Solar energy is derived from the sun and is a free form of energy that produces no emission, pollution, or noise.Solar cells and solar panels are used to create renewable energy and harness the sun’s energy to provide heat, light, and electricity generation for businesses, homes, and industries. The carbon emissions and footprint left by fossil fuels have scared big companies from further investing in the sector.Countries have invested more in wind, solar, and hydropower in recent years. Currently, hydropower is at the top of the chain of clean energy, but solar power is gradually catching up as an unbeatable source of electricity generation.Solar power is advantageous to the world in many ways; for example, electricity procured by solar panels does not produce any greenhouse gas emissions. Minimal carbon emission is one of the reasons why solar panels create one of the cleanest forms of energy.However, solar panels and solar energy creation also have several disadvantages because of which countries around the world have not adopted the source as their primary energy source. Solar panels are weather-dependent, have a low-efficiency rate, and cost much higher than other energy sources.If you like this article about negative facts about solar energy, be sure to check out articles about facts about solar and 1776 solar eclipse.Cost Involvement: Negative Facts About Solar EnergySolar energy is now considered a cleaner energy source to generate electricity in urban and rural areas, but it can cause damage to roofs. Improper installation of solar panels can often lead to holes in the roofs that can cause leakage during the rainy season, affecting the interiors of houses. However, this issue is solvable in most cases by depending on a good company providing good service. In some urban areas, solar panels used to produce electricity can lead to a habitat loss of the wildlife residing in the area.Solar energy and its storage are expensive! Solar energy is stored in large batteries, and these batteries are used in off-the-grid solar systems that can be charged during the day to use the energy at night. This is seen as a good solution for preserving solar energy in household needs, but they are also expensive. Usually, it is recommended to use solar energy during the day and procure more energy during the night from grids as the energy demand is higher during the day.The upfront cost of installing solar panels is considered punishing even though the energy can bring significant benefits in the long run. Solar panels can range from expensive to extremely expensive based on the company you purchase them from. The entire installation cost cannot be procured without the help of the manufacturing companies that delve into this technology.In many countries, governments are encouraging people to opt for solar energy to curb the severe global warming effects and have negotiated with the manufacturers to cut back on the price of solar panels. Today, a solar panel has an average cost of $0.65 per watt, and these panels were expensive previously. This price drop encourages people to use solar energy instead of non-renewable energy. For a power plant, the average cost of electricity produced per kilowatt-hour is 11 cents, which is much higher than the 9 cents per kilowatt-hour of coal plants and 6 cents per kilowatt-hour of natural gas.An average solar system costs between $15000-29000 and produces between 4-8Kw of power. The price includes an inverter, solar panels, installation, wiring, mounting hardware, repairs, permits, maintenance and monitoring costs, and other overhead charges. The additional cost of installing battery storage can take between $33,000-$47,000, depending on the manufacturer, to supply enough energy for an average four-bedroom household.With solar technology gaining ground on non-renewable energy sources, the worldwide supply chain has crammed the price of solar materials in labor and shipping sections. Because of this, investment in solar energy is becoming costlier. In the United States, the federal solar tax credit is set to be reduced in 2023, and it will be completely phased out in 2024.Another important fact contributing to the high-cost involvement of solar panel installation is the dependency on professionals to install the setups. Solar panel installation is complicated because homeowners cannot install solar panels themselves.Based on the installation cost, solar panels can cause problems when moving houses. Companies usually help remove the panels from the old home to the new house, but the customer has to pay for the reinstallation and removal process.Depreciation Of Solar Panels: Negative Facts About Solar EnergyWith the emergence of solar power as a cleaner replacement for non-renewable energy, the world is edging more towards solar energy to produce more electricity. However, the depreciation of solar panels will affect people who have solar panels already installed in their homes.In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) bases the depreciations by one-half of the tax credit allowed.Delayed ROI: Negative Facts About Solar EnergyEven with its comparatively cleaner energy manufacturing process, solar energy is a long and slow process.Efficiency is one such problem as solar energy functions at a maximum of 20-25% in household consumption. Solar panels are dependent on the sun and generate energy based on how much contact they make with the sun.Another reason that negatively impacts solar panels is that, like with anything left out in the sun for too long, solar panels, too, are damaged by the ultraviolet traditions from the sun. Temperature fluctuations, wind, hail, snow, rain, and dirt also pose serious risks to the solar panels, which will slowly degrade.Some countries have introduced tax credits and rebates to push more people into installing solar panels. However, the cost in most cases is unbearable, given a certain amount of cash has not been set aside for the solar panels.The payback period of the initial investment can take up to 10-15 years, and only time can tell whether the investment was worth it or not. Still, it will help break the dependency that non-renewable energy sources see daily worldwide.For an average initial cost of $18000-20000, the payback period is estimated to be around 20 years before the savings made from switching power sources can be made back.Scientific Reasons: Negative Facts About Solar EnergyDespite being seen as a cleaner alternative to other energy sources, solar energy is often associated with pollution. Installation and transportation of solar panels or solar systems are often seen as a contributor to the emission of harmful greenhouse gases. Even though the impact of solar energy production is lower on the environment compared with the burning and mining of fossil fuels, the solar energy manufacturing process includes some form of hazardous and toxic chemicals and toxic materials like lead, cadmium, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, gallium arsenide, nitric acid, and acetone that are mainly used in solar panels. Solar panels also make use of sulfur hexafluoride that is known to be more powerful than carbon dioxide. However, the impact of carbon dioxide is still much larger on the environment in comparison with sulfur hexafluoride.Solar panels can become a source of pollution as solar panel recycling has not seen the best of days. It is estimated that with the world looking at renewable energy sources to curb the effects of climate change, the industry for the manufacturing of solar panels is only going to increase in the future. Currently, solar panels and solar modules can be disposed of with other e-wastes. Still, countries with concentrated e-waste disposals can cause recycling issues that will contribute to pollution and degradation of the environment in the future.Although pollution related to solar energy systems is far less compared to other sources of energy, solar energy can be associated with pollution. Transportation and installation of solar systems have been associated with the emission of greenhouse gases.The solar power industry is constantly improving and advancing because of the technological developments that the field has seen in recent years in an effort to lower the dependency on fossil fuels or other harmful energy sources. However, based on the second law of thermodynamics, solar energy cannot be 100% efficient. The highest efficiency percentage that can be extracted from solar cells is an estimated 85%, and that, too, can only be done so with the usage of motors and mirrors that follow the sun. For a solar power system that does not allow the tracking of the sun, the maximum energy that can be extracted is a dismal 55%.Not every solar panel in the market is high quality. Because of the demand for an affordable solar system, companies have cut corners in different sections of the setups because of which low-quality products are often circulated in the market. A low price might be attractive to customers who want to make the change from energy produced by fossil fuels. Still, these cheap solar panels might malfunction or get affected by the environment in the long run, and changing these solar panels is not an affordable option, making your investment even more significant.A solar panel is unreliable in various cases! Since they depend on the sun for power, energy cannot be produced in variable weather conditions during rainy seasons or in winters. A local utility grid is often used as a power source to get power during these instances.Solar panels cannot be worked to produce the same amount of energy compared to other sources of energy manufacturing processes like coal plants that make work of the less space that is assigned to them. For solar panels to produce more energy than these harmful sources, the installation area where they are installed needs to be large, or else, solar power cannot be efficiently procured. The more solar panels you need for domestic uses, the more roof space you will have to provide for the solar PV panels. The availability of space will make or break your installation of solar panels. However, if you do not have the space for all the panels you would need to run your home, you can opt for fewer panels at the cost of low electricity production for your energy needs.Because of the unpredictability of solar power, no country to date has managed to power itself using only solar energy. Solar technology is still being devised, and until this is done correctly, the world will keep running on fossil fuels.Did You Know?Compared to solar energy, wind energy is seen as a cleaner energy source. Big companies use wind turbines as they produce a more significant energy output than solar panels. However, just like solar energy, wind energy, too, is weather-dependent. Turbines are also larger and louder and require ample land space, making them a bad clean energy source in urban areas.Despite the high cost of solar energy, it is estimated that solar power will be the largest electricity producer in the world by the year 2050!Solar panels are known to be maintenance-free because the batteries provided during the installation do not make use of water or other regular services, and this helps in the batteries working for a long time. In most cases, the installation of the solar panel is the last price that a customer has to pay as there are no recurring costs unless the panels are removed and reinstalled in a different location.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created many interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for negative facts about solar energy, then why not take a look at the 1978 solar eclipse or solar energy facts?
Solar energy is derived from the sun and is a free form of energy that produces no emission, pollution, or noise.
