| The future of solar energy is so bright that I'm not | | | | utility company. Huh? Think the process through. How |
| even going to use any clichés about sun | | | | much electricity do you use during the day on say |
| glasses or what have you. I will say, however, that the | | | | Wednesday? The usual answer is not a lot because |
| full brightness can't be appreciated until you factor in | | | | most of us are at work while the kids are at school. |
| the concept of net metering. | | | | During this time, the energy produced by the solar |
| There are many environmental and political reasons | | | | panels on the house can be fed back into the electrical |
| for going solar. This clean energy also presents us with | | | | grid automatically. When this happens, the electric |
| a platform that is not reliant on coal, foreign oil or fossil | | | | meter on your home actually runs backwards. When |
| fuels. It seems like a natural choice for energy | | | | you need electricity at night, the meter then runs |
| production, but the cost of installing solar systems is | | | | forward. Each month, you pay for the net meter |
| not cheap. Fortunately, the tax incentives and | | | | reading which is the difference between what you use |
| favorable loan options have gone a long way to | | | | and what you put back in the system. This is often |
| overcoming this problem. The real cherry in the pie for | | | | nothing or a few bucks. |
| some people, however, is the concept of net metering. | | | | Is there any downside to net metering? Yes and no. |
| How much did your utility charge you last month for | | | | The only real downside is some states don't offer it, so |
| electricity? Go ahead and dig out the bill or just make | | | | you need to check before you rush out to buy a |
| an estimate. Now, what if you could get that figure | | | | system. The second downside is very minor. While |
| eliminated or reduced to next to nothing month after | | | | you can reduce your bill to nothing, you cannot actually |
| month? Consider how much money you would save | | | | generate money from the utility by selling them more |
| over 1 year, 10 years or 30 years. Well, that is what | | | | energy than you use. If that occurs, your bill is simply |
| net metering is all about. | | | | zeroed out. |
| What is net metering? It is a glorious thing. At its core, it | | | | There are a lot of benefits to going with solar energy. |
| refers to the reduction of your electrical bill by selling | | | | That being said, don't forget the often overlooked cash |
| electricity generated by your solar panels back to the | | | | savings associated with net metering. |