Discovering the problems of solar energy
Solar electricity brings good things to people and especially to the environment, but like any other source of energy, it also has issues to be dealt with. To ensure you’ll be using safe, cost-effective, and reliable solar energy for your home or commercial property, contact the most trusted provider of solar solutions Miami.
1. Cost
Perhaps the biggest problem in implementing solar energy is the cost. Compared to other competing sources of energy such coming from coal-fired power plants, solar energy remains more expensive when it comes to dollars per kw/h, which has become a standard measure. If you don’t count the environmental costs in using solar energy which is even harder to evaluate a dollar amount to. Besides, solar panels use sunlight-generating semiconductor materials that are deemed too costly. However, over the years the growing competition among manufacturers as well as introduction of new substances, such as cadmium telluride has gradually made solar energy pricing more reasonable than before.
2. Site issues
Another hurdle in the solar energy technology is the site placing. Many places are deemed unsuitable to install solar panels because they don’t receive enough solar energy to make solar power commercially viable as well as cost effective. Places that are often cloudy and rainy are not good enough for solar energy technology. Typically, direct sunlight is necessary for solar panels in order for them to convert the heat into usable source of energy and produce more power. But advanced technology has enabled new models of solar panels to diffuse light from cloudy days to produce energy.
3. Energy collection
It’s not easy to produce a solar panel, because on the average it takes about eleven years worth of its energy production just to create it. It means that a panel won’t start manufacturing “new” energy until it has been in operation for such period. But times have changed. More recent solar panels are made to be more efficient. Newer panels are also manufactured with fewer materials too than the old solar panel technologies — it still depends on the materials and the way it’s manufactured on how long a solar panel can produce its energy.
4. Type and supply of materials
Part of the reason why the cost of having a solar energy system is high compared to other sources is the supply of the materials needed to make solar panels. The materials used to manufacture these panels are usually scarce and hard to come by or the supply has been in fluctuation. But then, solar panels aren’t created equal. Some panels have this kind of problem, some don’t. When solar panel manufacturers and producers can’t meet the consumer demand because of the short supply of the materials, they resort to increasing the cost.
5. Production and demand
Do you know that solar panels don’t produce the same amount of energy every day? It depends on the time of the day or the season. Usually, solar panels generate the most energy during the middle of the day, and during the summer season. Otherwise, it produces relatively less energy before or after the midday. If your demand for solar power does not concur with the amount of energy produced by your solar panel at this certain period, there are other sources of energy to temporarily be used in its place, or stored energy such as batteries.
Solar energy encounters several problems, just like with other sources of energy. But thanks to the technological advancements and the growing awareness among the people to use clean and green energy, these problems can be and are usually solved.