When researching solar energy homeowners will come a lot of pros and cons of solar energy. Some websites will separate the solar pro and the the cons of solar energy and some will list a bunch of solar power pros and cons. Below are five of the most common solar energy pros and cons.  

Pros of Solar Energy

1. Earn a return on your solar investment

Many people view solar panels as an expense when they should be viewed as an investment. Solar panels are an investment that offer returns that rival investments such as, stocks and bonds. This solar pro offers its investment return through savings and eventually possibly eliminating your electrical bill. On average the American homeowner who switches to solar, will pay off their solar system in seven to right years and will see a return of investment of 20 percent or more.

2. Reduce or completely eliminate your electric bill

Regardless if you are a homeowner, business or nonprofit, a large part of your monthly expenses could be your electricity bills. A solar pro is solar systems generate ‘free power’ for the entirety of the solar panels 25 year lifetime. Even though your panels won’t produce 100% of the energy that is consumer everyday, solar panels will still save you a lot of money.

3. Protects you against rising energy costs

What is probably the most obvious solar energy pro is it protects you from the rise of utility costs. Over the past ten years, residential electricity prices have, on average, gone up by three percent annually. When investing in a solar system, you can make sure that your electricity rate is fixed and protect yourself against electrical cost increases that aren’t predicted. If you are in a situation where your cash flow varies, going solar helps you manage your expenses.

4. Commitment to sustainability

Corporate social responsibility and sustainability are very important values to an organizations culture and values. There are also what are responsible for producing results. Consumers and communities are noticing and rewarding business that choose to operate responsibly. Businesses are finding that ‘green’ credentials are a solar energy pro because it is driving consumers purchasing decisions.

5. Increase your property value

There have been multiple cases where homes that have solar power systems have a higher property value and sell faster than homes without them. Appraisers are taking solar installations into considerations when they are evaluating the value of the home. This solar energy pro is a good incentive for homeowners to become more educated about solar power while considering installing solar panels or buying a house with solar panels.

Cons of solar energy

There are both solar energy pros and cons, just like there are both pros and cons to other energy producing technologies. Below is a list of five of the most popular cons of solar energy.

1. Your roof isn’t the right fit

Some customers who are interested in solar panels say that they one of the biggest cons of solar energy is that solar panels aren’t the right fit for every potential customers roof.

While rooftop solar panels are the most popular home solar panels, they are not the only option. It is possible to still get solar panels installed on your property through ground mount solar systems. 

These ground mounts can sometimes be a more energy productive option. With ground mounted system, they can be installed at the most optimal direction for energy production. If you are able to install a ground mounted system it could virtually turn the this con of solar energy to a solar pro.

2. Use of land space

Some of the larger utility scale solar facilities can raise some red flags about land degradation and habitat loss. Depending on the technology needed, the topography of the site and intensity of solar resources, is how much land area will be needed.

The typical estimation for utility scale PV systems ranges from 3.5 to 10 acres per megawatt. Unlike wind facilities, there is not as much opportunity for multiple solar projects to share land with other agricultural uses.

But the land impact can be reduced by putting these commercial solar systems in the low quality land locations. Locations such as, abandoned mining land, brown fields or existing transportation or transmission buildings.

The land use con of solar energy only poses as a problem for the larger commercial solar systems that are mounted on the ground. The one’s that are mounted on the rooftop of ones home or a on a commercial building, it has very minimal land use.

3. Not Aesthetically pleasing

One thing that a lot of perspective solar panel buyers find to be a con of solar energy is that they don’t like the way that they look on their roof. A lot of people think that the way that solar panels look is ugly and they don’t want to add them to their roofs.

But because the solar technology is rapidly evolving, so have the way that panels look. Most solar manufactures have made some really chic and modern designs. These new designs limit the amount of visible hardware.

There is also a lot of new technology that is coming to solar panels in 2019. This includes new designs that will improve the way solar panels look on your roof, as well as new solar roof tiles. These tiles will essentially replace your roofing tiles.  

4. Negative impact of solar energy at the manufacturers site

It is a known fact that when the solar panels are on your roof they aren’t producing any emissions, but that isn’t the case during a solar panels whole life.

When the solar panels are being manufactured in the factory and when they are being recycled at the end of their life cycle, that is when the panels have an environmental impact.

This con of solar energy is only at the production and transportation. During those times there are emissions, but the carbon footprint that is left is very minimal when compared to other fossil fuels.

5. Expense

Solar energy can be quite pricey if you don’t count the incentives and payback you will receive. Most homeowners find this con of solar energy to be huge turnoff.

While the solar system itself is pretty pricey there is a payback period of about 6-8 years. After the 6-8 it is estimated that you will save on average $10,000 - $30,000 in a 20 year period.