1. Reduce your electricity bill

The immediate benefit of it is to drastically reduce your electricity bill to zero or near zero. Solar is a one-time investment with a guaranteed life of 25 years. With the 25 years of Power purchase agreement between you and the state government, while the electricity that you purchase from the local utility is month to month. In the long run, you would be paying much more money to your utility than your initial investment.  Bescom Power purchase agreement.

 

2. Earn Money

In the state of Karnataka, the ESCOMS like BESCOM, Bangalore Electricity Supply company, are paying Rs 7.08 up to 10 kWp system, which is the maximum that most homes need, for any excess solar energy that is exported back to the grid. Most Utilities buy other forms of energy from other forms of energy at much lower price, which in 2017 is around Rs 3.15 in the state of Karnataka. Your investment would get IRR’s of 9% and above for smaller systems to 20% for bigger roofs, the payback periods on your investments could be from 5 years to 9 years. Calculate your Rate of returns at our Solar Calculator

3. Avail GST Benefits

Unlike most systems that are under GST (Good and Service Tax) of 12% to 28% tax bracket, the solar rooftop generating systems are under 5% tax brackets. Solar is a very few goods in India that comes under 5%. Apart from that, the Basic Customs duty on imported solar cells, which is used in almost all the solar panels manufactured in India is 0%. Check the link here for exemptions on Solar cells.

http://www.eximguru.com/indian-customs-duty/85414011-solar-cells-whether-or-not.aspx

4. Protect yourself from future raise in Tariff

The electricity tariff in Karnataka from 2016 to 2017 has increased from Rs. 6.90 to Rs.7.40, i.e., 7.2% for home consumers. The year preceding that the tariff amount has increased from Rs 6.40 to Rs.6.90,i.e., 7.8%. With economic and population growth, our dependency on energy will go up multifold and so does our electricity tariffs. By making a one-time investment in solar, you will be hedging against any future increase in tariff rates and reduce your exposure to volatile and potential energy costs.

5. Avail Accelerated depreciation benefits:

If you are a private limited company in India, you could avail 40% accelerated depreciation benefits today and get an immediate benefit of 13% reduction in your overall cost of the system. To know more

6. Increase your home value

As the benefits of putting solar, today will carry forward to next 25 years. Any solar investment on your home will immediately increase the valuation of your home. With IRR’s of 9% and above from smaller systems to 20% on bigger systems, the payback periods on your investments could be from 5 years to 9 years.

7. Save Water

Any thermal or nuclear power plant, heat produced by burning the fuels is used to turn the water into steam to produce the electricity. A typical thermal power plant uses 1800 to 3000 litres; of water for 1 MWh of energy. While a typical solar power plant on your roof uses 75 litres to 100 litres, used for cleaning the solar panels, to produce 1 MWh of equivalent energy. That’s 1700% more water than what could have been used for other utilities.

Reference: http://www.seia.org/policy/power-plant-development/utility-scale-solar-power/water-use-management

8. Reduce the heat trap to your home

A study published in Solar Journal found out that the direct roof is 5 degrees Fahrenheit cooler under solar panels than under an open terrace. Please refer here for reference: https://phys.org/news/2011-07-solar-panels-cool.html

9. Help Faster transition to Electric Vehicles:

The Indian government has set itself an aspirational target of selling only electric vehicles by 2030.The transition depends on the price of batteries and the faster adoption of renewables like Solar by the country. Imagine India without any emission of co2 and soot that create gloom in our crowded cities like Delhi and Bangalore. http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/03/technology/future/india-electric-cars/index.html

10. Reduce India’s global dependence on Fossil Fuels:

Most wars of 21st century are fought for the hegemony over the fossil fuels that run our fleet of vehicles in India. Although the cost of oil has come down in recent past to $45 per barrel of oil, it was less than a decade ago when the international price of oil had reached $160 per barrel during financial crises to $72 per barrel with Inflation adjusted. The faster we transition away from Fossil fuels, the better we shield ourselves from any needless wars and increase in the price of oil.

http://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart

11. Impact of Climate Change

The biggest benefit of all from going to solar is in reducing the CO2 emissions, the leading cause of climate change. As per Inter Panel on Climate Change report (IPCC), in order to keep the Global temperature raise up to 2 degrees C above the pre-industrial level, the scientific community estimates that the carbon emissions should peak by 2020 and should reduce steeply to 50% of 2020 emissions. A 1 kWp of Solar panels would reduce roughly 2 kg of CO2 per day and 18 tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime of 25 years.

Ref: https://carbonfund.org/how-we-calculate/

12. Increase geopolitical Security:

Currently, India imports more than 200 million tons of petroleum products from some of the most politically unstable parts of the world including countries like Sudan, Syria, Iran and Nigeria. With ample solar energy, available in India, we can become Energy Independent by accelerating the transition of combustion vehicles to EV vehicles powered by Solar. 1 kWp of solar power can produce enough energy to drive an EV Car to 14000 km in a year, an equivalent of saving 1400 litres of petrol. ( 1 Lt ~ 10 km of mileage )

13. Creates many local jobs:

Unlike other power sources like coal and hydro, which are typically installed at MW scale remotely and shipped to your home, a solar power plant can be set up on your home using local workforce. Whenever you set up a solar power plant, it would be normally done by someone locally. Solar Creates Jobs within your community.

14. Reduces transmission & distribution losses in the grid

Today almost 23% of electricity generated is lost in transmission and distribution. Unlike the thermal, hydro and wind energy, solar energy could be produced on your own roof and can be consumed within your building, thereby limiting your T & L losses to almost zero.

15. Solar projects through Corporate Social Responsibility Funds:

Today a company with CSR funds has an option of choosing solar rooftop projects to provide power in areas where no other power source is available and help improve overall livelihood, sanitation, health and education of the entire community.

16. Reach out to your Green Conscious Customers

Needless to say, there are many people who are being conscious of their consumption, energy needs and their carbon footprint. Many companies and individuals are willing to pay a premium price to buy a product that has least carbon footprint.

17. Help dream of 24/7 power supply to Indian Villages

On a priority basis, most of the generated power is being catered to urban and semi-urban areas, leaving out most of the Indian Villages either in entirely dark and partially dark, although the power used by our villages is negligible. By cities adopting solar today, we not only can go green but also help our government to power up the villages where more than 60% of Indian population lives.

18. Reduce nuclear dependency

Unlike a thermal power plant, a nuclear power plant doesn’t pollute and doesn’t produce any greenhouse gas. However, all nuclear power plants have inherent risks of severe nuclear reactor accidents, like the ones in Fukushima or Chernobyl that released a massive amount of radiation in surrounding areas killing and damaging many of the local people living in that community. Why go for Nuclear power plants that take 7.5 years on avg to install, when a solar power plant can be installed in a week.

19. Reduce the risk of extinction of species

As per the fourth IPCC report, “ there is 20-30% of species, assessed so far are likely to be at increased risk of extinction if global average warming exceeds 1.5-2.5oC” *. This process can be duly reversed with a faster shift to Renewables. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_risk_from_global_warming

20. Inspire your kids

“ We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; We borrow it from our Children”. It’s important that we inspire our kids to use the products and energy sources with least impact on the environment so as to build a sustainable future for all.

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