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IMAGE: "Customers with solar distributed generation are making it so utility companies don't have to make as many infrastructure investments, while at the same time solar shaves down peak demands when...
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Credit: Sarah Atkinson/Michigan Tech
Beyond the environmental benefits and lower electric bills, it turns out installing solar panels on your house actually benefits your whole community. Value estimations for grid-tied photovoltaic systems prove solar panels are beneficial for utility companies and consumers alike.
For years some utility companies have worried that solar panels drive up electric costs for people without panels. Joshua Pearce, Richard Witte Endowed Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Technological University, has shown the opposite is true -- grid-tied solar photovoltaic (PV) owners are actually subsidizing their non-PV neighbors.