renewable energy economy both desirable and necessary. The impacts of increased carbon emissions from industrialized nations have led to an emergence of public awareness about the importance of producing clean ‘green’ energy. Solar PV, which produces electricity directly from sunlight, is an environmentally friendly technology. Solar PV provides numerous environmental benefits for a green energy future.
FREE, UNLIMITED, AND ACCESSIBLE RENEWABLE RESOURCE
- The sun is a free and readily available renewable resource with a life expectancy of billions of years, so it will never run out
- The distribution of sunlight hitting the earth is fairly evenly distributed in comparison to other sources of energy
- Solar energy is reasonably predictable, with average yields remaining constant.
REDUCES LOCAL AIR POLLUTION, SOLID WASTE, AND CO²
- Does not emit any pollutants and is not associated with the environmental risks of other sources of energy, such as oil spills, nuclear accidents, or other human-caused catastrophes
- Manufacturing processes are generally closed loop, therefore solid waste and water pollution are not considered an issue
- Solar PV systems produce little to no CO² emissions
- System components can be recycled at the end of the system life cycle. With a 40 year average lifespan of a solar PV system, disposal occurs infrequently.
- Solar PV systems produce no noise
MINIMAL LAND-USE IMPACT
- 98% of global installations have been on buildings. Solar PV has the advantage of being fully integrated into existing structures, thus having little land use requirements or impacts
Community Benefits
Consumers send monthly payments to an energy provider for energy produced far away though either hydroelectric, natural gas, nuclear, or more often than not in Ontario, coal fired plants. This is money that leaves a community every month, and goes to pay salaries and profits in other jurisdictions.
Rooftop solar power production and Feed In Tariffs hold the possibility of revolutionizing this traditional relationship.
Now -- every citizen with a decent amount of roof space, south exposure, and access to capital can produce power for direct sale to the grid and receive a cheque from the power company, which we like to call the SunCheque. (Net metering can zero out their power bill, but this is a different issue altogether)
Every municipality now has the ability to increase its revenue base by encouraging its citizens to install solar on their properties. So while a few thousand in energy payments are still being sent to head offices in Toronto or other areas, that same amount or more can come back in the form of SunCheques and directly improve the local economy.
