Melissa Rodriguez
23 October 2014
Word Count 1204
Research Essay Rough Draft
Today our technology has advanced so far that a decade ago people would be surprised to what we have accomplished. Every day there is something new that we have discovered coming out and becoming part of the everyday world we live in. This society is very advanced in the technology we have today and will continue over the years. We have figured out many ways to use all kinds of energy to power our everyday products. Today there are many discoveries of different energy sources that have helped us greatly. We have now started to use alternative energies to help with the depleting resources. One of these energies is solar energy. Even though this alternative has helped with the conservation of resources, this has become a huge cost and toll on the economy that has affected it greatly. Solar power using solar panels has become a bigger cost than businesses in today’s society think it is worth. We have not been using it as much as we would like to, because we care more about the money we are saving with the nonrenewable energy sources that we have used in the past and are still being used to this day. There are many disadvantages to solar power, but they all tie back to the cost of it and the cost it will take to decrease the disadvantages.
A disadvantage is the pollution problem with solar power. You would think that the pollution problem would be gone with this renewable energy source but there is a minor pollution problem with this energy source. Many photovoltaic panels are made up of silicon, along with mercury, lead and cadmium. This pollution can affect and decrease the quality and efficiency of the photovoltaic cells that are needed for the kind of solar panels we have today. We would need to create new technologies and innovations that can overcome these problems, but we do not know the expenses at making these new technologies. The more panels that are needed, the more emissions are given off and affecting the atmosphere. This is the inconvenient and unreliable disadvantages of the solar panels.
Because solar power needs the sun to absorb the energy, it has a limited number of locations it can be in. There are many places that are foggy or cloudy throughout all hours of the day, so this is a disadvantage, because the solar panels are unable to absorb the energy they need to power whatever it is powering without sunlight. This causes a problem for people who live in these areas and want to be using solar panels but can’t because of the location they are in. There can be a solution to this though. If these places had more panels then it would be able to absorb a sufficient amount of energy that it would need, however, more panels would mean more money spent on that one area. People do not want to spend that extra money, so it is more convenient for them to just use the nonrenewable energy they have been using, because it is more available and would be quicker to use at that point in time. Because of this there is another disadvantage of solar energy. The inefficiency it brings. Solar panels have only a forty percent efficiency rate.