Myths and misconceptions of solar energy

Misinformation and disinformation about solar energy are still being propagated. Here we have corrected the record about some plausible myths:

• “Solar only offers a small part of the primary energy.” Primary energy is a foolish size. What really counts is end user energy. Solar electricity can be used directly in most applications with high efficiency. Burning coal to make electricity or burning oil to drive a car throws away most of the primary energy as useless heat.
• “Solar uses huge amounts of land.” Full low -carbon of an advanced economy using solar energy and wind to provide all energy for transport, heating and industry requires 40-80 m² solar panel per person (Depending on the contribution of the latitude and wind energy), which is much smaller than the area dedicated to agriculture or roads. High photovoltaic conversion -efficiency is crucial, both to lower prices and lower land use. Efficiency has improved about four -time since the 1950s. Some people combine the area that is overstrained by a solar energy or wind farm with the area alienated from agriculture by the turbines and panels, which is much smaller.
• “Biomass is a better solution than running cars with electricity.” Electric cars that run with solar electricity require 100 times less country than running cars with ethanol produced from sugar cane.
• “Solar Waste is a big problem.” With a lifespan of more than 25 years, only a few square meters of solar panel per person will retire every year. This solar panel waste, each approximately 16 kg, is 10%, 1% and 0.1% of the annual mass per head of the population of human excrement, other fixed waste and avoided carbon dioxide.
• ‘Solar uses toxic metals and critical minerals.” The majority of a solar panel is glass. There is a small amount of plastic encapsulation, silicon and conductive metals. Almost all of this can be recycled. There are no materials that are not substitute.
• “Solar needs too much energy to produce.” The payback time to restore the energy used in production is about a year compared to a lifetime of 25-30 years.
• “You can’t perform a grid on solar energy and wind; you need baseload power.” Many countries are on their way to 90-100% electricity of variable solar and wind. Australia, for example, is an advanced economy that is located in the medium-sized latitudes (80% of the worldwide population lives in Sunbelt countries) that cannot share electricity across national borders. Only 7% of its electricity comes from hydro electricity and biomass, and it has zero nuclear or geothermal electricity. It follows 75% of the electricity of solar energy and wind in 2030, trending to 95% in later years. The grid is very stable.
• “Solar & Wind needs back -up of coal and gas when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing.” This is not true at all. The combination of broad transmission (to smooth out locally) and storage (batteries and pumped hydro) Can easily replace all fossil fuels.
• “Solar on the roof is expensive.” In Australia, a non -subsidized turnkey roof solar system Costs US $ 700-1000 per kilowatt. Bureaucratic obstacles are small. A third of the Australian houses have solar systems on the roof because they deliver very cheap electricity. The commitment continues to grow rapidly, both in Australia and elsewhere.
• “If solar energy is cheap, why is my electricity bill high“The selling price of electricity is much higher than the wholesale price. It includes the high distribution and administration. Solar-driven electrification provides the cheapest and most resilient domestic energy In history. A fully electric house uses electric stoves, heat pumps for storage tanks on hot water and heat pumps for heating and cooling air. Much of the electricity can be supplied by a PV system of 10 kW on the house roof. This energy is produced on site and avoids most transmission and distribution costs that make retail electricity expensive. There is a zero gas bill. Add an electric vehicle and the fuel account also goes to zero.
• “There is a nuclear Renaissance.” Total solar energy -installed capacity (in GW) surpassed the total installed nuclear installed capacity in 2017. In 2024, new solar capacity was installed 100 times faster than the net new nuclear capacity. Worldwide solar and wind generation (in TWH) will both pass through the nuclear generation in 2025.
• “Storage and transmission are expensive and kill the economic matter for renewable energy sources.” High resolution modeling shows that storage and transmission add 30-50% to the rough generation costs from solar energy and wind. These are an important but affordable costs. All-in costs are lower than $ 100/MWh in most places.
• “Pumped Hydro electricity storage requires new dams on rivers, is geographically limited, floods a lot of land and consumes a lot of water.” Pumped Hydro consists of 95% of the global energy storage. Together with batteries for high power, short -term storage, energy storage is a solved problem. Premium quality pump uses approximately the same amount of soil as large batteries (10-30 kWh/m²). Water use is very small (a few liters per person per day). The Global Pomped Hydro Atlas Gives a list of 0.8 million off-river (no new DAM) sites with storage equal to 2 trillion EV batteries.
• “The energy trilemma: we need low energy prices, a stable grid and low greenhouse emissions and solar energy cannot offer this.“In fact, the lived experience is that solar energy offers the cheapest electricity in history, is perfectly capable of supplying a stable grid and producing negligible greenhouse gas emissions.

As well as eliminating most greenhouse missions, solar energy and wind in combination with the electrification of everything, also removes car outlets, chimneys, urban smog, coal mines, axle deposits, oil stains, oil-related warfare and gas fracking. Moreover, its own renewable energy provides high local economic content and high resilience in the light of war, trade wars and pandemies.

There is no other technology for energy generation such as benign, democratic and low costs such as photovoltaic solar energy. By the start of the following decade, more PV capacity will be installed on the sun on earth than the combined output of all other technologies for generating energy together.

Authors: Prof. dr. Ricardo Rüther (UFSC), Prof. Andrew Blakers (Anu)

Andre.blakers@anu.edu.au

ruther@gmail.com

Isesthe International Solar Energy Society a non-accredited membership NGO was founded in 1954 working on a world with 100% renewable energy for everyone, used efficiently and wisely.

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