Solar Energy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Solar Energy - Essay Example SPV technology have enabled creation of large amounts of energy from solar radiation in addition to the reduction of the costs of purchasing solar PV panels. This technology has various advantages and disadvantages in its use with implications in its future developments as explained in the following sections. The most significant advantage of the solar PV technology is that it produces environmentally friendly form of energy (Solanski, 2009). Solar cells produce silent and clean energy which illustrates the advantage of PV solar systems which do not produce harmful pollutants since they are only fueled by natural sunshine or solar radiation. In this regard, solar systems do not lead to depletion of natural resources and thus prevents endangering of human, animal and plant health (Goetzberger and Hoffmann, 2005). In terms of space, the solar PV systems have an advantage of being installed on rooftops especially in small scale energy production. Furthermore, solar PV systems have a benefit of long life span with limited need for maintenance (Solanski, 2009). Solar energy is also cheap because it is a renewable energy which illustrates that there is no need importation of fuel as it is locally available and free. More importantly, the solar PV technology allows for building of PV systems of any size depending on the energy requirements, whether large scale or small scale and thus these systems are scalable (Energy weekly News, 2012). Whereas the solar PV systems have been described as environmental friendly, it is important to note that there are some toxic elements or chemicals such as arsenic and cadmium which are used during the process of PV energy production. Nonetheless the environmental impact of these chemicals is relatively minor in addition to the fact that they would be controlled or managed through proper disposal and recycling (Solanski, 2009). Additionally, the solar PV technology presents with a disadvantage or significantly high cost of producing