Solar Energy Advantages

Solar energy is very important now and will be in the future. It is useful alone but may need some help to stay reliable and affordable. Using solar energy to generate power is in a growing phase. It is becoming more and more popular every day. Solar energy systems are ready for more use across the world. Solar energy will help the environment and help people save money. Solar energy helps in many different ways but, there is more out there to catch the flaws that solar has. Solar energy has been used for a while and people need to realize that there are better options than just purely solar; one of these options is better because it has more reliability, a lower cost and a higher rate of energy production.
Solar energy works very well; it

There are different ways to make it more reliable while staying in alternative energy. These systems are called, “A ‘hybrid’ electric system” (Salkalachen 1250). These are systems that do not work on one source of power they add sources of power. These systems of two or more energy producers are built to make up for the downfalls of the other energy producers in the system. A common system like this is the solar-wind-diesel hybrid system. These systems work in conditions that both would be used but, maybe not at the same time. For example, “Where wind speeds are low at times and when Sun shines brightest and longest, or when the wind is strong but less sunlight is available” (Salkalachen 1250). This says that when one system is not reliable, the other will cover its mistakes. The “engine generator powered by conventional fuels such as diesel” mentioned earlier is to fill any gaps of power when the two systems are at a low (Salkalachen 1250). The diesel power is not reliant on anything that is unreliant and will provide energy for one’s home whether the sun shines or the wind

While pure solar systems only use one source of energy, a hybrid grid-connected system uses multiple sources of electricity. While the, “solar electric— or photovoltaic (PV) — systems convert sunlight energy to electricity”, the hybrid system could harvest the wind on that day (Chiras 48). With the multiple systems, a person receives more energy output than a pure solar energy system. This is because that person is producing energy from two resources instead of one. The highest efficiency of solar cells is 28% (Salkalachen 1248). What this means is that for every ray of sun that hits that solar panel, only 28% of it is harvested. Only having 28% of the power is pretty low, so the system could use a wind turbine, which is spun and creates energy to make sure enough energy is provided. With a surplus of energy coming from both systems one could use the benefits of having a grid-connected system. The benefit is that it “‘turns back’ your electricity meter as it is fed back into the grid. If you use more electricity than your system feeds into the grid during a given month, you pay your power provider only for the difference between what you used and what you produced” (Salkalachen 1250). This is saying that when a person is selling that extra energy from that other power source, then a person is saving money on a person’s power bill because the electricity company is paying them for their energy.