Advantages & Disadvantages of Solar Power

Video Transcript

"Some of the advantages and disadvantages of solar power are, on the advantage side, clearly as we as a species try to move towards being more green aware, more conscious of preserving our environment, the more we can get away from burning fossil fuels and creating power by nuclear power plants the better off we're going to be. So obviously the advantages are that you have an endless supply of power. An energy source, the sun, we've all seen it, we all know what it looks like. So you get an endless replenished supply. It's not something you have to dig out of the ground. It's not something you have to create by tremendous force of nuclear reaction. So that's an advantage that's clean. It is absolutely clean. It is endlessly replenishable. The best advantage of it, if you happen to live in an area that receives a tremendous amount of sunlight, if you have a high efficiency solar collector you may actually be able to send back some of your electricity to the power grid and get paid by your local power company. That's a tremendous advantage. Disadvantages, if you don't happen to be in an area that has a lot of sunlight you have to have a tremendously enormous storage system for the electricity that you do collect during the sunny periods. If there's a long period of very limited sunlight you may find yourself still having to tap in to your local power grid in order to get enough power to your home to do what you need to do. So, again the advantages are being a clean replenishable power. Disadvantages, well the solar collectors are very expensive. So the start up cost of building a house that's powered by solar energy is relatively high but over the course of the years you will recoup that investment. So that is an initial disadvantage but it becomes an advantage over the course of years."