100% Solar Powered Home Cuts Bills
The first large scale scheme to power a property with energy from entirely renewable energy sources was announced last week. Michael Strizki has made it his life’s work to devise a replicable system in which he and other property owners can conceivably modify their energy production requirements so that others can generate 100% of their own power, therefore, removing all energy utility bills.His 3,000 square foot property is based in the western New Jersey region of the United States and contains numerous energy hungry appliances such as wide screen televisions and even a hot tub. He has implemented a solar energy solution using a 1,000 square foot roof full of photovoltaic cells, which converts the power using an electrolyser, and stores it in hydrogen tanks until required.
Although the amazing project is undoubtedly good for the environment, doubters will point to the fact that it was hardly a cost effect exercise. The project dubbed "The Hopewell Project" took four years to plan and complete the building work, and cost $500,000 ($225,000 of this was a subsidy received from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities). Strizki counters this argument with the assertion that lessons have been learned during the initial build of his prototype system and if replicated it could be planned and built for approximately $100,000.
Strictly speaking $100,000 is still expensive when one considers that over a 25 year life cycle this works out as $4,000 per annum for energy generation which is nearly three times the average $1,500 an American homeowner will spend on energy bills. However, the exercise is certainly valid in that Strizki himself is conserving large amounts of energy and the publicity from the project is further helping to cement the importance of renewable energy technologies into the public consciousness. If US States or on a larger scale sovereign governments saw fit to provide additional grants or subsidies for projects such as these, citizens may even have a viable and cost effective way of going entirely renewable.
posted by Admin @ 14:43
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