Solar energy can be used to create electricity, central heating, heated water, cooking, and even for producing salt desalination. Solar energy comes from the suns rays. Solar energy is known to be very environmentally friendly. However, when the suns rays move into the earths atmosphere it is quite dilute.
Although solar energy is known to be very environmentally favorable it does not only have advantages, but some disadvantages, as well. Lets hash out some of the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy.
Why don’t we start with the main advantage of solar energy. Solar energy is clean. To develop electricity or heat with solar energy you need only the sun rays. There is no need for fossil fuel in conjunction with sun rays to produce electricity or heating. You simply need a solar energy collector or solar power panels in order to collect the suns solar energy.
Solar energy is less expensive than traditional electric heating. That’s another prime reward of solar energy. Just by utilizing solar energy you can save a lot of money on heating. In return you will realize smaller electric bills and it also means that you dont have to maintain heaters or furnaces.
If you live in a rural area where there are no power-lines solar energy can be your solution. There are rural areas where power companies have no means to access your home. Solar energy is a great alternative because it provides you with everything from heating water, a supply of electricity, and even cooking, and that pretty well covers all of the bases.
Another great use of solar energy is for desalination in regions where fresh, potable water is scarce. Solar energy evaporates brine and leaves the salt crystals in the bottom of the basin. The water in turn condenses into another basin where it is now potable.
While all of the above-mentioned is very useful, solar energy does have some disadvantages. These disadvantages also need to be talked over to paint a complete picture.
The main disadvantage of solar energy is that its dilute. Which means that you need to have a bunch of solar collectors installed around your house. Solar energy may be very cheap but the solar collectors are relatively expensive and require regular upkeep in order to work properly and efficiently. If you decide to go with solar energy you will need to calculat your return on invested capital in order to know if the investment makes sense.
One big disadvantage is that you need the suns rays to make use of solar energy. If you are situated in a part of the world where there is not much sun light then you could have a bit of a problem. In other parts of the world, the suns rays are almost always covered in clouds making solar energy collectors less efficient. You should first know if the sunshine in your area is abundant for the most part of the year. Of course if you live in desert areas like in Arizona or New Mexico the sun produces a lot of sunshine for the majority of the year and is ideal for solar energy collecting.
Finally the sun only shines during the day. Therefore if you need electricity or hot water during the nighttime, like many of us do, it can be a problem. You will need a backup system like the local electric company or you will need to store the electric for later use. There are battery systems available, that can store electric for later use.
Solar energy is very clean and an substitute to conventional heating and electrical systems. this is true it is also good to mention the disadvantages of solar energy. If you are thinking about applying solar energy you should read this first to make a informed decision.
The advantages of renewable energy definitely outweigh any disadvantages. If you’re like me, and sick and tired of paying electric bills, that just keep doing through the roof, visit us at www.energymoneysavings.com
Watch the video related to solar energy systems
Running an entire house on solar energy requires quite a few panels. Learn about solar energy system sizes from aprofessional in this free energy conservation video. Expert: Roger Bacon Bio: Roger Bacon is the owner of RGB Home Repair and Renovation in Santa Barbara California. He has experience in all phases of home repair and renovations such as plumbing, heating and solar power. Filmmaker: Diana Bacon
Help answer the question about solar energy systems
Need stock market symbol of "IFE Solar Systems" or "IFE Energy" out of Norway.?This is a large company,investigating Nuclear, Solar, Wind, Petroleum, and any alternative energy systems. They are recently working with South African scientists on successful R&D concerning Solar (thin film) Panels.
May not be international stock,and only traded on Oslo Bourse. Thanks
About Author
I am a jack of all trades, as they say! I have re-built or repaired everything that has to do with my home from plumbing to electrical. I just love to make things work. It’s always been my passion. I stared at a young age.. My father owned an appliance service company, so I had a good teacher. He taught me to install compressors, when I was fourteen.
Tags: Alternative, battery, cheap, diy, easy, Energy, free, global, Green, grid, home, how, london1817, off, PANEL, PANELS, Power, simple, Solar, Sustainable, system, to, warming
July 30th, 2009 at 8:34 am
July 30th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Advantages:
(1) lower marginal cost for increasing energy production (you don't have to build a new coal fired facility to achieve a small increase in power production);
(2) fewer issues with greenhouse gas production
(3) distributed power production;
(4) some independence from the grid.
Disadvantages:
(1) dependency on insolation (it works better in Arizona than in the Yukon);
(2) initial installation cost for individual homeowner (but this is changing with new financing methods);
(3) sensitivity to weather
(4) it may require neighbors to be cooperative by not growing trees that block rooftop solar arrays;
July 30th, 2009 at 9:05 am
so, you will spend 5k dollars to run your laptop and few lights? thats just stupid, my laptop uses like 30 watts of power (when charging), and lets say each bulb is 11-20 watts, it will take you 20 years to pay off that….
July 30th, 2009 at 9:24 am
is this part 1?
July 30th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
I guess i'll have to expand on the above list to make people face the truth.
First of all, the Polysilicates usually make solar cells expensive, true. And in the manufacturing process of these panels to make one actually big enough to use, you do cause some polution. According to statistics, there is hardly any solar system that actually pays for itself. You will have to also maintain them to ensure that they panels do not build up a film due to rain, dust, debris. Some area's have unique problems like hurricanes in the Southeast, snowloads in the north and earthquakes in the west. a Solar system is basically a small electrical plant, in which you are using energy from the sun to charge up batteries, thus needing a charging system, a distribution system and the batteries themselves give off explosive gas if in a confined area while charging. 2% to 4% of the hydrogen atmosphere can be dangerous if using unsealed types. You will also usually require rewiring some of your house if you want to go low voltage. If not, then you need a DC to AC converter and enough battery capactiy to provide your electrical needs for such a conversion since transmission, conversion and regulation result in some loss. Then there's the hazmat issue in regards to the batteries when they need replacing.
The Advantages….if all runs well witout breakdowns, you can live off the grid, or supplement your use from the grid therefore making a lower electrical bill. You will have bragging rights….despite the system will probably never pay for itself. You might qualify for a discount or some kind of rebate…if the city you rin hasn't already quit the program or gone bankrupt because of it. You will have lights on when your neighborhood loses power due to a line being down.
July 30th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I would like to install my own solar panels for my house I would like to know where I could by kit and instructions on how to install them. That it could take care of my hole house.
July 30th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Im sick of competeing aginst these low cost experts sure he makes it look easy but his install looks like crap and his methods are all F@#$ up. I have learned how to benifit from this video and others like it . I just show it to them so they know what not to do! So I guess I should thank this guy………………Thanks Hippy solar guy!
July 31st, 2009 at 3:48 pm
The most glaring and overlooked disadvantage to solar energy is the deprivation of sunlight to plant life (and people)
it is a green source of regenerable energy – this is main advantage and quite important these days, does not consume any resources thus once built a photovoltaic plant is very cheap to maintain.
disadvantages:
- you only can get a max of 1000W/m^2 – this is what our Sun offer, with 20% efficiency means 200W/m^2;
- you don't have any energy at night, and bad weather will decrease the output.
- instalation cost are still high. for a photovoltaic plant of 1MW, 1kWh cost about 3euro. for a 20kW you get 10euro per 1kWh
- big power output imply huge surfaces (because of the first "-")
Overall it is a new technology, still in development, but with a huge growth in last years. If you think 20% is to less, remember that combustion engine is ~15%. NASA use solar cell with 40% efficiency but those are to expensive for now.
>You can put it on top of buildings (usualy done) so none is deprived of sunlight.
July 31st, 2009 at 6:08 pm
The sun is providing free energy every day. How much energy depends mainly on the latitude and to some extent on climate. The question that you are asking is to evaluate our use of this energy to heat buildings and water and presumably other uses.
Advantages:
This energy is free at source and is totally renewable, as far as we know for thousands of years.
Disadvantages:
To harness this energy we need to employ materials and resources and to use our ingenuity to provide technical solutions appropriate to the economic and physical situation and location. There is a capital cost and possibly maintenance costs.
The actual harnessing of the energy can only happen in daylight hours so there may be problems of storing the energy at night.
The advantages are greatest in hot sunny climates but the need for energy is often greater in colder, northern or southern latitudes.
Methods
What are the methods that we can use? Where are the different methods most appropriate?
Buildings
For buildings we need to consider internal climate control and hot water supply and for both these we can use passive and active methods. It is also much easier to incorporate suitable provisions into new domestic, commercial and public construction, although significant improvements can be made to existing buildings.
Passive methods: The four methods for domestic construction in the northern hemisphere that make use of greenhouse effect are:
South facing windows (large windows on south, small or none on north side) other elevations as appropriate with solar shading or solar glazing and thermal insulation.
South facing roof space: usually pitched roof used as a solar collector. May need small fan and duct to circulate hot air.
Conservatory: South side glazed volume.
Trombe wall. South glazed wall with heavy masonry or concrete wall painted black.
And for larger buildings one might use a climate wall i.e. glazed external wall with significant air space between external and internal wall (internal wall can be fully or partially glazed or incorporate thermal mass for storage of heat)
Active methods use solar voltaic panels or solar collectors with water pumped to storage or direct use. Thermosiphon systems, where the storage tank is placed above the collector, do not need a pump and are therefore regarded as a passive system. Standard units are used for hot water supply throughout the Mediterranean countries and middle east. The use of thermal chimneys is also an anchient passive method of internal climate control with modern uses.
This is a very big subject and I have only touched on a brief outline. One could also discuss earth sheltering, construction methods, sustainability, low technology methods for emerging third world countries such as solar ovens and all sorts of related subjects.
Although all the above information is from my own personal knowledge, I have used references in the past such as Wikipedia, (on line encyclopaedia) the Energy Trust Website (a non- profit making Trust based in London) and for low cost energy saving
technology: http://www.energygreed.com/. This site offers a manual for building your own solar power array and wind turbine, with sources for free batteries and claims to save you 80% on electricity costs. In the future I think we will have better gas fired boilers that are not only more efficient like condensation boilers, but combine heating and power generation, so that you will be able to sell back your surplus electricity to the national grid in Britain or the power utility company in USA and Canada. Meanwhile we have to rely on the present technology and in cold climates improved insulation or more heavily insulated new construction, double or triple glazing. Solar methods can be quite useful depending on the payback period. Heat pumps with ground collection systems usually take longer to payback and depend on your having a large volume low energy heat source such as a large pond or coils in the ground. Wind energy is another useful method, and although intermittent can have an acceptable payback period.
July 31st, 2009 at 8:15 pm
only advantages are not burning fossil fuels and creating less pollution.
A solar panel can generate 70 milliwatts per square inch * 5 hours = 350 milliwatt hours per day. You need about 41,000 square inches of solar panel to power a house. That's a solar panel that measures about 285 square feet (about 26 square meters). That would cost around $16,000 right now. Then, because the sun only shines part of the time, you would need to purchase a battery bank, an inverter, etc., and that often doubles the cost of the installation.
100 watts per hour purchased from the power grid would only cost about 24 cents a day right now, or $91 a year. That's why you don't see many solar houses unless they are in very remote locations. When it only costs about $100 a year to purchase power from the grid, it is hard to justify spending thousands of dollars on a solar system.
solar panels are expensive until the cost comes down it's will remain an exception more than a rule. the same applies to hybrid cars because of the high cost & weight of the batteries. They are working on these problems but so far have not found a low cost way to make them.
July 31st, 2009 at 10:23 pm
i have got 2. 80 w 12v panels but have got 48v inverter do i get one more 80w panel ?????
August 1st, 2009 at 6:12 am
I want your solar panels
Hands up!!!!
August 1st, 2009 at 11:40 am
Solar energy is green energy, clean energy and it is freely available during certain hours of the day and during certain months of the year. It all depends upon how we make use of this
infinite energy.
Example: many of us misuse electricity during day time for LIGHTING the interiors of our homes even though free, bright and clean solar energy is available just across our windows and doors, when the sun is shining. Switching on the bulbs during day time is a criminal waste of costly electricity. The bulbs also contribute CO2 and global warming.
Example of savings of electricity that can be effected – one bulb/tube light of 40 volts burnt for 6 hours during day time (whether at home or offices or business complexes), consumes about 8 units of electricity in a month. If this ONE bulb can be switched off during day time, by 100,000 people, we can save 800,000 units of electricity in a month and in six months, when the sun shine is available, we can save 4,800,000 electricity units.
Supposing more than one bulb is switched off, use the above formula to calculate the savings and also how many thousands of tons of CO2 emission can be saved. That is the power of volume.
I am not asking you to live in darkness. Many of us need that one burning bulb to keep our interiors bright because we would have kept our doors and windows shut for various reasons like security, wind, dust etc., but still we need that burning bulb for reading etc.
I have a simple solution for giving you free energy for lighting your interiors. I am not talking about energy that is required for kinetic purpose like running a fan, oven, geyser etc., I am talking about that simple light that brightens the interior of your home. My following solution does not involve any nano technology or billion dollar investment. Anybody can do it with a little innovative mind.
SO, LET US "BRING HOME THE SUNSHINE AND LIVE IN A BRIGHTER WORLD". How?
When the sun is shining outside your windows, locate the spot where maximum hours of sunshine will be available. Take a plastic chair, a pillow, a few pieces of waste thermostat or cardboard and a mirror measuring 1' X 2'; open one window, keep the chair in the sunshine, pillow on it and the mirror on the pillow. Keep adjusting the angle of the mirror till such time that the deflected sun shine gets inside your home and hits the white ceiling and fine tune the same by keeping small pieces of card board behind the mirror to maintain that angle. LO, AND BEHOLD, YOUR ROOM IS BEAUTIFULLY LIT UP WITH NATURAL LIGHT FROM THE CEILING – FREE FOR YOU.
This is a practical solution for a global problem and everybody can become innovators for helping the world reduce global warming and to get free lighting with the help of infinite solar energy by switching off as many bulbs as possible. Think of the benefits that would accrue by way of savings in terms of investment to generate that many MW of electricity, how much of fossil fuel, coal or water that would be used for generating that much of electricity, investment on machineries, transmission cost, labor, etc. etc. and also how much of CO2 can be reduced, they have nth value.
Please publish this simple solution or send it to as many people as possible.
This solution has been awarded a Certificate of Honor and a knowledge grant by the world bank – project U-SEE # 585 of IDM 2007 competition. Browse,
http://dmblog.worldbank.org/mirrors-can-bring-light-rural-homes
For further details and FAQs, mail to vasanthmysoremath@gmail.com +918214243319 / 9845950440
August 1st, 2009 at 6:31 pm
So Four 12 volt batteries to get your inverter to do 48 volts to work, then you are going to have to get a solar charger to charge your batteries, then wire them + -to + – all four batteries to keep it 12 volt and a second wire to go + to _ to +- on all the batteries to get 48 volts to the inverter. Hope this helps!
August 2nd, 2009 at 3:25 am
Solar Energy:
For us to MASS-PRODUCE it, meaning our reliance on it is like more than 50% of the whole world population, we would need to clear off large areas of land to put the solar panels there.
Advantage- Eco-friendly
Wind Energy:
Same with solar power, if we use it too much, then it can affect weather systems, and affect birds migratory system, because they'll be chopped up if we put our wind turbines in their migratory path…
Advantage- Cheap, eco-friendly
Hydro:
Destroys water ways, thus weakens our eco-system because the species of some places need the water from the river, but once that river is blocked, then they have no water.
Ecofriendly…
August 2nd, 2009 at 4:06 am
Advantages:
-Harnesses the natural power of the sun.
-No emissions.
-Creates it's own energy (basically)
-Can be used to power Solar Cookers (make your own food without any wood to burn or oil [becoming popular in many African countries where cooking resources are sparse])
Disadvantages:
-Very expensive for the amount of energy received and distributed throughout the power grid.
-The technology is very young (maximizing the amount of energy harnessed, amplifying the rays to reuse and thus amplify the power of the rays, etc. etc.).
-Terribly inefficient when compared to the output of Nuclear power.
Wind and Solar power will be considered white elephants for a while–until technology starts to catch up. Nuclear power is the decent replacement for Coal/Oil/Natural Gas, at least until Wind and Solar catch up.
Solar technologies just aren't there yet.
August 2nd, 2009 at 11:19 am
Solar panels are awesome! I just purchased mine from Solar-Deals. They’re doing a grand opening! 10% off all products!
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December 22nd, 2009 at 10:02 pm
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