Subscribe to the Blog
Alternative Energy Pros And Cons
[mage lang="en" source="flickr"]Alternative Energy Pros And Cons[/mage]
The Pros and Cons of Solar Power â Is Solar Power the Alternative Energy Source of the Future?
For example, since the time of the ancient Greeks, enterprising architects and builders have tried to position buildings such that the interior is heated by the sun in winter. Elements such as pipes have also been used to redistribute heat from the sun.
In the modern sense, however, solar power refers to the generation of electricity from sunlight using photovoltaic cells. With this in mind, what are the pros and cons of solar power? The major advantage of solar energy is that its source is practically renewable – the Sun! Because of this, apart from the initial cost in materials and incidental pollution due to manufacture, transport, and installation, solar energy is 100% clean and environmentally friendly. It generates power without using up any further resources or causing any pollution. In fact, it does not even generate much heat or noise!.
Another item on the list of pros and cons of solar power is that because it does not use up any resources while running to produce power, it has the potential to be cost-effective. Apart from the initial outlay of components and labor in installation, solar energy systems typically require little maintenance and no fuel at all. These systems will just keep on producing clean energy that is also practically free.
However, one of solar power's big disadvantages is that it requires such a big initial outlay. This is one of the major disadvantages of solar power and is a big hurdle it must overcome, if it is to gain bigger acceptance and use. With the current situation, fossil fuel fed energy is still much cheaper to obtain than any of the alternatives, which is why it continues to be used in spite of its increasing drawbacks.
Another disadvantage of solar power is the fact that it can only generate power during the daytime. Solar energy collection is adversely affected by weather (cloud cover), and pollution, which limits the amount of sunlight that reaches the PV cells. Advances in the use of batteries and increasingly efficient photovoltaic cells are helping to lessen these disadvantages. These pros and cons of solar power are still mostly balanced: supporters hope for the pros to outweigh the cons in the near future.
Are the Majority of American Citizens Willing to Work together to Achieve Energy Independence?
NIMBY
Can't disrupt the tourist trade. (Energy has better paying jobs)
Can't aggravate the hunters. (Surely we've got past this/why else are state and local governments looking into the impact of Breeding Farms for "Wildlife" and why are Auto Insurance rates rising)
What about the Wildlife. (Checkout the Alaskan Pipeline personally or try and find someone you know and trust to ask)
Reduced Property Values. (Most of these are built in Disaster Prone Areas anyway)
Alternative Energies. (All of these are now on somebodies NIMBY List)
Let's debate it and give YOUR personal experiences of Pro and Con, not reference to somebody else.
Can be any little impact in your daily life, not necessary to be of World Shaking Importance.
I know I sure am. I'm tired of gas prices. Where we live we have our own natural gas well that we own, so we don't pay anything for heat and most of our appliances are natural gas, of course, because we don't have to pay for it. We live WAY out in the country and I'm researching wind energy currently. I mean before we had electricity, humans used wind power to grind wheat....windmills. I think technology is quite capable of making cars run on other things than gas but money makes the laws in the US...look at pharmaceutical companies. And as for hunting....we stand in our house and can shoot deer if we want to. We don't even have to get cold or wet, the deer come right up to our pond. We are on well water, so we don't have to pay for that resource either. The major financial drain for us is gas for our cars. Being way out in the country, there are not many, if any, good paying jobs, so commuting is essential. I still believe they are other sources to run an engine that do not involve a non-renewable resource but no company will ever make a car that runs on something cheaper. Money and greed make laws and legislation. There are no health reprucussions from our wells, that I know of or have seen any signs of. All our wildlife is healthy and active. I would sure like to see more wind turbines.
