Boston Getting Fired Up Over Solar Energy
The city of Boston, Massachusetts has begun to make serious inroads toward the establishment of solar energy systems for both homeowners and business establishments. Thanks, in part, to a new initiative entitled Solar Massachusetts, Boston’s homeowners and business owners are beginning to take advantage of the potential savings when investing in solar energy.
The Boston solar movement is part education and qualification and part construction assistance and tax break incentives when residents and business owners decide to convert their homes and businesses to solar energy and power systems.
With regard to residential situations, there are, basically, two different types of solar power systems. Boston solar homeowners can power and heat their homes through glass solar panel that are attached to the roof or through a solar powered water heating system. The panels on the roof are photovoltaic and generate the electricity needed to power their homes while the water system is dedicated to heating their water for various family needs.
The individual glass panels are composed of tiny solar cells that gather in the sun’s energy and rays, stores it and then converts it to electricity. The water is heated, through a system that allows cold water to filter through a solar energy collector tanks and then to be dispersed throughout the residence or business. Those Boston solar residents can see a savings where their electricity bills may be cut nearly in half.
For businesses, or in cases where many building need to take advantage of the sun’s power, large collections of panels can be set up in large open areas and the power and electricity can then run through connecting wires into storage batteries or into a regional grid system to distribute power to many other cities and towns.
When a Boston solar resident or business applies the system, the power can be stored in solar batteries and used during situations in which the weather turns cloudy or when there is no sunlight such as during the night. When the batteries are fully filled, a normal sized house might be able to operate for five to seven days before needing to be re-filled.
The advantage for homeowners in sending energy back to the power grid is that the power companies must pay them for the energy they send along to the grid. So, not only can a Bostonsolar resident save on their energy bills, they can make a little money from selling their excess to the utility companies.
The Solar Massachusetts program will assist Boston solar homeowners with the instillation costs as well as offering resident’s additional savings in the form of certain tax breaks and the option of selling their excess power back to the power and utility companies. Most Boston residents are paying well over 15 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity which is much higher than the national average of about 11 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity. With the new solar panels installed, however, the Solar Massachusetts program states that resident will be able to be within that 11 cents per kilowatt hour range before taking advantage of tax breaks and the opportunity to sell back a portion of their energy to the power companies.
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