How I Got Involved With Solar Energy Advantages

I first got involved with solar energy advantages as a freshman at an engineering school. I was in a calculus class and some how I started looking at the properties of a shape called a parabola. One thing led to another, gas prices were in the range of 20 to 30 cents a gallon, but I somehow started designing a solar hot hater heating system to be used in New England. The design went through many changes but ended up looking like aspot light like those used even today to attract attention to a Hollywood event. The main difference in my design was that the light went in instead of out.

As I mentioned before gas was pretty cheap and we figured it would last forever so the solar energy advantages of my system were not as great as they would become a few years later with the rise of gas prices and the fact that people would become more environmentally aware. There were bugs to work out in my system, likehow to keep the “electric eye” monitored system that moved the light so it would follow the sun accross the sky from icing up in the winter time and I eventually dropped the project.

There Are Solar Energy Disadvantages

The advantages of solar energy are many fold but there are disadvantages as well. You need to get enough sun light so if you live in a cloudy environment with short days you will find it a greater challenge to experience the solar energy advantages than if you lived in Arizona or Hawaii. As with any technology as it is developing there is an initial expense factor, but because of another solar energy advantage- they are non-polluting, and good for the environment- there are rebates available in many areas that help reduce that initial cost.

Actually one advantage of solar energy is that in the long run you actually save money since the systems require almost no maintenance and they are powered by the Sun and so there is no additional fuel expense. A good solar system will last 20 to 30 years so you end up saving money over time. Since the technology is improving over time you might find that the systems will one day last practically forever.

Efficiency – A Major Disadvantage

A solar energy dis-advantage is the poor efficiency of solar panels, which is expanded upon if you look at how does solar power work. The Sun delivers more energy to the Earth in one day than the Earth’s population uses in well over a year so there is no shortage of solar power. However a solar panel that is used in a typical solar array only converts between 10% and 20% of the energy it receives into usable electricity. In the laboratory this percentage has been nearly doubled but those panels would be way too expensive for commercial use. There has been a great deal of focus on increasing the life and efficiency of solar panels. In fact there are organic solar panels that are actually”alive” and can repair themselves being worked on at MIT and other laboratories at the time of this writing.

Millions Of Years Of Stored Energy Gone In Less Than 200 Years

As I mentioned earlier there is an abundance of solar energy being delivered to the earth continuously since in a sense even fossil fuels are solar energy. This makes solar energy renewable in that there is sunlight every day. Fossil fuels are renewable as well only it takes millions of years for them to renew themselves, but then like cigarettes fossil fuels pollute the environment and may affect the climate to a great extent and not in a good way. Man has used up millions of years of stored energy in only a little over a century. If our consumption continues to increase the we will be out of fossil fuels in the not so distant future and we will be forced to use alternative energy sources whether we like it or not.

Solar Energy – Clean And Green

An advantage of solar energy is that it is not just renewable but it is clean energy that does not give off any green house gases and is therefore good for the environment and the planet. If anyone is a fan of pollution then perhaps they would be opposed to clean energy but I don’t think there are many people who like pollution. So even if you are one of those who thinks global warming is just a government conspiracy, and I don’t know for sure that it is not, you still should like to breathe fresh air.

Another solar energy advantage is that it is quiet. Yes those sun rays don’t rev up their engines and make any where near the sound of an electric generator. So, no noise pollution either.

Solar energy has the best potential as an alternative energy source. Solar energy is one of the cleanest ways of producing energy. Solar energy is the energy of the future. Solar energy can be used by a wide range of devices and to produce electricity for your home. Solar information is what we provide, and hopefully you will find our information useful. Please let us know what you think!