Top 4 Benefits You Get from Your Neighbor’s Solar Panels, Even If You Don’t Have Solar Yourself

Most people know solar power benefits the people who use it because it reduces their utility costs. Some solar-powered homeowners don’t pay anything for electricity. A lesser known fact is that solar powered homeowners help everyone in their community, even their neighbors who still depend on fossil fuels alone for home energy.

Here are the top 4 ways your solar-powered neighbors are making your life better;

1. Solar-powered homeowners help everyone in their community save money. More energy-conscious customers help neighbors who are bigger energy consumers, save money on their monthly electric bills. Those who use solar power not only conserve energy so there is more for everyone, they also help power the grid. The extra electricity that is generated from their solar panels is fed back to the power grid which takes the pressure off of the utility companies to spend extra funds on infrastructure updates. It also helps reduce transmission-line congestion that can cause rolling blackouts and other inconvenient power outages for repairs and upgrades.
2. Solar-powered homeowners help protect the health and quality of life for their neighbors. Residences powered by solar energy produce no harmful emissions and cut down on pollution from fossil fuel extraction and combustion in the community. This not only safeguards the well-being of the families living there but also lowers their healthcare expenses.
3. People with solar make their communities safer. Our electrical power grid is aging fast and additional stress is added to it due to climate change that makes storms stronger and summers hotter. There are also rising concerns about terrorism including threats of cyber attacks. The current grid is so dated and over stressed that the utility industry will need to spend billions of dollars to update it and keep it secure. By expanding the power sources to include more distributed solar energy, a catastrophic weather event or attack will be less likely to take out the entire system at once making the system safer and potentially saving the economy billions of dollars in expenses to repair and rebuild.
4. Solar-powered homeowners keep local economy humming.  Every person who runs their home on solar power also helps reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Solar helps diversify our energy supply helping to ensure the source of our power is reliable and the pricing remains consistently affordable. And as the industry continues to grow, so do the jobs available to the communities it supports. 

Whether you have solar panels or not, you benefit from those neighbors who do. Your air and water is cleaner, your local electric company is stronger and your community has more economic benefits and independence. Solar power is good for everyone.

Written by Sharon Derby and Laureen Peck