How Solar Helps Homeowners Weather the Storm
This year’s hurricane season has been one for the record books. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma devastated large portions of Texas and coastal Florida, respectively, causing more than $300 billion in damage. Then, Hurricane Maria came and wiped out Puerto Rico’s entire electrical grid, leaving the people there without electric and water.
In each of these situations, solar systems either are or could have been helping these areas to recover, and as such, the industry is once again making waves among homeowners and elected officials alike. With natural disasters on the rise, solar is taking a more prominent role in how people prepare and recover.
Solar for Disaster Preparation
Homeowners and business owners are becoming more aware of solar and how it can help them be more prepared for natural disasters in their areas. For example, if the solar system is an off-grid system, it will be able to provide a home with much needed electricity during a time when the local grid is interrupted.
If the system is on-grid, however, it will not generate electricity when the grid goes down (unless there is a disconnect switch to prevent the electricity being produced by the system from entering the grid where it can pose a danger to technicians trying to repair the outage), so it is important to differentiate the two when discussing solar power systems with potential clients.
Even a small solar system can be useful in such instances because it can supply power for charging cell phones, lights, tablets, fans, and other small electric devices. It is important to note that an off-grid system will only generate electricity during sunlight hours. It will stop working in the evening unless there is a battery back-up system included with the system.
Solar for After-Storm Recovery
With the local electrical grid out, recovery efforts naturally slow down because electricity is essential for everything from communication to illumination to powering tools and equipment and life-saving medical equipment.
In addition, solar-generated electricity gives people hope because just having the lights on is sometimes enough to have a positive impact on the mindsets of those affected. Solar energy can help an area hit by a natural disaster recover quicker because it replaces the electricity that cannot be delivered by the grid.
Solar Helps Protect Roofs
A lot of homeowners in high-risk storm areas are hesitant to go solar because they believe that the panels will get ripped off their roofs by high winds, leading to extensive roof damage and expensive repairs.
This is a misconception because solar panels have been shown to protect the roof in hurricane situations. This is because solar panels installed in hurricane-prone areas are built to and installed according to extra-tough building codes.
A roof-mounted solar system actually reinforces the roof because it criss-crosses the existing structure, and the panels themselves protect the roof below them from flying debris, falling branches, damaging winds, and other potential causes of damage.
Solar Can Help Reduce Natural Disasters
Environmental experts agree that the “dirty” emissions being produced by burning fossil fuels is warming the temperature of both the air and ocean water, and this temperature shift is an instigating factor in the formation of extreme weather events such as hurricanes.
Solar energy, on the other hand, is considered “clean” energy because it emits zero emissions and its fuel resource (the sun) is completely renewable. This means that as more homes and companies adopt solar power strategies, the risk of damaging hurricanes can in all likelihood be reduced.
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