By Thomas Ajava
2008 and 2009 were brutal years thanks to the Great Recession. No business area got through it without being pummeled to one extent or another. Well, there were exceptions. Surprisingly, solar energy was one of them.
Solar energy has long been known to be the perfect clean energy source, but it has always been to expensive to really become popular on a large scale. Well, no more. Federal, state and even local governments now offer major financial incentives to those who pursue it. The cost of systems has also dropped dramatically as supply has built up. Throw in the savings on utility bills and you have an energy source that is suddenly popular. How popular? Residential solar energy generation doubled from 2008 to 2009.
Think about that for a minute. Residential solar panel sales were way up in the middle of the worst economy since the Great Depression. This would seem to suggest that the energy platform has turned the corner and become a viable, realistic energy source in the modern world, no?
Don't get me wrong. Solar still has a long way to go. It produces less than one thousandth of the total energy in the United States. That being said, imagine how it will ramp up if the economy gets cruising again. If sales doubled in a bad year, one can only imagine how well they will do in a good economic environment.
Unfortunately, the residential solar panel movement is not a uniform one across the country. California has the most installations by far. It is followed by New Jersey, Florida, Arizona and Colorado. New Jersey? Yes, which also proves that solar panels are viable well beyond the sun belt.
So, does this mean we'll see solar panels on every home in the next couple of years? Of course, not. Still, there is no denying that things are headed that way.
Thomas Ajava writes for SolarCompanies.com - where you can learn more about solar energy and find top solar companies across the world.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_Ajava
http://EzineArticles.com/?Solar-Energy-Use-Grows-Despite-the-Great-Recession&id=4264609
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