Why Solar?
Why Choose Solar Energy
The Sun produces 89 petawatts of sunlight that reach the earth’s surface – that is about 6,000 times more than the 15 terawatts of power consumed by humans every day.
Additionally, solar electric generation has the highest power density (global mean of 170 W/m²) among renewable energies. Solar power is pollution and maintenance free during use.
Solar electric generation is economically better where grid connection or fuel transport is difficult, costly or impossible. Examples include satellites, island communities, remote locations and large ships.
When grid-connected, solar electric generation can displace the highest cost electricity during times of peak demand (especialy in Arizona), can reduce grid loading, and can eliminate the need for local battery power for use in times of darkness and high local demand; such application is encouraged by net metering. Time used net metering can be quite favorable to small photovoltaic systems. Grid-tied solar electricity can be used locally thus reducing transmission/distribution losses (transmission losses can be as high as 7.2%).
Once the initial outlay of building a solar power plant has been spent, operating costs are extremely low compared to existing power technologies. Compared to fossil and nuclear energy sources, very little research-money has been invested in the development of solar cells, so there is still room for improvement.
