Is there such a thing in this world as cheap electricity? Everyone who pays for their electrical bill through their local utility would love to have a supply of cheap electricity. In North America we have enjoyed a stable and reasonably priced electrical supply for quite some time. In the past decade however electrical costs have begun to escalate as methods of producing it has also risen. Coal fired generators have been getting a bad rap from the green energy movement as they have been shown to pollute the air we breathe. These coal based generators have been used for many years along with nuclear reactors to supply our needs. Both of these methods create various pollution problems. Coal methods can be improved greatly by putting scrubbers on the smoke stacks that all but eliminate most of the polutants. Nuclear on the other hand creates spent fuel rods that up to now and continuing on into the foreseeable future are stored in giant pools of water to contain the radiation. Spent rods will emit radiation for many many years and are dangerous to the surrounding environment.
Cheap electricity however can be developed over time as has been proven by some countries who are leading in the development of solar power. Governments who are forward thinking have employed the use of incentive programs such as the German microfit and fit programs. FIT stands for feed in tariff. Microfit programs generally are for homes and Fit programs are for commercial buildings or farmers who have space to install much larger solar panel arrays. With these programs each home owner becomes a small grid feeder that generates electricity, and gets paid almost ten times the amount they would pay to consume the same energy. The electrical company sends you a cheque in the mail as well as a bill for your energy consumed. Usually you will receive more money than you have to pay. Now that’s what I call cheap electricity!
Check out your area to see what programs there are in place. If you don’t have any then lobby your politicians to do something about it. I live in Ontario Canada and we do have a generous microfit and fit program in place. If you want to know more about the Ontario solar microfit or fit incentives please contact us and we would be glad to talk with you.