Anyone tell me info about solar power?
Question:
Answer:
I live completely off solar panels (properly called photo-voltaic panels or PV for short), so I think I'm qualified to answer.
The good things are:
1) they generate electricity without polluting the earth
2) they have no moving parts to break
3) they should last a very long time (25+ years), many PV panels have been in operation over 30 years
The bad things are:
1) they don't work at night or on very cloudy days, so the amount of time they generate electricity is limited. So you need to store the energy during the day for use at night or on cloudy days. This usually means that you have to use batteries to store that energy. Battery technology is not as advanced as PV panels are yet.
2) It is not cost efficient yet to just rely on solar panels and batteries. You will often see a system designed with a backup generator (diesel or propane). Another option is to use a wind turbine because on cloudy rainy days, it is often windy.
3) The advances in the efficiency of PV panels has not moved forward very quickly. Commonly available PV panels are only about 14%-20% efficient. A doubling of this efficiency would make a huge difference it their affordability. The best solar cell in the world (link below) is now 40.7% efficient.
Good things: it is the source of all the power that comes to us (gas, oil, hydro power, wind etc ) except for geo-thermal power. It can power the entire earth for centuries for example if we could harness just 5% of the sun's solar power out put - that would power all our energy needs for hundreds of years to come (without using one drop of oil, gas or nuclear power).
Bad things: solar radiation can be dangerous in high amounts for example: ultraviolet rays cause sun burn, skin cancer and if a powerful enough does of radiation came from the sun it could wipe out all life on earth.
what about?, photovoltaic cells, solar heating (of water etc.), solar lighting, solar power plants that focus the sun's rays with mirrors on a reactor and produce steam and generate energy?
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