The Negawatt

Have you ever heard of such a thing? A “Negawatt” is the power we don’t use, but could be saved. It is real power that was generated, but never made its way home. It was simply lost in transmission…

Here’s how this happened: you see, we built our power grid on large, centralized power plants. If we needed more power, we built another plant. Then we built them bigger, made them further away, sometimes made them nuclear, and then followed that up with miles and miles of transmission lines.  After all, nobody really wanted them in their backyard, and who can blame them? This was the norm, and at the time when most power was generated from coal and oil, it made sense.

However, today’s energy looks very different. We emphasize grid reliability and efficiency. We look to control rising costs at a time when demands have become greater. New generations are more and more plugged in through technology advancements, we power nearly every structure we build, and it’s looking like cars are up next.

So what does that have to do with a Negawatt?  Well, for every mile electricity has to travel we get a little less out of it. So if we generate power close to home, we get more out of it. When we expand our grid with solar and wind, we get a more efficient and reliable power infrastructure. Power companies love this. They get to sell nearly 100% of your excess power to your neighbors at full cost and you get credit for future use.  This concept might be a little crazy, but this is a real thing. It’s called net metering and it works like this: You add solar panels, pay a connection fee and taxes to the utility, and both you and the power company benefit from kicking the Negawatt! Try it…… You’ll save you Gigabucks! Want to learn more? Call Sunbright Solar Today! (520) 222-9993