Solar Power?

Question

What impact does solar power have on the environment?

Answer 1

Solar power is not "free power" as most people believe. For starters, it takes a large amount of energy just to fabricate the cells in the first place. Eventually, over their lifetime, the cells collect enough energy to pay back the cost of making them.



Also, solar power requires a lot of space if you are to get any truly significant amount of energy from it. There is only about 1Kwatt of power / square meter available in sunlight at the surface of the Earth in lower latitudes.



The 48 contiguous US states consumed about 2.045 Gigawatts of power per day in 2005. If you had 100%-efficient solar cells, you would have to collect the sunlight of 2045 square kilometers. That is about 790 square miles. Today's most efficient production solar cells are about 30% efficient, so let's divide that by 0.3 --> 2630 square miles. Now let's say that we could get 8hrs of full capacity production from these pannels, that means multiply it by another 3 times --> 7900 square miles.



This would be a square 88.9 miles on a side of pure solar cell - a lot wider actually, considering the space required by the electrical circuitry between each cell...



I haven't read any studies about this, but I feel like if we were to set up such a behemoth, that there would be an invironmental impact. Consider that you're taking 746 gigawatts of power per year out of the ecosystem. That's energy that affects things like the weather, the water cycle, the mean global temperature, etc. I think this would probably be enough of a drain on the natural cycle of things that we'd be changing the climate in some way. By comparison, we emit a pretty small amount of volume of pollutants compared to the total volume of the atmosphere, and look what it does to the balance.



I'm a big believer in the need to find alternate energy sources. But the more I look at solar power, the less I see it as the replacement of current energy sources. It can be a very viable suppliment, but it is obviously not the answer to total replacement. Even if we had the magic 100% efficient cells and reduced the land area of the solar collector to just under 800 square miles, we'd still be directly leeching the nearly 800 gigawatts of energy from the environment each year, which I feel could be enough to harmfully tip the balance.



Remember, there's no free lunch in thermodynamics. It's got to come from somewhere, and solar pannels would be intercepting what would normally be going to the earth and taking it for human consumption.

Answer 2

Things have changed over Decade. Now days, Solar Cell Manufacturing is efficient. Less Power Consumption in Manufacturing, Lot of Employment .

The Solar Cell Efficiency has improved to about 20%. Now,it make sense because less space is covered for generating same amount of power. Flexible Applications like : Canal Top , Roof Top, Barren Land Covered by Solar and many more.

Answer 3

Solar power can be converted into heat energy and electric energy,it can be used in many field such as hot water and electicity for home industry and business，it also can be used to cook food.Everything is going well with solar power instead of using electicity.Thus using solar power can reduce the emission of fuels and carbon so that protect our earth.

Answer 4

You raise an important point. Solar cells are made primarily of gallium arsenide in a matrix of silicon. Their manufacture generates heavy metal toxic waste. If we were to go solar in a big way one of the biggest impacts of Solar Cells is the massive amount of ground cover that would be necessary to generate power. They only convert sunlight at 5-7% efficiency. One of the things few people realize about solar cells is that because they are so fragile, they are easily damaged by severe weather, easily vandalized, and the potential of arsenic contamination is both real and a danger if these units are deployed in large numbers within densely populated urban areas

Answer 5

Solar power is a clean and free energy. It can protect the environment, because if you use solar energy to repleace electricity, it can avoid pollution from burning of coal.

Answer 6

The solar thermal power generation is the process of converting the sun’s rays into heat energy to produce steam and then electricity, using conventional turbines through solar receiver components. It is an integral part of solar thermal utilizations. Now there are four categories of solar thermal power generation system, including Parabolic Trough Line concentration system, Tower system, Dish Stirling system and Fresnel Power Generation system. We mainly introduce the Fresnel system and Parabolic system here.

Friendly Note: We propose everyone use energy-saving, low-emission products to protects white cloud and blue sky for ourselves and our later generations. Maybe you will not choose Himin’s solar solutions but please use solar products.

Answer 7

The potential environmental impacts associated with solar power — land use and habitat loss, water use, and the use of hazardous materials in manufacturing — can vary greatly depending on the technology, which includes two broad categories: photovoltaic (PV) solar cells or concentrating solar thermal plants (CSP).

Answer 8

Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the sun harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture and artificial photosynthesis.

It is an important source of renewable energy and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the way they capture and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power. Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar power and solar water heating to harness the energy.



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Answer 9

Actually none at all unless you count the structures that hold the solar array panels as an impact. Solar energy is completely no poluting and the best source of energy if we can find a good way of harnessing it.

Answer 10

Ultimately, we need the sun for all processes on earth. Production of electricity by solar cells is not very efficient. But using solar energy for heat is much better. Then we can burn less fossil fuels, and produce less green house gases.

Answer 11

solar power is powerful, now, most think it solar power generation, but solar power the most effective and direct utilization is the solar thermal one, if you get electricity by the PV power system to heating or hot water etc., that will be energy squander, green house, passive heating ......lot's of solution

Answer 12

Solar power, use solar energy to power generation,for home use and commercial use, solar power system mainly is integrated with solar panels,solar battery, solar inverter, controller, etc, and installed on the roof or on the ground.

More information, welcome to contact me [e-mail]

Answer 13

solar power can provide the heat energy and electricity for people. it don't produce pollution to pollute the environment. now the PM2.5 is so serious. if we use solar power in our daily life, we will have good quality environment.our health will be good and escape from illness.

Answer 14

Solar power has got to be better than fossil fuels as it's much cleaner and doesn't have to be extracted from the earth. There is nothing to burn either.

Answer 15

Going Nuclear is in all possibility the main eco-friendly difficulty we can do to decrease CO2 emissions. electric potential produces maximum folk of our CO2, no longer vehicles. international places like France produce 80% of their electric potential from Nuclear. If it weren't for Nuclear, Japan would not be a international financial potential. Nuclear potential is the only proved option that could supply the great quantity of potential we could help our existence-type. in comparison to photograph voltaic and wind, Nuclear makes potential 24/7 and 3 hundred and sixty 5 days a 300 and sixty 5 days at a less high priced value than Wind and photograph voltaic. Nuclear could be placed everywhere in the rustic and demands an exceedingly small foot print. Wind and photograph voltaic basically produce potential approximately 35% of the time in very good places. there's no longer many very good places. They the two require huge components of land to supply lots potential. are you able to think of photograph voltaic potential in Seattle the place the sunlight would possibly no longer shine for days and weeks? Wind turbines require a minimum of 6-8 MPH of sustained winds to generate. each and every time you have a nonetheless night, no potential. Wind and photograph voltaic are great for supplementing a nuclear or gasoline/coal grid, yet won't in any respect obtain the fee and reliability of Nuclear / coal.

Answer 16

Solar Power Design Manual : http://SolarPower.siopu.com/?ObV

Answer 17

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Answer 18

"The average home in Alberta or Saskatchewan will save approximately 125 metric tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere over 20-30 years. That's something like over half a million kilometers driven, 6 football fields worth of trees, or 100,000 lbs of burned coal."



Though the equipment uses energy in the manufacturing process, it's an important part of the solution in the future.

Answer 19

solar power is sustabinable compared to oil, and no pollution to environment. CHeck out this : www.himinsun.com.

Answer 20

solar energy is clean and gree energy, there is no any pollution for the enviroment. If everyone uses solar energy prdoduct, the environment will be better. www.himinsun.com. more products for your choice.

Answer 21

The more we use solar energy, the more contribution we make to our environment and our earth.

Answer 22

Did you ever tested out Earth 4 Energy DIY program? Check out at this place : http://www.createhomesolar.com/ . It could obviously explain anyone!