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Why Go Solar?
1 kW array:
- Produces 15% of average monthly electricity needs, or 97.5 kWh.
- This is enough electricity to meet all the lighting needs of your home.
2 kW array:
- Produces 30% of average monthly electricity needs, or 195 kWh.
- This is enough electricity to power all your lights and a refrigerator.
3 kW array:
- Produces 45% of average monthly electricity needs, or 292.5 kWh.
- This is enough electricity to power all your lights, a refrigerator, and a clothes dryer.
4 kW array:
- Produces 60% of your average monthly electricity needs, or 390 kWh.
- This is enough electricity to power all your lights, a refrigerator, a clothes dryer, a microwave oven, a regular oven, a stereo, and a plasma TV.
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It's Powerful
The average homeowner in Massachusetts consumes 700 kWh of electricity
every month. Based on this average, the chart on the right shows
how much electricity a PV system will produce based on size and
what that means in concrete terms. (A 1 kW array means that it produces
1 kW of electricity every hour when operating at peak capacity,
e.g., in full sun. A rule-of-thumb is that 100 square feet of unobstructed
roof area is required for a 1,000 watt [1 kW] system or "array.")
Residential PV systems are generally sized between 2 and 5 kW.
In Massachusetts, 1kW of PV at the optimal orientation and tilt for maximum annual production will produce 1,000 to 1,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.
It's Feasible
As long as you have a roof over your head, you can probably utilize photovoltaic technology directly. PV systems lower your monthly electricity bills and make you less susceptible to rising oil, coal, and natural gas prices. Government subsidies such as tax breaks and rebates also lessen the installation costs, and PV systems have a life span of 25 years and require little maintenance.
It's Effective
Switching to clean energy makes a huge
difference for the environment. A single 1 kW array on somebody's roof produces enough clean energy over the course of a year to prevent 17,480 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. If pounds of carbon dioxide don't mean much to you, consider the energy savings in terms of gasoline. A 1 kW array produces clean energy equivalent to the amount of energy released by 556 gallons of gasoline. That's slightly more gas than the average American uses to fuel their car over the course of one year. It's also roughly the amount of gas required to drive an average-sized vehicle from Massachusetts to California three times.*
* Based on statistics from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Transportation
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