• Benefits and Challenges of Solar Energy

    BENEFITS

    Solar energy offers many significant benefits, which include: 

    • It's limitless and available worldwide.
    • It does not pollute the water or air.
    • It is essentially free. After the initial investment, the sun's energy energy is virtually free. 
    • It has lots of flexibility because it can be used as is or help add energy to the grid. It can also be used in conjunction with other sources.
    • It has numerous applications for supplying heat and power. 
    • It's a perfect match for supplying high energy demands of the summer season.
    • Solar systems provide customers more control since they utilize common materials and have minimal moving parts.
    CHALLENGES

    There are challenges to using solar energy, which include: 

    • It's not constant. It varies depending on weather conditions, time of day, time of year and location.
    • In a given location, it supplies only a small amount of energy. Lots of surface area is required to collect it.
    • Setting up systems requires substantial initial monetary investment.
    • A small amount of environmentally harmful toxic waste is produced while manufacturing photovoltaic cells.
    • Solar power plants can harm desert ecosystems.
    • PV cells are relatively expensive (although cheaper technologies are being developed).

    FINAL THOUGHT: As the future unfolds, finding more cost-effective solutions to harness solar energy will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.