What are the positives and negatives of using solar energy?
Question:
Answer:
With ground based solar:
Positives:
Once you build the panels the power is free
Little environmental impact
Appeases the luddites
Negatives:
Downright expensive
Too unreliable to be a major player in a power grid
Doesn't work at night
Reduced power when skies aren't clear
Reduced power in winter and at high latitudes
Now putting the solar power plant in space and beaming the power down to earth is another matter.
Positives:
Very clean, possibly cleaner than doing it on the ground (trade off is between making the semiconductors on Earth and dumping the waste from that or launching rockets)
Potentially very cheap if space resources are used
Actually has a possibility of competing with fossil fuels and nuclear power for dominant power supplier
Negatives:
Not yet deployed so we only know of it in theory and limited tests of the microwave power transmission
Every year at the equinoxes there is a IIRC 74 minute blackout (not as bad as a 12 hour one though and that's only on two days)
Luddites will probably oppose it despite the microwave beam being perfectly safe
Positive is the amount of resources that can be saved by using such power. Negatives are the cost of converting to solar energy and the amount of solar power you need to power most things.
POSITIVE: IT'S FREE
NEGATIVE: CLOUDS
unlimited amounts of energy is one plus, if it rains you're out of a supply and at night time too
Positive- we save electriciy and help the eviornment
negative- we are ignoring all of Thomas Jefferson's hard work
Pros:
1.free
2.continuos as long as there is the sunshine
Conts:
1.The material is very expensive
2.Create only low power
3.The sun wouldn't be at night, so you need to store your power in some sort of capacitor. -very expensive.
Positives:
Clean, Renewable.
Negatives:
Expensive to build(Solar Power Plants), Dont produce as much energy as Fossil Fuel, and Generally large in size, Energy must be stored during peak power generating times, requring expensive batteries and considerable maintainence.
As for the negatives... They are just problems that are bound by technology. So as science moves forward maybe better more efficent means of Solar Energy Production will be available.
http://infobasset.com/solar-power-genera...
http://crab.rutgers.edu/~gagliard/energy...
I didn't find any negatives.I wish to God I could afford the array/wind generator/anything else I needed and say goodby to the electric company forever!
positive- it conserves resources and protects the environment and atmosphere and ozone layer
Negative- the sun isn't always out so when it's not out there's no power which would be bad for a society nowadays that depends on power and some areas don't get a lot of sun so they wouldn't have power and would have to resort back to using resources
negatives: batteries cost lots & need replaceing regularly, in fact it all cost too much. steam powered generators r the way to go if you could make one that work off burning garbage, cause theres a lot of that around
The only negatives are, the sun can only be relied on in sunbelt places like the Middle East, Australia and Arizona and even there it only shines 12 hours a day. At high latitudes where the sun is never high in the sky you get less power, and at the moment, efficient photovoltaic panels are still quite expensive, but that's changing rapidly. You need to clean them occasionally too; bird poo, sand or industrial grime being the main problems.
positive - less pollution
negative - $$$ how much will it cost? $$$
The only Negative thing that I know of is it's very expensive to get set up. On the other hand I have a few Positives: Nature gives you free power, If you generate more power than you need the electric co. has to pay you for what you don't use. Contrary to what the other people are saying. When the sun goes down or it's a rainy day you don't lose power. When your solar panels collect the power it is stored in batteries until you need it. Also your still hooked up to the electric co. It's also keeps our environment cleaner. Now that's what I think about it.
Positive:
Non-polluting
Possible to use in space
May be built anywhere in the world (although preferably near the equator)
Negative:
Expensive, not competitive with todays power sources
Different power output depending on time of the day and weather
More Questions & Answers...