3 Comments

1. jallygood says:

   April 30, 2010 at 6:08 pm

   solar cells may be clean in producing power but it is not a very clean thing to make, they are also expensive, they absorb only 30%-35% of the suns energy, they will become more efficient but that will take time. As far as the consumer end is concerned , if you had your roof modified with solar cells it would save you a fair bit, you could possibly even sell extra power back to the grid.
   But I think that the current solar technology needs a boost from biology, they need to manufacture bacteria that will act as the solar panel, a living solar cell.
2. PatchyBoy says:

   April 30, 2010 at 7:05 pm

   There are many good things that come from solar power. They are clean, it is an endless energy. Well maybe not, because the sun will die in about 4.5 billion years from now. Another plus would be the improvement of air quality. We burn oil and coal all the time for cars and our homes, if we switch the homes to running on solar energy and cars to electric cars (Charged by the solar energy) we could clear the air, and save space!

   Negatives of Solar power is that it is not super efficient. And that is why you would need to have homes individually power themselves. Also, when there is cloud cover and such, you cannot power your house… also when it is night. The solution to that is to charge spare batteries for the night time and other occasions…. or to get it from a far away power plant. They are developing a way to better harness solar power as well. As previously mentioned. Only about 35% of solar energy is collected with solar cells. But that is because the collectors only collect a certain wave of light, I think it is ultraviolet. So they are developing ways to collect other waves of light. In the end they place each different cell on top of another to get like 100% power collection. Talk about effecient!! So overall the benefits out weigh the problems.
3. ? Hala ? says:

   April 30, 2010 at 7:12 pm

   * Advantages
   - Solar energy is a renewable resource. Oil, on the other hand, is not renewable
   - Solar cells are totally silent. This is in comparison to the noise generated by drills, turbines and pumps for oil
   - Solar energy is non-polluting. Solar power creates no air pollution, greenhouse gases, or radioactive nuclear wastes
   - Solar cells require very little maintenance (they have no moving parts that will need to be fixed), and they last a long time.
   - Although solar panels or solar lights, etc., may be expensive to buy at the onset, you can save money in the long run. After all, you do not have to pay for energy from the sun. On the other hand, all of us are aware of the rising cost of oil.
   - Solar powered lights and other solar powered products are also very easy to install. You do not even need to worry about wires.
   - Solar panels can be used to run small vehicles
   - Sun light is a free energy source

   * Limitations
   - Solar cells/panels, etc. can be very expensive initially
   - Solar power cannot be created at night. It must be collected during the day and stored for later use.
   - Solar power is still developing and in a state of continuous improvement
   - To provide large scale amounts of energy huge areas of panels would be required