Why not use the solar power energy when the sun offers us 5000 times more energy than we need?

During the 50's and 60's people didn't use the energy in constructing buildings and houses in an efficient way. But this think changed in the 70's when the prices for energy started to rise. In the 1980' people could make buildings using only 20% of the energy used in the 70's. Human beings tried to find new ways to save energy like designing and positioning buildings so that they could use the solar power energy, avoiding over lighting and using better insulation. According to the life-cycle approach, that sustains the efficient use of the energy, it should be taken into consideration the total cost of the building over the entire life of it rather than only its initial cost or sales price.

Solar power energy in South Africa

South Africa is known for having the biggest number of sunny days over a year in the whole world. That's why this region is one of the best places to use the solar power energy.

With the help of photovoltaic cells people can use the solar power energy to create an electric current and not the sun's heat as many could think. In fact a photovoltaic cell is less efficient if the cell is heated too much because of the resistance that it contains. So in very warm climates it doesn't have the effect desired. In South Africa, in summer when it's very hot the photovoltaic cells that use the solar power energy don't work at their full capacity. But they still don't reach at 25% less efficiency as they can reach in desert-type climates.

The main reason for not using too much the solar power energy technology in South Africa is the fact that the energy provided by the Eskom South Africa is one of the cheapest conventional unsustainable energy in the world. Even if a great number of solar power energy panels are being used in residential buildings, the photovoltaic panels proved to be not so cost effective. The money saved using the conventional electricity explains why these panels aren't available on large scale. The photovoltaic panels are so rare and unavailable that their prices aren't as small in South Africa as in other countries more technologically advanced and environmentally aware.

The solar power energy system provides the same amount, or at least a sufficient amount of energy as a conventional system but it takes a very long time to pay for this system with money saved from using this source of power. It usually would take a whole life to pay for the solar power energy system. Because of that and because of the fact that the electricity is not so expensive in South Africa and in this region people don't stay too much in one home, the conventional electricity is preferred.

Eskom provides the cheapest energy in South Africa, and it could also provide the cheapest energy in the whole world. But there is a big problem with this company and that's because it releases the biggest amount of pollution in the atmosphere by burning coal to obtain electricity. Even if this doesn't seem to be a present problem in South Africa like acid rain is for some countries, it should be. That's why the solar power energy should be considered a solution for air pollution.

The solar power energy systems could be used in a very efficient way in the regions near the country. The cost of using the conventional power grid with so many cables could be very high. It would be more expensive to use the conventional technology than installing a solar power energy system that won't need technicians and any tools to maintain it.

The solar power energy can be used in various places in the environment and is already used in some. For example the solar power energy is used for water pumps to dams in mature reserves. It's also used at electric fencing in game reserves for stopping big mammals like elephants to escape in the case of power interruption.

Will the solar power energy be used more often in South Africa? If you take into consideration the whether conditions that are suitable for using it and the need to use a less polluting energy source than the use of solar power energy doesn't seem a so far solution.

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