Preview

Solar Energy Pros and Cons

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2001 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Solar Energy Pros and Cons
Energy is defined in physics as the capacity to make things move; it is widely used in today people’s residences, a variety of industries and technology fields. Most of the energy we use now comes from fossil fuels coal, oil and natural gas, which are being consumed more rapidly than they are being replaced. That means eventually we will use up these fuels. That is why we as a society need to broaden our research to develop new forms of energy resources are for this happens. There are kinds of energy that can be replenished in short periods of time called renewable energy, these come from sources that are frequently being recycled and are consistently less polluting than energy that is produced from fossil fuels. There are five main kinds of renewable energy: biomass, hydropower, geothermal, wind and solar. Solar energy is provide by the sun in the forms of sunlight and heat, has been utilized the least even though it is probably the most accessible. However, solar energy holds a number of benefits for societies and it has already proven to have positive effects on residential homes and industrial applications. For many years, solar energy has been the economic choice for use in many industries where power is required at remote locations without government subsidy, as the vast majority of systems used require little electrical power. Solar energy is frequently used to power transportation signals. For example, offshore navigation buoys, lighthouses, and at an increasing rate traffic warning signals are using solar power due to its power saving efficiency. Solar power’s greatest benefit here is that it is highly reliable and requires little maintenance so it is ideal to use in places that are hard to access. Primarily, as I mentioned above, solar power is particularly useful in remote areas where it is lack of regular electricity supply. For instance, at Singleton, New South Wales, Australia, there are 2.75 hectare solar farm whose size is approximately


References: Corcoran, Elizabeth. (2003, November). Bright ideas. forbes 172(11), 222. Hogan, Jenny. (2003, June). Solar power set for take-off: the latest technology for converting sunlight into electricity could make solar panels cheap and efficient enough to become a widespread source of domestic power. New Scientist 178(2398), 14(2). Business Wire. (2004, January 28). SunPower 's A-300 silicon solar cell named product of the year by analogZONE; Unique high-efficiency product selected for award in the ' 'Green Technology ' ' category. Business wire. Winters, Jeffrey. (2003, July). Roll out the solar. Mechanical Engineering-CIME 125(7), 12. Fairley, Peter. (2002, January-February). Solar on the cheap: One of the cleanest energy sources around is getting cheaper. Thanks to new materials, solar cells could soon be Ubiquitous. Technology review (Cambridge, Mass.) 105(1), 48(5). Hamer, Glenn. (2002, June). Solar power 2002. World and I 17(6), 145.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Sci 275 Final Project

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The difference between renewable and non-renewable resources is essentially quite easy to grasp. Renewable resources are simply ones where they are constantly renewed or in other words restored (Berg&Hager,2007). The types of renewable energy that exists today are ones such as wind, solar and geothermal and hydro or tidal energy. Solar energy and Wind energy out the four are easily the ones with the most benefits and seem to be the most popular. According to the GAO ( United States Government Accountability Office), wind energy has the potential to provide electricity to homes and business without further polluting the air and causing more depletion of non-renewable resources. It is by far the most efficient due to the operating costs being much lower then the actual costs for the energy from fossil fuels(GAO, 2004). Solar energy is the next most energy efficient, with the next alternatives being geothermal and tidal. Consequently, non-renewable resources are those that can not be replenished or renewed. Most of these resources are fossil fuels like, coal, oil and gas (Berg&Hager,2007). Unfortunately, a massive percentage of all the North America’s energy is produced by fossil fuels and over…

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    For us, solar power was a practical solution to a real problem. For what it would have cost us to have the power company run lines to our remote home, we could buy a complete power system and never have an electric bill. We did our research, learned about typical household loads, and set up our system. Except for the fact that there were no power lines to our house, we looked and lived like just about everyone else in the modern world.…

    • 1420 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Solar energy and its use isn’t new to the world. It has been used by various societies beginning from 7thCentury B.C, when the sun’s heat was concentrated by glass and mirrors to light fires. Today, we have everything from solar-powered buildings to solar-powered vehicles. By and large solar technology has some environmental, economic, psychological and ethical implications for our society. Actions taken by companies and individuals to increase the use of solar technology will create good local jobs, improve our environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil while doing what’s ethical and moral for our society.…

    • 2486 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Photovoltaic solar cells, which directly convert sunlight into electricity, are made of semiconducting materials. The simplest cells power watches and calculators and the like, while more complex systems can light houses and provide power to the electric grid.…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    When all of our natural fossil fuels are low or gone, solar energy will be one of the leading sources of energy that we will need in the future.…

    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Chemistry Essay

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Solar power energy works like this, “When sunlight hits a solar panel, it makes electrons in the silicon move around. (Electrons are teeny tiny specks—they’re way too small for us to see, even under a microscope.) The electrons flow through wires that were built into the solar panel. And presto! We have electricity!” (Solar Training and Renewable Energy Education). Solar energy is very effective since it is renewable. This means that the more solar energy that the human race uses, the less fossil fuels are used, which potentially reduces the amount of population and harm done to the environment. Though it benefits the environment, these solar cells have an economical toil on our society, because they are very expensive. Since solar cells are so expensive, their use has decreased, but if newer and cheaper material is found and used in these cells, then solar energy will become a common energy source.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Solar energy represents the future of a clean earth in days to come; it also represents the clean air that our children and their children will breathe. We constantly have to worry about pollutants in our air from all of the many harmful chemicals being thrown into the air by fossil fuels; we never stop to think about how this will affect our children, and it’s time that we start doing something to ensure they all have a clean-energy future. (Ayres, 2010)…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Furthermore, renewable energy is a very niche market. It makes up only 8% of the total energy industry. SolarWorld’s practice, active solar technology, occupies just 1% of the total renewable energy due to its high cost and capital investment. This leaves a big hole for threat of substitutes such as coal, nuclear or natural gas energy, which are mostly the primary choice before renewable energy.…

    • 577 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Photovoltaic has been in production and used around the world for around the past 20 years, even though the photovoltaic was first discovered and created in 1954, it has only come in production recently (author, 34). There are two main processes for harnessing solar energy, these are the solar thermal system and the photovoltaic system. The process of how solar thermal system is that it uses the energy that is provided from the sun, not fossil fuels, to generate environmentally friendly, low cost thermal energy. It helps us provide hot water or other fluids, and can power solar cooling systems. For photovoltaic energy, it works the same as solar thermal energy, only difference is that it doesn’t generate hot water or other fluids and power solar cooling system, although it generates electricity for items that we use daily. The solar panels contains photovoltaic cells, which can convert heat energy from the sunlight into direct current electricity during the day, and direct current energy can power up a lot of items that we use daily. Bit more detail. Using solar panels are inexhaustible, as we will always have the sun to collect heat…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Solar cells provide cost effective solutions to energy problems in places where there is no mains electricity. Solar cells are also totally silent and non-polluting. As they have no moving parts they require little maintenance and have a long lifetime. Compared to other renewable sources they also possess many advantages; wind and water power rely on turbines which are noisy, expensive and liable to breaking down.…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    solar energy uses

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Space-based solar power (SBSP) is the concept of collecting solar power in space for use on Earth. It has been in research since the early 1970s. SSPS consists of a space-based power generation/transmission facility that gathers sunlight, converts it into microwaves or laser beams, and transmits those to the ground; and a power receiving facility on the ground.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Renewable Souces of Energy

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Solar energy I relatively new area of energy production, which was developing in very fast pace over the last few decades. There are different solar panels on the market. They should be compared by cost effectiveness to see which one is the best, to know what the total output of energy they have is and how many panels would it require to get rid of the fossil fuels for good. Using the British site “http://www.comparemysolar.co.uk” It is possible to extract data for different producers of solar panels for comparison.…

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Variety of uses : Solar energy can be used for variety of purposes like as heating, drying, cooking or electricity, which is suitable for the rural areas in India. It can also be used in cars, planes, large power boats, satellites, calculators and many more such items, just apt for the urban population.…

    • 966 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Green Technology

    • 848 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Solar energy is solar panels converting our sun rays into electricity by photovoltaic cells. The solar panels are intended to reduce both air pollution and CO2 emissions. Many people have found this new energy saver very useful so many of them have put them to work in their houses and their businesses. I think that this is a very good technology to have around the house because with our economy on the hinge.…

    • 848 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Energy Essay

    • 1135 Words
    • 4 Pages

    According to Mother Nature Network, green energy comes from natural sources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, plants, algae and geothermal heat. These energy resources are renewable, meaning they 're naturally replenished. There are many different types of green energy such as wind energy, solar energy, and hydroelectric energy. Each type of energy is very diverse in the way it affects our society.…

    • 1135 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays