Comments on: Why is solar power not used everywhere as it is the cheapest in the world?

By: kapil

kapil — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:00:59 +0000

Well, it is not cheap everywhere. there is a huge initial cost involved in buying solar panels and installing them. Although the benifits and cost recovery seem to come in some years later and its a long term solution but generally people dont spend heavily in the starting.
For cheap solar panels in India, you can checkout http://www.solarpanelsindia.com
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By: saurabh

saurabh — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:50:59 +0000

the solar cells are very costly and are time consuming.many areas are no that suitable to give sufficient amount of energy .a second reason is people are selfish the dont want to conserve energy they feel its not there responsibility.they also dont want to spend money
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By: hivesguy

hivesguy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:05:59 +0000

In some places, the electric companies charge a very low rate, and it is more economical to simply use that rather than invest large sums up front.

In other areas, it would be more economical in the long run to use solar panels, but in this economy, companies simply don’t have the capital to invest.

As a homeowner, would you rather pay $10,000-20,000 up front for solar energy, or would you rather pay $80/month??
References :
http://www.solar-powered-products.com/

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:52:59 +0000

It’s far from being the cheapest way to make electricity not only do you have to buy solar cell, but you need to store it and maintain it. It’s the expense that keeps people from using more of it.
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By: Irony Man

Irony Man — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:47:59 +0000

There are free energy source everywhere, solar, wind and water(dam).
But reliability and cost are important factors.
Recently, I read news where doctors are operating on patient when the power went off.
You don’t want that kind of things to happen to you.

Solar panel is costly and required maintenance, not everyone can afford them.
You also need a very large solar panel in order to generate the same amount of energy from fuels.
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By: kiran kumar

kiran kumar — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:16:59 +0000

for making 1 watt of energy by solar energy we need an investment of 1$ amount of money.
For running a fan in india we need 60watt of energy and to run a fan who is going to invest Rs 3000.00.
and think about the way we use the appliances in home and the amounts u can imagine. it will go up as huge as lakhs of rupees.
only one we need to think to produce the solars cells from organic materials then the cost will reduce automatically.
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By: juju

juju — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:01:59 +0000

its applications are limited to only few products.we cannot completely rely on this sorce because of climatic changes
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By: roderick_young

roderick_young — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:35:59 +0000

Solar electricity does not save money in every place, and even where it does, there is a large up-front investment involved. Only a first-world country has the financial vehicles (such as loans) to make that happen.

Solar cooking would make sense to a lot of the world, except the poorest of the poor cannot even afford a few dollars to make or buy a solar oven. And in such areas, even aluminum foil and glass would be aggressively recycled - it’s not like the USA where people just throw stuff away on the curb. In places where the population density is very high, an individual or family may not actually own an area exposed to the sun, even if the country is sunny in general. But what about people who do have the money? In such places, time and human effort are more expensive than dollars. Someone in southern California could save 15 cents on electricity by cooking dinner via solar, but then they would have to walk outside to do it.
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By: chandana

chandana — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:04:59 +0000

solar cookers,solar gysers,solar heaters etc have been in the market for quite some time…
but common man finds them to be unaffordable and unreliable for daily use.
However,the solar powered devices which convert solar energy into electricity are much promising than the solar devices mentioned above(as they can be used to power almost every device).
Some paople may assume that solar power is abundant and hence very cheap but the following factors make solar powered devices out of common man’s reach.
1)Although ’silicon’ is found in abundance accross the world , solar panels are very expensive because of their low efficiencies and other coslty materials involved in its fabrication.

2)Moreover it is not possible to use solar power directly for operating appliances at night.example lights,fans etc therfeore ,apart from solar panels we also need batteries to store power.These batteries require a lot of maintaince and are very costly and bulky.

3)solar powered devices work better on dc.For ac appliances additional converters are required which further adds to the cost of the solar powered system.

4)solar power is not very reliable(on cloudy days,rainy days..etc)

solar power is only cheap when it is used for drying clothes !!
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By: Nata T

Nata T — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:25:59 +0000

because it is not cheaper. It’s cheaper because of taxes paid by others to subsidize it.
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