We all have already known that solar energy has a lot of benefits over conventional, fossil-fuel based or other renewable energy sources. In this article, we are going to discuss how solar power rises against other renewable energy sources.
1. Solar vs. Wind:
- Wind turbines are well suited for rural rather than urban areas, as they can be noisy and can take huge space.
- Not surprisingly, wind power works best in windy areas. Meanwhile, solar energy is versatile. Even though Germany is not considered as a specifically sunny place, it is presently the largest market for solar panels. It’s more essential to live in a windy area whether you need to utilize wind turbines than it is to live in a sunny area whether you need to utilize solar panels.
- Solar is virtually maintenance-free, but Wind turbines need to be maintained.
- Solar energy is made more affordable by state, federal tax credit and local incentives. On the other hand, wind power can be less costly to generate initially. You can refund your investment very fast in some places.
2. Solar vs. Hydropower:
- Though somebody with a rushing river or stream on their property might be capable to utilize small scale micro-hydro, Hydropower is basically done in large-scale dams rather than for the householders. The solar energy can be utilized almost everywhere.
- Building large dams are really very expensive.
- Solar panels installation can be done on unused existing place like rooftops, but the flooding large land areas can force human relocation and destroys residences.
- Geographical damage leading to earthquakes can be caused by building large dams.
- Dams are able to alter water supply unfairly between countries and communities.
- Dam building modifies the common water table level and can adversely influence natural life, for example, salmon.
3. Solar vs. Biomass:
- Though Biomass can be used either way, it is basically utilized for fuels rather than producing electricity.
- Some crops such as Sugar cane and other sources need land for Biomass, which in another way is utilized for food growing. This problem somewhat can be avoided with the help of Algae as, it grows in water also. Since solar energy can go on existing roofs, it doesn’t actually require using land space.
- Though less than fossil fuels like coal, burning biomass create CO2 emissions. As the solar energy produces power, it doesn’t create emissions.
- Solar boards have efficiencies as high as 19%, implying that a significant part of the solar energy is transformed into power. The biomass’ efficiency is much, much lower – maybe under 1%.
Thus, going through the article, it can be said that using solar inverter can be better than using any other type of renewable energy source.
References: The Benefits of Solar Energy vs. Other Renewable Energy Sources By microtekdirect available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
