How Solar Energy Helps The Environment

If not for the solar energy the Earth gains from its closest star, the Sun, it would be a cold rock unable to support life as we know it. This planet’s biosphere is entirely dependent on the life-giving energy of the sun, both directly and indirectly.

Man has adapted ways to utilize this energy to do work that may have formerly been the domain of dirty power sources like fossil fuels. Employing photons delivered naturally to the location where work is to be done automatically affects a savings in itself by the elimination of transportation or delivery systems’ costs.

In the case of photovoltaic ( P.V.) systems, this energy can be directly harnessed to do necessary work, eliminating fuel used to develop electrical energy either locally or at a distance in the operation of generating stations. Efficiency of power transmission is improved due to the lack of resistance where power would normally be lost as heat, by the use of shorter conductors that require less material in the initial installation, there is a further reduction of environmental impact.

Harnessing the power of the sun makes economic and environmental sense by reducing ongoing power production costs, decreasing demand on already stressed mineral resources, and almost eliminating transportation losses and their impact on the ecosystem.