Solar Energy

The advocacy of using renewable sources of energy is increasing day after day. This has been fueled by the non-renewable energy sources impacts upon the environment. The non-renewable sources of energy are green and harmless to the environment. Further there exists a need to choose the best renewable source of energy, which is cheap and readily available.

I find solar energy as being the best option among the renewable sources of energy. For instance comparing it to hydropower; hydropower requires lots of water from a permanent river (Pureenergies, 2014). This calls for an area that receives constant and regular rainfall patterns which are presently scarce. Solar energy on the other hand requires only sun which is available everywhere. Additionally putting up a hydropower plant requires a lot of resources as compared to solar.

Comparing solar energy to wind energy; wind energy can only be harnessed in windy places. These areas are very few; this limits wind energy availability to only those areas. Additionally, wind turbines are very noisy to be placed in an urban setting. The turbines also require constant maintenance and repair, whilst solar is both noise free and require no maintenance (Energy4me, 2014).  

Biomass requires the planting of crops such as sugarcane. This calls for big chunks of land which would alternatively be utilized in growing of food. Biomass in addition generates CO2 emissions in small quantities. Comparing this to solar which does not require usage of big pieces of land and that it is emission free makes it the better option (Pureenergies, 2014).

Geothermal energy is mainly very expensive to install, the amount of resources required are so huge that even some small countries are incapable of installing it. Additionally and most importantly it requires areas that have hot geysers and steam which has to be dug thousands of meters underground (Pureenergies, 2014). This is as opposed to solar which is cheap to install even in individual homes.

Indeed there exists enough evidence placing solar as the best source of renewable energy. Whether cost-wise or availability solar outdoes all the rest renewable sources. Solar is readily available even during cloudy times as opposed to the rest of the sources are limited to numerous factors.

References

Energy4me. (2014). Energy Source Comparison | Energy4me. Retrieved from http://www.energy4me.org/energy-facts/

Pureenergies. (2014). The Advantages of Solar Energy vs Other Renewable Energy Sources – Pure Energies USA. Retrieved from http://pureenergies.com/us/blog/the-advantages-of-solar-power-vs-other-renewable-energy-sources/