A Feelgood Solar Story For Thanksgiving

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Originally published on Cost of Solar.

globe in hands

Environmentally beneficial action is cool. Social service is cool. Environmentally beneficial action + social service? Hot!

Apparently, Motech Americas, Habitat for Humanity, and Sungevity know that. Motech Americas recently donated solar panels for a family with two disabled young sons so that they could significantly reduce their electricity bill. Sungevity provided the solar leasing arrangement. And the whole thing was part of a Habitat for Humanity project.

“This is a hard-working family looking to provide the best possible care for their children under difficult financial and emotional circumstances,” say Sharon O’Shea, Director of Marketing at Motech. “The boy’s mom stays home 24 hours a day to ensure proper medical care, while their dad must work to cover both living and extensive medical expenses.”

“Raising children requires an enormous commitment under even the best of circumstances,” O’Shea adds, “Motech is so happy to be able to help these parents afford the special care they need for their boys. We know just how important our donation can be, and that’s why we are pleased to help reduce the burden faced by this family.”

Of course, raising kids is not easy for anyone. Surely, raising two disabled sons takes that task to another level, and to another cost level. Thankfully, solar can help such families to afford important medical care and daily living needs that can be a struggle to come by. It’s great to hear about such projects, which help the plant and help individuals in need in an even more immediate and obvious way.

With energy bills eating a chunk out of the average family’s pocketbook, going solar is one of the best financial decisions a family can make today. It beats the heck out of other common investments in many places now, thanks to the amazing solar panel cost drop the industry has seen in the past few years. And, thankfully, that makes solar more accessible to families across the income spectrum, and social projects like these more and more common.

It also helps common citizens (many of who are also struggling with daily and monthly expenses) to save money. It cuts down on the stress of modern society’s many expenses, and the huge chunk of money that basic necessities take out of our bank accounts.

Join the US solar power rooftop revolution to save money on your energy bills.

Getting back to the story above, if you’re not familiar with Habitat for Humanity’s process, here’s a great summary from Motech:

“Habitat for Humanity builds community and improves lives by partnering with low-income families in need of a place to live and with community donors and volunteers to build simple, safe and affordable neighborhoods. Habitat accomplishes this by building much of each home with volunteer labor, then selling the homes at cost with no-interest mortgages. In addition, the families themselves contribute at least 500 hours of sweat equity on Habitat builds and education programs. Moving into safe, healthy, and affordable housing breaks the cycle of poverty for a family; impacting all of its future generations and creating prospects for the future that are much improved.”

This isn’t the first Habitat for Humanity project I’ve seen using solar panels, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Just as solar use is growing across the general populous, I’m sure it is growing across Habitat for Humanity’s projects. It’s common sense. These houses, which are supposed to help lift people out of difficult times and financial struggles, should come with low month energy bills. They should be energy efficient and, when possible, powered by the sun. That’s one of the best ways to help cut down on the monthly bills such families struggle with.

Know of some good, supportive housing projects in your area (or a local chapter of Habitat for Humanity)? Get us connected and we’ll help them figure out how much solar power could save the homeowners or renters! We could all use another feel-good story to lighten our day.

Got solar yourself? If not, check out how much it could save you. Also, remember that you don’t have to put all the money down on a solar system right at the “register.” Just like you don’t pay for a house or a car all at once (in most cases), people generally don’t pay for their solar panels all at once. There are $0 home solar loans available across the country, and there are also solar leasing options available in over a dozen states that allow you to go solar for $0 or close to $0 down, saving money on your energy bills from Day 1! Get in touch with our solar professionals to have them walk you through the options in your area.

Image Credit: Globe in Hands via charamelody / Foter / CC BY-NC


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7324 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan