Your Local Solar Team
With the cost of power increasing by 3% to 5% per year, you may be investigating alternate energy sources like solar. However, before you go ahead and put a solar system on your home, there are a few big drawbacks to consider.
Solar power has the greatest beginning expenses of any renewable energy source, so you’d think it’d be a good investment. Solar panels, on the other hand, have low efficiency. With the best and most expensive equipment available, you’ll be lucky to get more than a 22% conversion rate if you’re in a prime position.
Efficiency is just one of the major drawbacks of solar energy; the following are some more drawbacks of solar power.
Your latitude affects the efficiency of solar power. The efficiency of solar power decreases substantially as you move away from the equator. This puts inhabitants of Canada and Russia at a disadvantage.
Because there isn’t enough unclouded sunshine reaching the ground in areas like Hawaii, where it rains and clouds 277 days per year on average, the equator is also useless. Solar panels, like everything else exposed to the sun, will deteriorate. Wind, hail, snow, dirt, and temperature variations can harm solar panels.
Installing solar panels is not a major deal for homes, especially because they are usually installed on the roof. To generate electricity consistently, huge firms will need a vast installation area. The largest solar field in Spain covers 173 acres and powers approximately 12,000 homes. That’s 173 acres of unusable land for grazing livestock.
Because solar energy is dependent on the sun, it cannot be generated at night, forcing you to either store excess energy or connect to a backup power source like the local utility grid. That means you’ll have to pay more than just the solar panels’ hefty cost. Clouds and storms reduce energy production by blocking sunbeams that solar panels would otherwise absorb.
Solar panels on average only convert 14% of available energy into power; modern solar panels convert only 22% of their available energy into power. The second rule of thermodynamics states that solar cells will never be 100% efficient. The maximum potential efficiency is 85%, with mirrors and motors following the sun.
While solar energy is considered a limitless renewable resource, the existing harvesting methods are costly and inefficient. But solar technology is very young, and many good ideas are emerging.
To learn more about solar and other renewable energy sources, visit our blog section.
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