Advantages and Disadvantages of Solar Energy

Advantages and Disadvantages of Solar Energy

Solar energy can be used and is used for electricity, heating, hot water, cooking, for producing salt and even for desalination. Solar energy comes from the sun. Solar energy is known to be very friendly to the environment. However, when the sun's rays enter the Earth's atmosphere is quite diluted.

Although solar energy is known to be very environmentally friendly, Sleep only has advantages but also some disadvantages. We will discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy.



Let's start with the main advantage of solar energy. Solar energy is clean. To produce electricity or heat with solar energy only needs sunlight. No need to use fossil fuels in combination with sun rays to produce electricity or heat. Just a solar energy collector or solar power panels to collect solar energy is needed.

Solar power is cheaper than electric heating. That's another big advantage of solar energy. Only by the use of solar energy can save a lot of money on heaters. In return you will get lower electricity bills and also means you do not have to keep the heaters.

If you live in a remote area where there are no power lines solar energy can be the solution. There are remote areas where power companies have no means to access your home. Solar energy is a great alternative because it gives you some hot water, electricity, and even cooking.

Another great use of solar energy is for desalination in areas where fresh drinking water is scarce. Solar energy evaporates brine and leaves the salt crystals in the bottom of the basin. The water in turn condenses back in another basin where it is now drinkable.

Also Although the above is useful solar energy has some disadvantages. These disadvantages also need to be discussed to paint a bigger picture.

The main disadvantage of solar energy is that its dilute. This means that you have to have a lot of solar collectors installed around your house. Solar energy can be very cheap but the solar collectors are relatively expensive and require regular maintenance to function properly and efficiently. If you decide to use solar energy is necessary to calculate the return on investment in order to know whether the investment will pay off.

A big disadvantage is that you need sunlight to make use of solar energy. If you are located in a part of this beautiful planet where there is plenty of sunlight, then this could be a problem. In other areas, the sun's rays are almost always covered in clouds making less efficient collectors of solar energy. You must first know if the sunshine in your area is abundant in most of the year. Of course, if you live in desert areas in Arizona or Mexico the sun produces a lot of sunshine most of the year and is ideal for harvesting solar energy.

Finally the sun only shines during the day. Therefore if you need electricity or hot water overnight, like many of us do, it can be a problem. You will need a backup system such as electricity grid of age or have to store electricity for later use. There are battery systems that can store solar energy for later use.

Solar energy is very clean and an alternative to conventional heating and electrical systems. While this is true, it is also good to mention the disadvantages of solar energy. If you are considering using solar energy you must read this first to make a balanced decision.

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