We’re sure you don’t need an introduction to solar energy; after all, solar panels have been around for decades. What may be news to you, however, is that the prices of solar panels have dropped significantly over the past several decades, and they’re projected to get even cheaper over time. They work amazingly well with solar street lights for businesses, municipalities, campgrounds, and pathways. There’s more benefits than just “going green” as it’s said, so stick around for this 6-minute read and we’ll detail all the benefits that solar street lights have for your business or city.
Solar Street Lights: Not Just About Energy Bills
Solar is free energy. That’s one of the largest benefits of photovoltaics, a fancy word for solar panels. However, the money businesses can save from solar energy typically comes from the up-front savings. Solar street lights don’t require trenching to connect to power.
How much does trenching cost you might ask? Trenching often costs more than the street light itself. So if you purchased a 10-light system, the average cost per light is approximately 3 thousand dollars. The total price of the lights themselves would cost around 30,000 dollars. Definitely not pocket change.
However, the trenching for this system would cost nearly 33 thousand dollars. That’s just to connect the lights into the power grid underground. That’s more than the materials cost.
However, with a solar lighting installation, the cost to trench reduces itself nicely to 0. That’s right, solar lighting is hugely beneficial to businesses because there’s no costs associated with trenching or wiring. The power is drawn from the sun and then stored in a deep-cycle gel acid battery until there’s not enough sun–then the LED lights click on until sunrise.
Taxes, Fees, and Bills, Oh My!
Don’t shudder at the mention of those words, I promise this section is a positive section! With the solar tax credit, you can earn 26% back on your solar lighting system–so not only do you save money, you earn money as well.
Plus, as we touched on before, you won’t pay a single energy bill for the life of the solar lighting system. Over the course of 5 years, you’ll save about 4 thousand dollars.
So, given our ten light system, with an energy cost of about 17 cents per kilowatt/hr, and the solar tax credit, your total cost of ownership for a solar lighting system will cost you about 49,000 dollars over 107,000 dollars with traditional lighting.
Solar Lighting Going Global
And you thought solar was just great for getting free energy? Nope. As a matter of fact, thousands of businesses across the world are “switching on” to solar power not only because it reduces our carbon footprint, but because the money saved is often well worth the initial investment. Not only that, businesses get media attention by going solar–they’re featured in the news quite often for making the switch to renewable energy, so on top of saving and making money back, you make money purely through exposure of your business or city. All through the power of a light.
If you’d like to take a look at how solar lighting can save you several thousands of dollars, stop by our website and learn more. Thanks for reading.
Greenshine New Energy specializes in developing and manufacturing customized solar outdoor LED lighting systems for a wide range of lighting applications. We provide cost effective, industry leading and proprietary solar lighting solutions for commercial, residential, and industrial projects. Our solar LED light systems are installed at over 5000 locations all around the world.