One Response
July 16, 2009
Pro: no need for water or fuel input. Minimal maintenance.
Con: expensive compared to other forms of energy today.
Also, a con for solar FARMS, but not solar energy: solar is one of the few forms of generation that does not benefit much from efficiencies of scale, so it's well suited to individual rooftops, rather than a centralized farm. When solar is on a consumer's house, there is virtually no distribution loss.
What are the pros and cons of solar power farms?
What are the pros and cons of solar power farms?
Pros: Silent, can be put anywhere (eg roofs), produce less pollution, saves fuel, can be moved around, modular (can build any size you need) and cheaper than normal power if you're far away from a grid connection (building a grid connection to your house costs a lot).
Cons: currently expensive, unreliable output. Some current production methods aren't that environmentally friendly.
All of the cons are fixable: eg the price is going to come down a lot. However, to solve the unreliable output thing you have to spend more on batteries etc (so you can save excess power and use it later) so it'll probably take decades before solar is a major player.
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