Reasons To Use Solar Power
Using renewable energy resources is making sense to many people as they become more aware of the environmental consequences of fossil fuels and the rising inflation of fuels like coal and oil due to scarcity or political problems. One form of renewable energy is solar power. This article will touch on the advantages and disadvantages of using solar power.
The Sun’s energy can provide our homes with power. Sunlight can also be used as an energy source for many of our increasingly ubiquitous personal devices, like laptops, mobile phones and personal entertainment systems. The first advantage of solar power is that it is a clean way to generate energy. Although there are carbon footprints created by the production of solar panels, once the solar panels are creating power it is clean power.
Using a solar power system reduces pollution. It does not create any greenhouse gas emissions. It does not create any damage to the immediate location in which it is used.
Solar power systems are built to last. This is more important for home solar power systems where there is quite a large initial investment. However, even on portable devices like watches or calculators, the solar recharging will last the lifetime of the device.
The costs for maintaining a solar power system are very low. Some components of the system may last decades without any maintenance at all. Solar panels are often warranted to maintain 80% of their efficiency for up to 25 years. Other parts will need to be replaced sooner, but if all goes well there should be no maintenance costs at all for the first five years.
A solar power system is neither too dangerous nor too complicated for most people to run. It requires no supervision from the government or any other agency because it poses no risks. The cost of running the systems is also very low.
There are certainly a few negative aspects of using solar power. Before consumers can have any solar power, they have to make a large investment on the equipment and installation. They will make up this investment over the life of the solar power system but this large up front sum can deter many people. There are more grants and incentives being introduced to minimize this deterrent to getting solar energy.
However the biggest issue with solar power is it’s reliability. Ideally you need a location that gets plenty of sun throughout the year. If you get plenty of cloudy days then your supply may be interrupted or decreased. And it doesn’t work at night. There are ways round this, like storing power in batteries or having a back up system however reliability will always be an issue until solar cells can be made more efficient.
As Solar power is perceived as being unreliable, many governments are not as committed to it as a way to mass produce energy. Instead they see nuclear power as a better choice in terms of reliability.
Given that efficiency of solar cells should increase and the costs will come down, it makes a lot of sense to get a solar panel for your home. There should be a fall back system because of the reliability issue. Most people go for a grid tie system whereby they keep grid power and sell their solar power to the utility company, thus getting a discount or cheaper utility bills. This is a stress free way of using solar power.
