In all aspects of life, we use energy.  Energy to charge your phone, energy to turn on your light, energy to turn on your Wi-Fi modem (and then never turn it off again even with no one home), and energy for your refrigerator and other everyday items you can find in your house.  That’s not even discussing gas or things we burn ourselves like the oven/stove, and your car.  The car is one of those things that you don’t even think about.  You use it to get from one place to another, and burn things to get there.  Using the Tesla “Powerwall” and solar panels, you could greatly reduce the environmental impact of personal transportation, as well as reduce energy consumption used while no one is home by simply using only solar power.  The “Powerwall” saves direct current from the solar panels in its large battery, which can hold energy for days or weeks, for when the solar panel output is low and the house needs energy (http://www.teslamotors.com/powerwall).  In a city covered by PG&E, the local energy company, which only collects 27% of its energy from renewable energy, (http:/ /www.pge.com/en/myhome/saveenergymoney/cleanenergyca/newsroom/article/renewablegoal.page) this idea of not using any grid energy will help reduce your environmental impact, especially if you buy an electric vehicle (i.e.: Tesla) and use the solar panels and battery to charge it.

I agree with you. Today people use energy left and right without thinking once about the negative effects on the environment. The number one energy waster/carbon-footprint releaser in homes across the united states are appliances, lighting, electronics & space heating. Space heaters heat enclosed areas by burning natural gas, propane, or fuel oil. All of these things release a lot of carbon into the air and raise our global carbon footprint. If solar panels were implemented into homes as the main energy source then our global carbon footprint would decrease significantly. For example, according to http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-r … lator.html just one home installing solar panels is equivalent to 3030 trees being planted, 22 cars being taken off the road for a year, 0.6 rail cars of coall not burned, 41 tons of waste recycled rather than land-filled, and 1.6 tanker trucks o gasoline not burned. this may not sound like a lot but if more and more people switch to solar panels then these number have the potential to skyrocket.