What will a solar future look like? Will enough Durham, Connecticut residents adopt solar energy to make a tangible difference to the world? What can solar customers expect from the industry in the future?
Questions like these are on everyone’s minds.
Nobody knows the future, but there are some clearly emerging patterns in where the solar industry is heading in Durham. Here are some trends you can look forward to:
- Rising Fossil Fuel Costs Will Make Solar a Cheaper Alternative
Natural gas prices have doubled over the past year, and they don’t show any signs of abating. It’s the same tale for other fossil fuels across the world.
The inherently unpredictable and fluid prices of fossil fuels make it impossible to keep the utility power prices constant. And as fossil fuel deposits decrease, their prices will only escalate in the future. Not to mention the tumultuous global politics that exacerbate the situation.
On the contrary, solar installation costs a fixed amount and delivers predictable “net” returns in terms of cost savings, and government incentives.
- Rising Demand for Energy Resilience Will Make Storage More Attractive
Coupling a solar installation with battery storage offers an unprecedented degree of resilience against power outages.
Frantic innovations in battery technology, fueled in part by the rise of electric vehicles, continue to improve battery storage capacities while simultaneously decreasing their prices. On top of it, the Connecticut Greenbank’s Energy Storage Solutions program rewards battery storage users with additional cash incentives.
Going forward, more Durham residents will choose to combine storage with their solar installations.
- Solar Panel Efficiency Will Continue to Increase
The power generation efficiency of most consumer-grade solar panels hovers in the range of 16% to 23%. However, technology already exists to push this far higher. Solar panels used in projects like international space station have a power generation efficiency of 44%.
However, producing high-efficiency PV cells is currently quite expensive. There’s hope for the future, though. Solar panels continue to get cheaper even today, and soon, it might be possible to make such high-efficiency solar panels affordable to residential customers.
- Solar-powered EV Chargers Will Become the Rage
Having an electric car is pointless for the environment if the electricity powering it comes from burning natural gas. As solar panels drop in price and their power generation efficiency improve, more and more electric car buyers will switch to solar-powered EV chargers.
The Solar Future is Bright
An increasing number of Durham residents are choosing to go solar, and there’s a whole cavalcade of benefits, including government incentives, cost savings, innovations, and increasing affordability to fuel their decision.
