What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Solar Power?

With the humanity has been talking about renewable, more and more people pay attention to solar power. Solar energy comes from sun’s radiation. It is both primary energy and renewable energy. It is rich in resources and can be used for free without any transportation, and eco-friendly for the environment. It creates a new life for human, which is an energy-saving and pollution-reduction epoch.

While, do you know the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy?

Advantages of Solar Energy

1.    Renewable Energy Source

The most important is that solar power is really a renewable energy source among all the benefits of solar plate. It can be used in all area, no limitation. Wherever and whenever, it is available. Unlike other energy sources, the solar power energy cannot be run out. We can develop and utilize directly through solar unit.

2.    Harmless

Solar energy is a green and natural resource, which is one of the cleanest energy resources. There is no pollution for the environment when develop and utilize.

3.    Power Saving

Electricity and gas are very important in our daily life, we need to use them every day. For example, we need gas or electricity for cooking, taking shower, illumination, and so on. If we use solar energy for instead, that will save so much energy resource and saving can further grow.

4.    Rich Energy Source

The annual solar radiation that reached the surface of Earth is equivalent to around 130 trillion tons of coal, which is the largest amount of energy that can be developed in the world.

5.    Endless Energy Source

It is estimated according to the rate of nuclear energy produced by the sun, the hydrogen reserves are sufficient for maintenance above billions of years, and the life span of the earth is also around several billion years. That is to say, the sun’s energy is endless.

Disadvantages of Solar Energy

1.    Instability

Due to the constraints of natural conditions, such as day and night, seasons, geographic latitude and altitude, as well as the influence of sunny, cloudy, cloud and rain, the irradiance of the sun that reaches earth surface is both intermittent and extremely unstable. It is very difficult to apply solar energy in the large scale. In order to make solar power become a continuous and stable energy source, and eventually become an alternative energy that can compete with conventional energy, it is necessary to solve the energy storage problem very well. That is to say, storage solar radiant energy in sunny daylight as much as possible for nighttime or rainy day used. But, energy storage is also one of the weaker factors in solar energy utilization.

2.    Low Efficiency and High Cost

The development of solar energy utilization is theoretically feasible and technically mature in some aspects. However, some solar equipments have low efficiency and high cost. Also, the laboratory utilization efficiency does not exceed 30%. Overall, it cannot be competed with conventional energy sources.

3.    Pollution of Solar Panels

At the moment, photovoltaic solar panels have a certain life span. Generally speaking, sun solar panels need to be replaced at most 3~5 years. While, the solar power equipment is very difficult to be decomposed, that caused considerable pollution for environment.

From above, we can see clearly the pros and cons of solar energy. Even though, the solar energy is still quite critical in our daily life.