Your Questions About Solar Energy Environments

admin answers:

The sun’s energy, when converted through photovoltaic cells, has the positive impact of being a renewable energy source as contrasted to fossil fuels.
The sun’s energy, as a heat source, can be positively used to to warm water via solar hot water heaters or cook food via solar ovens.
The sun’s energy heats the ocean which results in the wind. The temperature of the oceans, impacted by the sun and the location of the earth relative to the sun, also moderate the earth’s temperature making existence on the earth bearable for us humans.
Negative impacts of solar energy could be when there is an excess of sun that leads to sunburns, or excessively hot cars (that you should not leave animals, humans, or ice cream in).
A negative of solar energy may also be in the negative impact the making of photovoltaic cells has on the environment because of the energy they consume use and chemicals they emit during the manufacturing process.

admin answers:

Its all about the “after life” of the energy source. With solar panels there is some carbon and other things that can (hopefully) be reclaimed and recycled. With nuclear power you get things like Yucca Mountain. However, unless we invest in breeder reactors and breeder nuclear fusion to enrich the uranium waste into plutonium. This is great because the waste that would other wise be carted off to Yucca Mountain gets recycled.

Plutonium caries a stigma due to the fact that it can be easily weaponized. More over breeder plants use liquid sodium. Liquid sodium is highly volatile when exposed to air or water. They can also be cooled using helium.

The down falls of solar are that the productivity will decrease with the age of the panels. Disposal (nothing like radio-active storage). And power generation at night (overcome with the use of solar towers).

Solar power generation has very little environmental impact beyond mining the resources, manufacturing, and disposal.

Best of luck.