Did you realize that there are both good and bad aspects to using solar power for energy? Maybe you thought it was all good – that there were no downsides to using solar power for energy. Let’s take a look at the real story of solar energy power.
Factors In Favor Of Solar Power
Obviously, energy from the suns the ultimate “renewable.” You can generate it whenver the sun is shining or even on cloudy days. No one can claim that we’re running out of it, or that we need to conserve it. In fact, those ideas make us laugh! The sun will always be there, sending out its energy to the earth. All we have to do is capture and use that energy. You can build a cheap solar power generator. Also, solar power has only benign impacts on the environment.
Solar energy has wide acceptance in the public. Though not a high percentage of the public is actually using solar energy power, they do have a positive feeling towards it, and many people think that they will use it in the future. The public likes that there are few risks from solar energy power, also.
Solar energy power can be used in the individual home. There’s no way you could have a nuclear reactor to give your home nuclear power, and coal in your home can be very messy. But having solar energy panels is uncomplicated and non-hazardous.
In theory, large solar collectors in the desert could increase the productivity of land by shading areas otherwise too hot for use. This land could be used for ranging animals or other things.
Having solar collectors close to the point of use can eliminate a lot of the energy transportation and distribution networks. Currently, about 70 percent of the cost of energy is in the distribution alone.
But There Are The Down-Sides
Unfortunately, not all aspects of solar energy power are positive. Most of those downsides are monetary.
To start up a solar energy power system for a home is initially expensive, making it out of reach for many homeowners. Buying and building solar collectors are
Using the solar thermal energy is generally more expensive than other conventional methods currently in use. Prices are going down all the time. You can now get started for around $200.
Also, in order to collect enough solar energy, it requires quite a bit of land space.
What about cloudy days? On them, there is little or no solar energy collected, and the weather is unreliable in some locations. This used to be the case but in Germany they generate solar power even on cloudy days and in the US we get more sunshine throughout the year.
Solar energy is not power in its original form – there must be some form of conversion before it is usable.
The efficiency of current solar collectors is quite low. Only a small percentage of the sunlight that hits a collector is able to be turned into energy.