Solar energy offers significant advantages over conventional power systems, as it prevails over failures in systems that have long been considered unalterable. Solar power for home power generation also has its flaws, but they are overshadowed by the benefits listed below. Solar energy is a great option
The following are the benefits of solar energy:
Raw materials are renewable and unlimited. The amount of solar energy available is astounding, some 10,000 times greater than that required by humans, and it is constantly being replaced. Just 0.02% of incoming sunlight, if captured correctly, would be enough to replace any other fuel source used.
Of course, the Earth needs much of this solar energy to power its climate, so let's just take a look at the unused portion of sunlight that is reflected back into space, known as albedo. The average albedo of the Earth is about 30%, which means that the Earth reflects about 52 petawatts of energy and is lost to space every year. Compare this number with the statistics on global energy consumption. Each year, the energy lost in space is the combined equivalent of 400 hurricanes, 1 million Hoover dams, Britain's energy needs for 250,000 years, world oil, gas and coal production for 387 years, 75 million of cars and 50 million 747s in continuous operation for a year.
Solar energy is low-emission.
Solar panels produce no pollution, although they do impose environmental costs through
manufacturing and construction. These environmental taxes are negligible compared to the damage inflicted by conventional energy sources: the combustion of fossil fuels releases about 21.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year. Solar energy is suitable for remote areas that are not connected to power grids. According to Home Power magazine, in 2006, 180,000 homes in the United States were off the grid and that number is likely considerably higher today. California, Colorado, Maine, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington have long been a haven for such energetic rebels, although people live off the net in every state. While many of these people avoid the web on principle, due to political and environmental concerns, only a few of the 1.8 billion offline people in the world have any choice. Solar energy can dramatically improve the quality of life of millions of people living in the dark, especially in places like sub-Saharan Africa, where up to 90% of the rural population has no access to electricity.
Solar energy provides green jobs.
The production of solar panels for home use is becoming a growing source of employment in research, production, sales and installation.
Solar panels contain no moving parts and therefore produce no noise.
Wind turbines, on the other hand, require noisy gearboxes and blades.
In the long run, solar energy is cheap.
Solar panels and installation involve high initial costs, but these costs are soon offset by savings on energy bills. Eventually, they might even profit from using them. Solar energy uses net metering, which is the practice of crediting homeowners for the electricity they produce and return to the power grid. Under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, electricity companies are required to make grid swaps available to their customers upon request. This practice offers an advantage to homeowners who use solar panels (or wind turbines or fuel cells) which can sometimes produce more energy than their homes require. If net metering is not an option, excess power can be stored in batteries. Solar power can mean government tax credits. US federal subsidies credit up to 30% of system costs, and each state offers its own incentives. Blessed with abundant sunlight and plagued by high electricity rates and an overloaded grid, California was the first state to offer generous renewable energy incentives for homes and businesses.
Solar energy is reliable.
Many homeowners prefer solar power because it is virtually immune to potential utility failures, mainly in the form of political or economic turmoil, terrorism, natural disasters, or blackouts due to overuse. The 2003 Northeast Blackout disconnected 55 million people in two countries, while continuous blackouts are a part of daily life in some South Asian countries and occasionally in California and Texas. Solar energy saves on external energy costs. In many countries, a large percentage of the profits are used to pay for imported oil for energy production. The United States alone spends $ 13 million an hour on oil, much of which comes from the nations of the Persian Gulf. As oil supplies decline and prices rise in this politically unstable region, these problems continue to catalyze the expansion of solar and other alternative energy systems. In short, solar energy offers advantages over conventional fossil fuels and other renewable energy systems.
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