Benefits Of Solar Power Over Wind Energy

Two of the best alternative energy sources that man can still make use of are and Wind Energy! How many countries out there have extreme weather conditions wherein you will see that most of the settlements can be found in the outer limits of the country, specifically the shorelines. What happens then to the interior areas of the country? They are the less densely populated and inhabited areas. On the other hand, some countries enjoy one source over another because of their climate and location. For example, Scotland's northern islands. Why? Because of its constant overcast weather condition, it gets very little daylight which make it a poor candidate for solar power. The other smart alternative is setting up a wind farm for these turbulent areas.

Wind's Free Gifts

Wind is a great source of energy if your areas get a lot of it. Some benefits are:

Wind is abundant and renewable
Wind farms can be placed off the coast
Wind energy can generate a high amount of electricity
Wind farms can be operated 24 hours a day
There is no pollution generated

Probably, a negative aspect in wind energy are the wind farms generating a lot of noise pollution. Those gigantic wind turbines spinning around can really be noisy! Which is why, these wind farms are ideally located in less populated areas. Another area is off-shore where all wind comes from anyway. Installation can be quite expensive, so does maintenance especially if these are located off-shore since you can only go and fix a problem on certain times of the day, even certain conditions.

Wind power is definitely a-plenty and the best part of all is that it will be here for as long as the Earth has an atmosphere, which should be for a few more million years. Fingers are crossed! If we can ignore the sound it irritatingly produces and the landscape view that it destroys, then wind energy may be the best energy source for man.

Sun's Free Gifts

So, as the wind is a-plenty, so is solar energy and what makes it triumph over wind is that the areas where the sun shines best is also a-plenty. Regions like the Middle East, Australia and Africa have warm and dry climates which make countries in these regions great candidates for using solar power. They get sufficient sunlight daily to provide energy that's clean and sustainable.

Clean and Sustainable

Some of the benefits from solar power are:

Renewable and in abundance
Does not generate noise pollution
Very minimal maintenance
Can be easily installed

In most of the hotter countries in the world, governments offer their people incentives for installing solar power systems. The good thing is that, once you are able to generate electricity for your own use, you get even more incentives if you are able to create a surplus of power and sell it back to energy or power plants. What for, you ask? These energy companies need to meet the demand of their own customers. If you do this, you can easily get an above the market rate.

The great thing about this technology is that it is ever growing world-wide not just in numbers but also in the improvements it develops. They make solar panels more efficient in design, more affordable and easier to manufacture. The ease of installing solar panels to the roofs or sides of a structure give them an inconspicuous design unlike the massive wings of a wind turbine. Solar panels need pretty much less upkeep but as in every machinery, some checking should be done every so often. All that is really necessary is to clean off your solar panels with some water to keep the dust from accumulating.

Maximizing the sun

If you have a field where you can install your solar panels, you can chase the sun's movement across the sky using a motorized system so that the panels are always maximizing the sun's total potential by catching as much energy as possible. Doesn't this make this system more efficient? With this, even if it is cloudy, you can still produce power for your needs.

Whatever the preference, Solar and Wind, it all depends partly on your location. Harness these free gifts of nature to their best potential. Anyway, they're free and will be around for a long, long time!

has written this article and he is a keen environmentalist who is always looking to reduce his carbon footprint and try to look after this precious planet that we call Earth. Bill likes to embrace technologies and ideas which do this and was excited to see the excellent solar panels with on offer at AVIC International.