Developing residential solar power is critical to combating the energy crisis we are facing today. The rate we are consuming natural resources, especially non-renewable fossil fuels, is growing at an increasing rate. One example is the rapidly increasing number of automobiles in countries like China and India that didn’t used to have near as many [...]
Similarly to the analysis we have done for solar we are putting the number together for the capacity needed of to replace coal, oil and natural gas with wind as sources for electricity.
We want to jump here directly to a graph comparing the different levels of electricity capacity currently generated from oil, coal, natural gas and the rest (nuclear, hydro etc) with the capacity wind power fields, farms need, the cost of investment needed and the land area used.
Solar power alongside the applauding it gets it is also being criticized by the opponents of it especially in terms of the different measures of efficiency – physical, economic (investment) and land area use efficiency. Land area use efficiency is the topic of this study. Let’s look at the definito0ns for the other measures of efficiency just to put our essay in proper context.
Is solar energy capable of providing so much power that to offset the need for use of fossil fuels?
We want to look at the needs of energy of the United States and the world and compare with the practical size installations of solar power stations needed to replace that.
The question of completely replacing all fossil fuel or all other sources of electricity and other energy is much more complex than just looking at the numbers. Probably replacing the other sources in just electricity production is simpler but still in addition to simply adding capacity, changes of large scale are needed in the national grid configuration.
With us having to research so much information about solar and other renewable energy we came across an enormous number of articles in which no respect is given to the units of measure in which electric power and energy are being measured. In actual fact when the correct units of measure are not used the statements do not make any sense.
What do we mean? Much too often watt hour (Wh) and the derivatives kilowatts hour (kWh) and megawatts hour (MWh) – as a measure of produced energy – are used wrongly instead of watt (W) or it’s derivatives kilowatt (kW) and megawatt (MW) and the other way around.
We recently updated the Resources page. The SolarByTheWatt.com (Solar by the Watt) Resources page focuses on the most valuable information resources in the solar industry as opposed to the Renewable Energy Directory page which aims to be a more complete and extensive selection of a large list of Internet links to web sites of association, government agencies, commercial companies, news sites etc.
SolarByTheWatt.com is opening this discussion about solar panel certificates for standards conformity and quality and safety rating.
Please use the comments form on this story to let us know what you know …
Are you thinking of installing solar power for homes? If so then here’s an inventory of all the parts you’ll need so as you can get a sense of the scale and general cost of the job.
Begin by establishing exactly how much of your home’s total energy usage you want to be run on solar power. Do you want solar power merely to heat the water and the water-heating system? Do you want to go completely off-grid and power the whole house by solar power? Either way, you’ll need to know how much energy your home is consuming per month on average.
The rise in CO2 levels and global warming has raised the alarm in the need to look for alternative energy sources that don’t leave an environment impact. Even if government policies don’t support moving the country into a more environmentally friendly policies, we can take action on our own and do what we can to reduce our own environmental impact and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.
Solar power is becoming increasingly popular in homes and businesses. Solar how to books, websites and workshops are attracting huge audiences. The people interested in solar power are not just die-hard environmentalists. They are homeowners, business people and even government agencies.
Since at least the 1970s, people around the country have been concerned with the future of fossil fuels. These non-renewable resources are used extensively in every one of our daily activities. From eating breakfast to the morning commute to even taking a walk in the woods, fossil fuels have been involved. But because these resources are non-renewable, they will eventually run out.
