PV Gap

Cheryl Said:

Solar Energy vs Fossil Fuels??

We Answered:

The main disadvantage of solar power is scale. There simply isn't enough energy available from the sun to even come close to meeting our requirements; in North America the sun delivers an average of 1300 watts per square metre at noon. Solar panels convert just 15% of that energy to electricity meaning it would take a panel measuring 1km by 2km to deliver the same amount of power as a single nuclear reactor and it would only deliver that much power for a couple of hours per day. By using solar collectors to generate steam you would improve the efficiency to about 40% but those gains would be offset the energy used to make the collector (a giant mirror).