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Solar Power Tax Credits Help Their Affordability

By: John Kuzniar

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For many reasons, solar power is growing rapidly in many states across the United States. Among these reasons are:

Solar power is virtually pollution free

Solar panels put out a great deal less pollution into the air than is output by nearly all other sources of power. For instance,the environment pollutant that almost everybody knows about these days is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has been a normal and natural part of the atmosphere for millions of years. In more recent times, however, humans have began to overwhelm the earth's ecological systems to such a degree that the levels of carbon dioxide has begun to reach toxic levels. There are many ways that we introduce carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. One of the more common ways is via burning woods or fossil fuels for heating. Solar panels, on the other hand, do not emit carbon dioxide and when we replace traditional energy sources such as wood or fossil fuels with solar panels, we decrease the amount of carbon dioxide that we introduce into the atmosphere.

Sun power saves you money

You will pay more to buy and install a solar panel system for your house than you will for the more traditional heating types of equipment such as radiators, hot water heaters, gas furnaces, oil heaters, and the like. The landscape is rapidly being altered, however, as new breakthroughs in solar panel technology and production techniques, not only make them less expensive to manufacture but also increases their kilowatt output effectiveness. What this means is that even though the preliminary upfront investment costs may be greater for solar panels, the long term payback in energy saving will be more impressive and occur at a quicker rate than ever before. If you want to free yourself from the spiraling costs of oil and gas, now may well be the perfect time to take a new look at the solar technologies available in your city and state.

Solar power tax credits helps to save you even more money

Few people know this but in 2005 congress passed the Energy Policy Act which gives a 30-percent tax credit to any home that purchased residential solar water heating, photovoltaic equipment, or fuel cell properties. The law has since been extended to the end of 2008 and will potentially be extended again.

In addition, many states offer their own tax credits to homeowners and businesses. Massachusetts, for example, offers tax incentives to individuals and business that install renewable energy systems at their homes or offices. The state of Oregon's Business Tax Credit, under certain conditions, covers up to 50% of the solar system cost. More states are climbing on the solar power bandwagon every year so it's definitely worth your while to not only take advantage of the federal tax credits but also check if there are state or local tax credits available to you as well.

Solar power panels are virtually maintenance free

Solar panels, in general, have less moving parts than traditional energy appliances so there's less to go wrong. Typically, once a year you'll have to do a visual inspection, but for the most part, assuming that you've purchased quality panels, once the solar panels are in place, there's not much you have to do to maintain them - estimates range to less than 20 hours a year.

It's been a long road getting here, but solar power is finally coming into its own. And not a moment too soon, because we can no longer afford the energy sources of the last century.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

John Kuzniar is a freelance writer who writes articles relating to alternative energy usages. For articles on solar panels for electricity, solar panel heating, and other energy saving resources please visit his site.

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