We didn’t install a home solar system because it was a brilliant, money-saving investment.
True, federal tax credits ease the pain of buying solar outright, and yes, we greatly reduced monthly PG&E costs. We are delighted to escape inevitable per kilowatt rate hikes for decades to come. Increasingly, alternative energy provides tens of thousands of jobs nationally. And the professional, responsive folks at Mendocino Solar made transitioning to solar a breeze.
However, two more significant frames, both personal and ecological, drove our decision. They address nothing less than the past, the present, and everyone’s future:
- to offset accumulated, individual carbon footprints.
- to confirm that individuals can stand for sustainability under siege.
The Marvel of Home Solar
In short, the marvel of home solar perfectly serves our self-interest while supporting communal, even planetary interests. We all know one life draws significant, carbon-based energy from the planet’s stores. How many born into an affluent country didn’t blithely accept an inalienable right to the world’s highest-energy life-style? Everything tangible that advances our comfort, growth, education and opportunity draws from what’s been a badly reimbursed energy pool.
Wouldn’t it be grand (and fair-minded) to repay a fraction of the consumption we take for granted? Symbolic yet measurable, going solar offered us the best alternative for a practical energy source for this delayed repayment goal. We admit getting positively giddy watching our meter tick off tens of thousands of pounds of CO2 saved each year.
Further, in an age plagued by ideological, anti-science climate denial, millions of people are needed to counteract this crude, dangerous propaganda. Every home or business that commits to solar (or wind or clean alternatives, plus conservation/efficiency) helps “offset” 200 years of underpaid industrial debts. Today the war that pits dirty fossil fuel (especially coal) against reason and sustainability is ramping up. Home solar represents a powerful “vote,” a huge No against reliance on fossil fuels. Solar says Yes to sustainability and No to the great oil and gas boomerang.
Certainly solar is a sensible family investment that saves money. But each solar installation makes an even more powerful statement about moral and humanistic values that support our grandchildren’s children. More than anything else we’ve found, home solar reinforces that individuals matter. All these positive values grow exponentially when millions join the brigade, adding to the constructive clamor benefiting generations to come.
