What problems exist for solar energy?

Question

What problems exist for solar energy?

Answer 1

developing a technology that efficiently converts sunlight into usable energy in a cost-effective, practical manner.

Right now, Solar panels are not very efficient.  But scientists have been researching ways to improve solar cells (for example, incorporating carbon nanotubes into them) to make it easier/make it more efficient to convert the energy to useable energy.

Other problems include: current cost of the solar panels and the aesthetics--a lot of home owners refuse (not including myself, if i had a house) to put solar cells on their home because how they look.  But scientists are also looking into makig thin, transparent films to coat windows and doors (or sides of buildings) that collect sunlight without changing the appearance of the structure.

Of course everything comes down to the fact that the government isnt really supporting alternative energies--so once there is a change in that, more funding will be available for alternative energies research.

Answer 2

The main problem today is that is a new source of renewable energy, which is costly. Everything is new. Some one has to build machine to make either the solar panels for the solarvoltic system or the converters, etc. When making new parts and a new machine there is a percent of these that will not operate as they as suppose to, so it is wasted time and material, in til the manufacture gets the bugs worked out. As they new sources for energy are more widely used, the price will come down on them and make them more affordable to the ever day consumer, which is where they need to be. Today, to build a wind turbine, like you see in the Fields of Kansas, it takes millions of dollars to do that, and only the wealthy power plants can build them and maintain them. However, when the build these new power sources, our electric bill does not go down, it goes up, due to the cost of the energy source material and labor. Eventually the electric bill showed go down, but we know that they are in the power business to make money, so it will never happen.