Solar Panels -- Greener Wallet and Greener Future

Recently, politicians and climate scientists have found that combating climate change is most effective with solutions that incentivize, rather than penalize, greener practices. Instead of trying to force civilians to reduce their energy usage or vilify them for their lifestyles, compromise can be better reached with policies that benefit the consumer and the planet. Solar panels exemplify these principles. Solar energy is renewable and bountiful, and has no emissions nor pollutants besides production and eventual disposal, unlike the fossil-fuel based energy that most of us rely on (Wolfson 2023, 252). Additionally, they are a much cheaper alternative to fossil fuel-based energy. Currently, around 200 of the estimated 2,466 households in Medield, or about 8% of homes, use solar energy (Sustainable Medfield, U.S. Census Bureau 2022). I am writing to the Medfield Patch to encourage Medfield residents to install solar panels onto their homes and will provide data and reasoning for why we should all make the switch.

Currently, coal, gas, and oil supply 80% of our energy needs in the United States. According to Energy Sage, Medfield residents spend about $273 per month on electricity, or about $3,276 a year, on average. This is 52% higher than the national average electric bill of $2,158 (EnergySage, 2023). The average electricity rate in Medfield is about 33 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), which means the average Medfield resident uses 829 kWh of electricity per month and 9,9948 kWh per year. Fossil fuels are terrible for the environment and for human health – from their extraction methods including drilling, fracking, mining, to their pollution including toxic runoff in waterways and sulfur and methane emissions into the air (Denchak, 2022). Many chemicals linked to cancer, including benzene and formaldehyde, are emitted from oil and gas transport and processing facilities and then exposed to all of us in the air (Denchak, 2022). Additionally, carbon emissions from fossil fuels have had disastrous effects on the planet. Carbon emissions have trapped heat in the atmosphere, warming the climate at an unnatural rate. From smaller lifestyle impacts, like not being able to ski in New England as much this year due to warm temperatures, to more drastic impacts, like increasing wildfires and more severe storms, climate change has brought destruction and negative impacts to our lifestyles and to the planet. Overall, fossil fuels are bad for us and for our planet, and on top of that, energy from fossil fuels is expensive. Solar panels are an excellent cost-efficient and green alternative that I encourage Medfield residents to invest in.

Solar panels attached to the home can supply almost all of the home’s energy needs. Your home will rely on solar energy, but electrical grid energy as a backup. At night or on cloudy days, grid power may be needed, but when it is sunny, the solar panel will generate extra energy that can then be sold back to the grid (Wolfson 2023, 237). According to a study done in 2016 by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the United States could meet 40% of electrical energy demand with just rooftop solar panels (Wolfson 2023, 252). So, how do they work? Heat and energy from the sun travels to the Earth through electromagnetic waves, otherwise known as radiation. The light hits the panel, and reaches the middle of the panel, which is a semiconductor called silicon (Wolfson 2023, 234). The light knocks electrons off of the silicon atoms and creates photovoltaic charge, which then creates an electric current captured by solar panel wires (Wolfson 2023, 234).

One common critique of solar panels is that they use more energy to manufacture and install than energy they produce for a household. However, according to various studies of solar energy, the “energy payback time” is about 2 years (Wolfson 2023, 253). Energy payback time is the time required for the system to produce as much energy as it took to create the system (Wolfson 2023, 253). So, if a solar panel has a lifespan of thirty years, for twenty-eight of those years, or 93% of them, it will produce clean energy, while for 7% of those thirty years it will produce polluting energy (Wolfson 2023, 253). Compare that to the 100% of polluting, “dirty” energy most of us use now to power our homes!

I hope that this information about solar panels has inspired you to think about making the switch for your homes for a greener future and a greener wallet!

Sources Cited

Denchak, Melissa. “Fossil Fuels: The Dirty Facts.” National Resources Defense Council, 2022. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/fossil-fuels-dirty-facts

“Electricity Cost in Medfield, MA: 2023 Electric Rates.” EnergySage. https://www.energysage.com/local-data/electricity-cost/ma/norfolk-county/medfield/.

“Rooftop Solar.” Mass Energize, published by Sustainable Medfield. https://community.massenergize.org/MedfieldMA/actions/2375.

“U.S. Census Bureau Quickfacts: Medfield CDP, Massachusetts,” 2022. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/medfieldcdpmassachusetts.

Wolfson, Richard. Energy, Environment, and Climate. Third Edition, W. W. Norton & Company, 2023.