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Technorati Tags: Alternative Energy

Technorati Tags: Alternative Energy

Technorati Tags: Alternative Energy

Technorati Tags: Alternative Energy

UTILITY BILL TRACKING: THE REPORT CARD FOR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY CONTRACTORS

More and more, alternative energy contractors want to prove to customers the savings they expect. Customers often want to know that they have saved the energy and costs they were originally promised. From the customers’ viewpoint, the simplest and most understandable proof of energy savings comes from a simple comparison of electricity bills. Did the system save on electricity costs or not?(1) In theory, a simple comparison of pre-installation bills to post-installation bills, and you will see if you have saved.

But if it is so easy, why write a paper on this? Well, it isn’t so easy. Let’s find out why.

Figure 1.1: Expected Pre and Post-Retrofit usage for chilled water system retrofit. (http://www.abraxasenergy.com/alternative-energy-utility-bill-tracking.html)

Suppose a solar energy contractor installed a new solar electric system for a building. One likely would expect to see energy and cost savings from this retrofit. Figure 1.1 presents results our alternative energy contractor might expect.

But what if, instead, the bills presented the disaster shown in Figure 1.2?

Figure 1.2: A disaster of a project? Comparison of Pre-Retrofit and Post-Retrofit data (http://www.abraxasenergy.com/alternative-energy-utility-bill-tracking.html)

Imagine showing a customer these results after they have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in your system. It is hard to inspire confidence in your abilities with results like this.

How should the solar energy contractor present this data to customer? Do you think the contractor would be feeling confident about the job, and about getting referrals for future solar projects? Probably not. The customer might simply look at the figures and, since figures don’t lie, conclude they have hired the wrong contractor, and that the solar system doesn’t work very well!

There are many reasons the system may not have delivered the expected savings. A possibility is that the project is delivering savings, but the summer after the installation was much hotter than the summer before the installation. Hotter summers translate into higher air conditioning loads, which could result in higher utility bills.

Hotter Summer >> Higher Air Conditioning Load >> Higher Summer Utility Bills

In our example, we are claiming that because the post-installation weather was hotter, the solar electric project looked like it didn’t save any energy, even though it really did. Imagine explaining that to customers!

If the weather really was the cause of the higher usage, then how could you ever use utility bills to measure savings from solar energy projects? Your savings numbers would be at the mercy of the weather. Savings numbers would be of no value at all (unless the weather was the same year after year).

Our example may appear a bit exaggerated, but it begs the question: Could weather really have such an impact on savings numbers?

It can, but usually not to this extreme. The summer of 2005 was the hottest summer in a century of record-keeping in Detroit, Michigan. There were 18 days at 90°F or above, compared to the usual 12 days. In addition, the average temperature in Detroit was 74.8°F compared to the normal 71.4 °F. At first glance, 3 degrees doesn’t appear significant, however, if you convert the temperatures to cooling degree days(2), as shown in Figure 1.3, the results look dramatic. Just comparing the June through August period, there were 909 cooling degree days in 2005 as compared to 442 cooling degree days in 2004.

That is more than double! Cooling Degree Days are roughly proportional to relative building cooling requirements. For Detroit then, one can infer that an average building required (and possibly consumed) more than twice the amount of energy for cooling in the summer of 2005 than the summer of 2004. It is likely that in the Upper Midwestern United States there were several solar contractors who faced exactly this problem!

Figure 1.3: Cooling Degree Days in Detroit, Michigan for 2004 and 2005 (http://www.abraxasenergy.com/alternative-energy-energy-software.html)

How is a solar energy contractor going to show savings from a solar electric system under these circumstances? A simple comparison of utility bills will not work, as the expected savings will get buried beneath the increased cooling load. The solution would be to somehow apply the same weather data to the pre- and post-installation bills. Then there would be no penalty for extreme weather. This is exactly what weather normalization does. To show savings from a retrofit (or good alternative energy practice), and to avoid our disastrous example, an alternative energy contractor should normalize the utility bills for weather, so that changes in weather conditions will not compromise the savings numbers.

The practice of normalizing energy bills to weather with energy software is catching on, with more and more energy managers, energy engineers, and contractors correcting their bills for weather because they want to be able to prove that they are actually saving energy from their efforts. This process has many names: weather correction, weather normalization, tuning to weather, tuning, or weather regression.

HOW WEATHER NORMALIZATION WORKS

Rather than compare last year’s usage to this year’s usage, when we use weather normalization, we compare how much energy we would have used this year to how much energy we did use this year. Many in our industry do not call the result of this comparison, “Savings”, but rather “Usage Avoidance” or “Cost Avoidance” (if comparing costs). But, since we are trying to keep this chapter at an introductory level, we will simply use the word Savings.

When we tried to compare last year’s usage to this year’s usage, we saw Figure 1.2, and a disastrous project. We used the equation:

Savings = Last year’s usage – This year’s usage

When we normalize for weather, the same data results in Figure 1.4, and uses the equation:

Savings = How much energy we would have used this year – This year’s usage

Figure 1.4: Comparison of Baseline and Actual (Post-Retrofit) data with Weather Correction (http://www.abraxasenergy.com/alternative-energy-energy-software.html)

The next question is, how do we figure out how much energy we would have used this year? That is where weather normalization comes in.

First, we select a year of utility bills(3) to which we want to compare future usage. This would typically be the year before you started your alternative energy program, the year before you installed a retrofit, or the year before you, the new energy contractor, were hired, or just some year in the past that you want to compare current usage to. In this example, we would select the year of utility data before the installation of the solar electric system. We will call this year the Base Year(4).

Figure 1.5: Cooling Degree Days (http://www.abraxasenergy.com/alternative-energy-energy-software.html)

Then we calculate degree days for the Base Year billing periods. Because this example is only concerned with cooling, we need only gather Cooling Degree Days (not Heating Degree Days). A section on calculating Degree Days follows later in the chapter. For now, recognize only that Cooling Degree Days need to be gathered at this step.(5) Figure 1.5 presents Cooling Degree Days over two years.

Figure 1.6: Finding the relationship between usage and weather data. The blue dots represent the utility bills. The red line is the best fit line. (http://www.abraxasenergy.com/alternative-energy-energy-savings.html)

To establish the relationship between usage and weather, we find the line that comes closest to all the bills. This line, the Best Fit Line, is found using statistical regression techniques available in canned utility bill tracking software and in spreadsheets.

The next step is to ensure that the Best Fit Line is good enough to use. The quality of the best fit line is represented by statistical indicators, the most common of which, is the R2 value. The R2 value represents the goodness of fit, and in energy engineering circles, an R2 > 0.75 is considered an acceptable fit. Some meters have little or no sensitivity to weather or may have other unknown variables that have a greater influence on usage than weather. These meters may have a low R2 value. You can generate R2 values for the fit line in Excel or other canned utility bill tracking software.(6)

This Best Fit Line has an equation, which we call the Fit Line Equation, or in this case the Baseline Equation.(7) The Fit Line Equation from Figure 1.6 might be:

Baseline kWh = (5 kWh/Day * #Days) + (417 kWh/CDD * #CDD)

Once we have this equation, we are done with this regression process.

Let’s recap what we have done:

We normalized Base Year utility bills and weather data for number of days in the bill.

We graphed normalized Base Year utility data versus normalized weather data.

We found a Best Fit Line through the data. The Best Fit Line then represents the utility bills for the Base Year.

The Best Fit Line Equation represents the Best Fit Line, which in turn represents the Base Year of utility data.

Base Year bills ≈ Best Fit Line = Fit Line Equation

The Fit Line Equation represents how your customer used energy during the Base Year, and would continue to use energy in the future (in response to changing weather conditions) assuming no significant changes occurred in building consumption patterns.

Once you have the Baseline Equation, you can determine if you saved any energy.

How? You take a bill from some billing period after the Base Year. You (or your software) plug in the number of days from your bill and the number of Cooling Degree Days from the billing period into your Baseline Equation.

Suppose for a current month’s bill, there were 30 days and 100 CDD associated with the billing period.

Baseline kWh = (5 kWh/Day * #Days) + (417 kWh/CDD * #CDD)

Baseline kWh = (5 kWh/Day * 30) + (417 kWh/CDD * 100)

Baseline kWh = 41,850 kWh

Remember, the Baseline Equation represents how your customer used energy in the Base Year. So, with the new inputs of number of days and number of degree days, the Baseline Equation will tell you how much energy the building would have used this year based upon Base Year usage patterns and this year’s conditions (weather and number of days). We call this usage that is determined by the Baseline Equation, Baseline Usage.

Now, to get a fair estimate of energy savings, we compare:

Savings = How much energy we would have used this year – How much energy we did use this year

or if we change the terminology a bit:

Savings = Baseline Energy Usage – Actual Energy Usage

where Baseline Energy Usage is calculated by the Baseline Equation, using current month’s weather and number of days, and Actual Energy Usage is the current month’s bill. Both equations immediately preceding are the same, as Baseline = “How much energy we would have used this year”, and Actual represents “How much energy we did use this year.”

So, using our example, suppose this month’s bill was for 30,000 kWh:

Savings = Baseline Energy Usage – Actual Energy Usage

Savings = 41,850 kWh – 30,000 kWh

Savings = 11,850 kWh

CALCULATING DEGREE DAYS AND FINDING THE BALANCE POINT

Cooling Degree Days (CDD) are roughly proportional to the energy used for cooling a building, while Heating Degree Days, (HDD) are roughly proportional to the energy used for heating a building. Degree Days, although simply calculated, are quite useful in energy calculations. They are calculated for each day, and then are summed over some period of time (months, a year, etc.).(8)

Figure 1.7: Determining the balance point using a kWh/day vs. Outdoor Temperature graph (http://www.abraxasenergy.com/alternative-energy-energy-savings.html)

In general, daily degree days are the difference between the building’s balance point and the average outside temperature. To understand degree days, then, we first need to understand the concept of Balance Points.

Buildings have their own set of Balance Points for heating and for cooling – and they may not be the same. The Heating Balance Point can be defined as the outdoor temperature at which the building starts to heat. In other words, when the outdoor temperature drops below the Heating Balance Point, the building’s heating system kicks in. Conversely, when the outdoor temperature rises above the Cooling Balance Point, the building starts to cool.(9) A building’s balance point is determined by nearly everything associated with it, since nearly every component associated with a building has some effect on the heating of the building: building envelope construction (insulation values, shading, windows, etc.), temperature set points, thermostat set back schedules if any, the amount of heat producing equipment (and people) in the building, lighting intensity, ventilation, HVAC system type, HVAC system schedule, lighting and miscellaneous equipment schedules, among other factors.

In the past, before energy professionals used computers and utility manager software in their everyday tasks, degree day analysis was simplified by assuming balance points of 65°F for both heating and cooling. As a result, it was easy to publish and distribute degree days, since everyone calculated them using the same standard (that is, using 65°F as the balance point). It is more accurate, though, to recognize that every building has its own balance points, and to calculate degree days accordingly. Consequently, you are less likely to see degree days available, as more sophisticated analysis requires you to calculate your own degree days based upon your own building’s balance points.(10)

Figure 1.8: kWh /day vs Average Outdoor Temperature (http://www.abraxasenergy.com/alternative-energy-utility-manager-software.html)

To find the balance point temperature of a building, graph the Usage/Day against Average Outdoor Temperature (of the billing period) as shown in Figure 1.7. Notice that Figure 1.7 presents two trends. One trend is flat, and the other trend slopes up and to the right. We have drawn red lines signifying the two trends in Figure 1.8. (Ignore the vertical red line for now.) The flat trend represents Non-Temperature Sensitive Consumption, which is electrical consumption that is not related to weather. In Figure 1.7, Non-Temperature Sensitive Consumption is roughly the same every month, about 2450 kWh per day. Examples of Non-Temperature Sensitive Consumption include lighting, computers, miscellaneous plug load, industrial equipment and well pumps. Any usage above the horizontal red line is called Temperature Sensitive Consumption, which represents electrical usage associated with the building’s cooling system. Notice that in Figure 1.8, the Temperature Sensitive Consumption only occurs at temperatures greater than 61°F. The intersection of the two trends is called the Balance Point, or Balance Point Temperature, which is 61°F in this example.

Notice also that, in Figure 1.8, as the outdoor temperature increases, consumption increases. As it gets hotter outside, the building uses more energy, thus the meter is used for cooling, but not heating. The Balance Point Temperature we found is the Cooling Balance Point Temperature (not the Heating Balance Point Temperature).

Figure 1.9: kWh/day vs Average Outdoor Temperature (http://www.abraxasenergy.com/alternative-energy-utility-manager-software.html)

We can view the same type of graph for heating usage in Figure 1.9. Notice that the major difference between the two graphs, is that the Temperature Sensitive trend slopes up and to the left (rather than up and the right). As the outdoor temperature drops, the building use more electricity to heat the building.

Now that we have established our balance point temperature, we have all the information required to calculate Degree Days. If your graph resembles Figures 1.9, you will be using Heating Degree Days. If your graph resembles Figure 1.8, you will be using Cooling Degree Days.

Figure 1.10: Daily Usage Normalized to Production and Weather. The Baseline Equation is Shown at the Bottom of the Figure (http://www.abraxasenergy.com/alternative-energy-energy-consulting.html)

NORMALIZING FOR OTHER VARIABLES

More and more energy professionals are coming to understand the value of normalizing utility data for production in addition to (or instead of) weather. This works if you have a simple variable that quantifies your production. For example, a computer assembly plant can track the number of computers produced. If a factory manufactures several different products, for example, disk drives, desktop computers, and printers, it may be difficult to come up with a single variable that could be used to represent production for the entire plant (i.e. tons of product). However, since analysis is performed on a meter level rather than a plant level, if you have meters (or submeters) that serve just one production line, then you can normalize usage from one meter with the product produced from that production line.

Figure 1.10 presents normalized daily usage versus production for a widget factory. The baseline equation for this normalization is shown at the bottom of the figure. Notice that Units of Production (UPr) as well as Cooling Degree Days (CDD) are included in the equation, meaning that this normalization included weather data and production data.

School districts, colleges, and universities often normalize for the school calendar. Real estate concerns, hotels and prisons normalize for occupancy. Essentially any variable can be used for normalization, as long as it is an accurate, consistent predictor of energy usage patterns. Again, these normalizations can be performed by specialized utility bill tracking software, or using spreadsheets.

CONCLUSION

Weather varies from year to year. As a result, it becomes difficult to know whether the change in your utility bills is due to fluctuations in weather, or due to your alternative energy system, or both. If you wish to use utility bills to determine energy savings from your alternative energy system with any degree of accuracy, it is vital that you remove the variability of weather from your energy savings equation. This is done using the weather normalization techniques described in this paper. You may adjust your usage for other variables as well, such as occupancy or production.

–

1) What are the alternatives? The most common might involve determining savings for each of the energy conservation activities using a spreadsheet, or perhaps even a building model. Both of these alternative strategies could require much additional work, as the alternative energy contractor likely has employed several strategies over his tenure. One other drawback of spreadsheets is that energy conservation strategies may interact with each other, so that total savings may not be the sum of the different strategies, and finally, spreadsheets are often projections of energy savings, not measurements.

2) Cooling degree days are defined in detail later in the chapter, however a rough meaning is given here. Cooling Degree Days are a rough measure of how much a period’s weather should result in a building’s cooling requirements. A hotter day will result in more Cooling Degree Days, whereas a colder day may have no Cooling Degree Days. Double the amount of Cooling Degree Days should result in roughly double the cooling requirements for a building. Cooling Degree Days are calculated individually for each day. Cooling Degree Days over a month or billing period, are merely a summation of the Cooling Degree Days of the individual days. The same is true for Heating Degree Days.

3) Some energy professionals select 2 years of bills rather than one. Good reasons can be argued both for choosing one year or two years. Do not choose periods of time that are not in intervals of 12 months (for example, 15 months, or 8 months could lead to inaccuracy).

4) Please do not confuse Base Year with Baseline. Base Year is a time period, from which bills were used to determine the building’s energy usage patterns with respect to weather data, whereas Baseline, as will be described later, represents how much energy we would have used this month, based upon Base Year energy usage patterns, and current month conditions (i.e. weather and number of days in the bill).

5) Canned energy software does this automatically for you, while in spreadsheets, this step can be tedious.

6) The statistical calculations behind the R2 value, and a treatment of three other useful indicators, T-Statistic, Mean Bias Error, and CVRMSE are not treated in this chapter. For more information on these statistical concepts, consult any college statistics textbook. (For energy contractors, a combination of R2 values and T-Statistics is usually enough.)

7) Baseline Equation = Fit Line Equation +/- Baseline Modifications. We cover Baseline Modifications later in this chapter.

You would not sum or average high or low temperatures for a period of time, as the result would not be useful. However, you can sum degree days, and the result remains useful, as it is proportional to the heating or cooling requirements of a building.

9) If you think about it, you don’t have to treat this at the building level, but rather can view it at a meter level. (To simplify the presentation, we are speaking in terms of a building, as it is less abstract.) Some buildings have many meters, some of which may be associated with different central plants. In such a building, it is likely that the disparate central plants would have different balance points, as conditions associated with the different parts of the building may be different.

10) If you calculate degree days by hand, or using a spreadsheet, you would use the following formulae for your calculations. Of course, commercially available utility manager software that performs weather nomalization handles this automatically.

For each day,

HDDi = [ TBP – ( Thi + Tlo ) / 2 ] x 1 Day+

CDDi = [ ( Thi + Tlo ) / 2 – TBP ] x 1 Day+

Where:

HDDi = Heating Degree Days for one day

CDDi = Heating Degree Days for one day

TBP = Balance Point Temperature,

Thi = Daily High Temperature

Tlo = Daily Low Temperature

+ signifies that you can never have negative degree days. If the HDDi or CDDi calculation yields a negative number, then the result is 0 degree days for that day.

Heating and Cooling Degree Days can be summed, respectively, over several days, a month, a billing period, a year, or any interval greater than a day. For a billing period (or any period greater than a day),

HDD = ΣHDDi

CDD = ΣCDDi

Take a look back to Figure 1.3, where you may have noticed that there are more than twice as many Cooling Degree Days (CDD) in August 2005 than in August 2004. Because Cooling Degree Days are roughly proportional to a building’s cooling energy usage, one could rightly assume that the cooling requirements of the building would be roughly double as well.

About The Author

John Avina is Director of Abraxas Energy Consulting and has worked in energy analysis and utility bill tracking for over a decade. Learn more about finding the right utility bill tracking program, energy savings, and energy management at http://www.abraxasenergy.com/.

Copyright 2006 http://www.abraxasenergy.com

Technorati Tags: Alternative Energy

Technorati Tags: Alternative Energy

What are other environmentally friendly alternative energy sources?

other than solar panels and turbines, what are other energy sources? what are the pros and cons to it? THANKS AND 10 POINTS FOR BEST ANSWER I SWEAR

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With the rising interest in environmental protection and conservation, it’s time to look at alternative sources for home energy, specifically electricity. And that’s where a wind generator can come in.

Wind generator’s can provide you and your family with the electrical power your home needs (and more) with little impact on the environment. Using wind power to generate electricity can not only save you money on your utility bills, it’s also a good way to “do your bit” for the planet, as well.

Everyone has heard of greenhouse gases, the greenhouse effect and global warming caused by the greenhouse effect. The most common greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. CO2 is produced naturally by volcanic eruptions and decaying organic material, but not in harmful amounts. Burning fossil fuels like coal and natural gas to produce electricity releases tons of gases like CO2 into the atmosphere. Wind energy produces no harmful CO2 to get trapped in the atmosphere. Trees and other plants absorb CO2 naturally and recycle it back in oxygen. Using a wind generator to produce electricity can significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, and also save an acre or more of trees the work of recycling it.

Sulfur dioxide is produced by burning fossil fuels, too. Sulfur dioxide combines with other compounds in the atmosphere and is then responsible for acid rain, scientists believe. Acid rain causes crop damage, building damage, and water and ground pollution. Using a wind generator to produce your home’s electricity can help reduce SO2 emissions, too.

Wind energy is renewable energy. Every day, the earth’s heating and cooling generates wind power. Coal and natural gas are not renewable energy. A wind generator can reduce the use of coal needed to generate electricity. One block of wind power (1/4 of a home’s energy needs) can save as a much as 2,000 pounds of coal. Besides saving the ton of coal required to produce your electricity, you are also saving the energy required to produce that ton of coal. Wind power is then significantly the better environmental source of electrical energy than coal.

Wind energy is kinder to the land itself. An environmental footprint is the amount of land used by something. That “something” can be a building or structure, pipeline, road or any other man-made object. A wind turbine uses very little land, leaving a minimal footprint. As much as 99% of your backyard will still be usable, for example. Compare that to the amount of land used by conventional coal powered electricity – land used for mining the coal, for transporting the coal, the land under and around the power plant, and the land under and around the transmission lines that bring the power to your home. Acres and acres of land are required to produce one hour of coal-generated electricity, as opposed to a small bit of clear ground used for a wind generator tower.

Speaking of the tower, producing the equipment used to generate wind energy is cheaper and easier on the environment than conventional power generating equipment. Most of the energy consumed in making wind energy equipment is in the turbine and battery processes. Only one -third is used to produce the tower and the concrete to set the tower in place. A wind turbine can recover the energy used to produce it in a year or less.

Compared to other energy-saving, environmentally-friendly efforts, producing your own electrical power through use of a wind generator can have a much greater impact. Walking, biking, carpooling and taking mass transit save 20 pounds of CO2 for every one gallon of gasoline saved. That same one block of wind power mentioned before can save 249 pounds of CO2 a month. Wind power electricity offsets the CO2 you produce when you drive your car 2,900 miles.

Recycling is another way that most people generally think of to help the environment. If you recycled every bit of glass, cardboard, paper and plastic possible for a year, you’d cut CO2 emissions by 850 pounds or so. Producing your own wind generated electricity can cut those same emissions by more than 3,000 pounds in that same year’s span of time. To truly compare recycling to wind energy, one block of wind energy saves the same carbon dioxide emissions as recycling 7,000 aluminum cans. Wind energy is clearly a more efficient way to contribute to the planet’s health than recycling.

One last thing about wind energy – most homeowners produce more than they need. This excess energy can be funneled back into the grid system, thereby reducing someone else’s need to depend on coal-produced electricity. So, your wind tower could actually help your neighbor help the environment, too.

Wind energy is, by far, much better for the environment than coal-produced energy. Creating your own electricity can have a much broader, bigger impact on environmental conservation than most other steps you can take. With the planet in serious need of everyone’s help, wind energy is a viable, affordable, effective way to “do your part.”

About The Author

ARI Green Energy is a manufacturer of wind generators. Visit http://www.arigreenenergy.com/ today for a full line of wind turbines and solar technology solutions. Think green.

http://www.arigreenenergy.com

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People in general are gradually becoming aware of the pollution that’s taking place on earth and the ugly consequences that it brings about. And as a result, the governments of different countries as well as the public as a whole are taking various measures to reduce the effects of environmental pollution. This has brought the need to find a solution for the ever rising cost of fuel – alternative energy.

The advantages of alternative energy

Alternative energy is environmentally friendly and causes no or minimal pollution. Vehicles powered by these alternative fuels will result in minimal emissions, reducing air pollution. Bio-diesel is also considered a completely renewable alternative fuel because vegetable oil is its primary resource. As a result, used oil can be re-collected and refined.

Another advantage is that by using alternative fuel, you can prolong the engine life of your vehicle. These are also cheaper than most other conventional types of fuel. Not only do they cost you less, but they also burn efficiently so that you can save further money. Choosing this type of energy not only helps you but also helps the country as a whole because it helps to bring down the dependency on imported fossil oil. By manufacturing alternative energy within a country itself, it will not only reduce the dependency on another country but also save millions in terms of import expenditure.

Disadvantages of alternative energy

Even though this energy is becoming quite popular, this technology has not fully reached perfection. And since the availability and demand is still at a primary stage, the cost of using alternative energy could be very high such as the high initial costs of solar power panels although they are completely cost-free later.

Another disadvantage of this type of energy is that they are not so commonly available to be used when compared to conventional sources of energy. For example, wind power generation is very uncommon compared to coal power generation. Therefore even if one has the will and dedication to go eco-friendly, the prevailing system may unfortunately not facilitate such desires.

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Energy is consumed in large amounts everyday and is something that we cannot live without. With the rising concerns regarding the energy crisis, as the existing resources are depleting and the remaining ones causing heavy environmental pollution, many people are diverting their attention to environmentally friendly and renewable sources of energy.

Solar power as a source of renewable energy can be an ideal solution for the prevailing energy crisis as it is available in abundance. Furthermore, solar power is a free source of power that will cost nothing on a daily basis, when compared with many other sources of fossil fuels that are taking price hikes almost everyday. Solar power is environmentally friendly as it causes no harmful emissions. Solar power is also better in terms of sustainable energy because it’s freely available and can be replenished on a daily basis.

One of the biggest advantages of solar renewable energy is that apart from setting up mechanisms on a national level, even households also can participate in the process of generating eco-friendly power by installing solar batteries at each house. The electricity that is generated through these batteries can easily cater to your daily power needs. Once the system is installed you will experience no regular electricity costs.

Although sunlight is available practically everywhere, this method is not often seen at large scale power plants as often as we see in other sources of energy. One reason for this is that not many people are aware of solar power as a stable source of electricity. Another reason is setting up the necessary apparatus in order to directly convert sunlight into electricity, is very expensive. This is considered the main drawback of solar renewable energy. Another disadvantage could be its inability to support electric devices that consume large volumes of electricity. However you can overcome this drawback by using solar power for all the other electricity needs as much as possible.

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