ECONOMIC

Landowner Income
Payments to property owners through land leases.

Community Income
Revenues to local communities through taxes or payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT payments).

Employment
UPC Renewables’ policy is to hire locally, creating construction and long-term operations and maintenance jobs.

Community Outreach
UPC Renewables supports community-led programs aimed at strengthening local development and participation.

Cost of Power
Due to technological advances, wind and solar power has become more competitive on a price basis with conventional fossil fuel generation sources. Furthermore, wind and solar power have none of the environmental and health costs associated with the burning of these fuels.

ENVIRONMENTAL

Pollution Reduction
The power produced from wind and solar has zero emissions. Use of solar electric systems decreases the amount of local air pollution. With a decrease in the amount of kerosene used for lighting, there is a corresponding reduction in the amount of local pollution produced. Solar rural electrification also decreases the amount of electricity needed from small diesel generators.

Water
Wind and solar energy use no water in energy production and emit no mercury, a leading cause of contamination of our rivers, lakes, and oceans from conventional electricity production.

Conserves energy
Solar electricity for the Third World is an effective energy conservation program because it conserves costly conventional power for urban areas, town market centers, and industrial and commercial uses, leaving decentralized PV-generated power to provide the lighting and basic electrical needs of the majority of the developing world's rural populations.

ENERGY SECURITY

Abundant Underutilized Resource
Wind and solar energy generates power from renewable and inexhaustible resources. They reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports and diversify the energy supply.

Energy Price Volatility Reduction
The volatile cost of gas and oil directly impacts energy prices. Wind and solar power, with no fuel cost, reduces the overall volatility of energy prices.