Does anyone have a story about their negative experience with Solar Energy?

Question

I am doing a school project on it and have to write a positive and negative point of view on Solar Energy and have no ideas...

PLEASE HELP!

Answer 1

well I'm not sure what the other guy means about it works slower/weaker.

The degradation of the cells is not a large issue, they lose about 15% efficiency on their lifespan of 30 years.  I'm not exact on this figure but it is around there.  They work slower?  Well they only work when the sun is out, most people elect to stay connected to the gird due to the cost of the batteries to charge and you can also sell excess energy back to the utility company.

anyways negatives in the use I guess would be that, they can't produce when it is cloudy or at night, also consider seasons, when there is snow on a roof will the sun reach the panels?  Pretty simple there.  Your neighbors also may think they are an eye sore.  There is the laminate solar panel to help reduce that but they are not as efficient.

Since you are asking for experience with them negatives such as cost and production I won't mention.

You can check out the site below but you'll probably have to do some searching within it.  It's mostly articles but users do comment on them.

Answer 2

My mother is a realestate agent.  We do not know of a single home that used solar panels (became very populare in the 1970's) where the roof of the house or garage where they were mounted did not suffer major rot problems.

Water always eventually leaked around the mountings on the roofs.  I do not believe most roofs are made to withstand the year in, year out stresses wind, and snow would cause by pushing, or pulling on solar panels.

I think the year in, year out stress from the weather eventually weakens and widens mounting holes, and allows water to get into ones roof, causing rott.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, so a lot of rain there.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 3

i dont have any personal experience, but i believe it works slower/weaker

Answer 4

My personal experience is the energy itself is fine but the supposed enticements to get you to invest in it and use it vary greatly state to state.

Washington state really sucks, they offer you BIG cost incentives if the solar panels and equipemnt are built in the state, problem is, none are.

If you tie to the grid and plan on selling excess to the grid for money, you're paid yearly and the power company is in charge of figuring all the variables...not a good idea, like leaving the fox in charge of the henhouse!

If you try net metering, you are allowed a maximum of $2000.00 credit per year and any unused credit is lost after a year when they reset back to zero.

All in all, if you are going to do it, do it for yourself and don't plan on any kind of real payback in Washington state anyhow.

You need to do your homework, don't forget with solar power you will need juice at night so you will need a  battery backup or some sort of power backup.

All in all, it all depends on your needs and how deep your pockets are.