More and more solar powered homes are popping up all over the island… If you take a short walk around Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, or Vineyard Haven – indeed, most of the island these days – you’ll notice that more and more roofs have solar panels. Solar panel installation has increased across Martha’s Vineyard, as property owners continue to push for alternative energy.
Solar is perhaps best known for its financial impact. Solar power saves money. The average solar system will pay for itself within 4-6 years, and then continues to pay you after that point, in addition to other potential incentives:
- Solar increases the value of your property.
- Solar protects against energy inflation costs.
- Solar has tax incentives which lowers liability.
From a financial standpoint alone, solar is often a good investment.
What Solar Powered Homes Means for a Community
But we are a community here on the island. Although the financial incentive may be the initial motivation for solar installation on Martha’s Vineyard, it is the value that solar can bring to a neighborhood that often motivates those here to install solar panels.
That’s because, in this community, solar has many additional benefits:
- Sustainable Communities – When neighbors all invest in solar power, it increases property values throughout by showing potential home buyers that they have an opportunity to join a stable community. Even for those that have no intention of leaving, that impression can have a lasting impact on your equity.
- Environmental Care – The more homes are equipped with solar paneling, the more it inspires the community to seek other ways to be more energy efficient. Solar leaves an impression, and often the neighborhoods that install solar see improvements in other environmentally friendly areas as well.
- Reducing the Costs of Others – Investment in solar energy reduces the costs to others on the island. Power energy consumption during periods of high demand (for example, between 1pm to 4pm) increases costs for all homeowners. Solar reduces some of this demand, which in turn lowers the cost of energy for your neighbors as well. The more homes invest, the lower energy costs will be, and that helps everyone in the community.
We’re all motivated to save money whenever possible. Solar does that, which is the primary reason that it is becoming so popular for homeowners here at Martha’s Vineyard.
But solar is much more than that. Solar has the power to transform the island as a community. That has real value, but financial and emotional. When that value is combined with the environmental benefits of solar, it’s easy to see why so many homeowners are making the switch.
