Why don't more people use solar energy?

Question

Here's a recent article from the Christian Science Monitor:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070315/ts_csm/chydro

This is a quote from the article:
On sunny days, solar panels on the roof of Strizki's detached garage generate more than enough electricity to power his home.

This is in New Jersey! Not the sunniest place in the world. I wonder why a place like Arizona, for instance, doesn't have a vast majority of people using at least some solar power.

Answer 1

2 major reasons:
1. Costs are high (Installation; Maintenance; repairs, if any)
2. Energy output is very low and pretty fluctuating as compared to the conventional energies.

Answer 2

Why are people always stuck on those stupid @ss solar panels???????????? it does not cost a lot to eliminate high wattage appliances in the home!!! Face it mostly you need hot water. easily and cheaply accomplished with solar. Its called batch heating. look it up. learn something. SO WHAT it doesnt work all the time but it does work. You can cook also by solar. and you can dry clothes. with a heat exchanger you can warm your house. Bout the only thing you need electricity for is technical items like low wattage tvs and computers and CF lighting. Really quit being lazy and blind. Or put another way, wake the F@#K up. My lowest electric bill was $22 spring. highest $75 in the winter. So dont tell me it cant be done. And it didnt cost me anything to do it. alright about 20 bucks. This solar panel, got to have it or it will never work sh!t is ridiculous. You dont have to totally switch over to solar electricity, just get around it.

Answer 3

Solar energy is very expensive and most people are not able to shovel out the money for it on their house. That is the truth and it is horrible, but until solar power starts to become more economical you won't be seeing much of it.

Answer 4

because its expensive to set up and maintain. The sun doesn't shine 24/7. You have to buy, maintain and dispose of batteries. You cannot run high energy devices for extended periods. You usually need generator backup. solar panels are delicate and damage easily. Its much cheaper to get mains power

Answer 5

The thing we need is solar turbine electric generators. PV is a poor way to make electricty especialy for the grid. The power companies are not paying the real cost for electricty you produce and sell back to them as they are not paying for future upgrades that would be required. Here is a letter I sent to Al Gore:

Putting the technology together to start cleaning up and reintroducing new ozone to the atmosphere is possible. The cost and size of this project means taking a long term commitment. I am proposing the biggest cleanup in history. Al, I do not see any proposal that is realistic or proven at any cost, not even Washington can solve this problem. But if every person on earth does his or her share, we may be ok. Never-the-less, I see governments acting like a deer in a car’s headlights and people doing the same thing. The inevitable is almost upon us. Cleanup and change is the only option.
The first cleanup machine starts with a ten billion dollars investment. Ten year later with twenty-five machines operating, these machines will produce enough ozone to replace both holes at the poles. But more importantly, these machines will remove chemicals that deplete the ozone. Beyond making ozone, decreasing the poisons that deplete ozone, these machines reduce the major greenhouse gases and unbelievably we can have all this for fewer than one hundred billion dollars.
Beyond cleaning up our atmospheric mess as I am suggesting, we humans must do a better job reducing or cleaning up carbon monoxide, collecting and storing methane and ethane for fuel, burning less of everything, cleaning up our forests and using more solar insolation. Solar steam electric generators are the type of systems we need and are 90 percent efficient and near 100 percent if heat recovery is used. I believe nearly 30,000 MW are needed in the USA and Mexico over the next 30 years. This opens the door to new electric cars, new construction vital to our way of life, new bullet trains, and these industries produce new high paying jobs. From small scale solar generators on malls, to 2000 acre collector sights, these systems are viable and ready for production. The Federal Government must give up some land, money and have less regulation to help save the planet from disaster.
Al, spreading the message that we can help ourselves is a key to the development of these businesses. Washington can help: the businesses need grants, patents, land and regulations. Congress must create a pollution surcharge. From gas, coal, diesel, wood to cooling towers, from cattle, other ranches to cigarettes, from agriculture burning to airplane passengers, this surcharge can fund parts of these projects and many stationary pollution control devices in general.
Your personal support is very important to getting the atmosphere cleanup started and developing sights for solar generators.

Sincerely,

Answer 6

There is only ONE answer! COST per unit of power! Compared to the energy we can extract from coal or petroleum products-- (i.e. oil, gas, gasoline) or falling water--the cost of making the photocells and displaying and maintaining those fragile (relative to boilers or refineries or dams and generators) cells for the very small unit of power that they can currently collect and convert to electricity (relative to a pint of oil or pound of coal or cubic foot of water) is close to a magnitude (factor of 10) greater. Twenty years ago the difference was a factor of 20 so it's getting better. As we run out of the cheaper power sources their UNIT cost(s) will increase. We will continue to reduce the photo-cell elemental cost(s) and increase their performance(s) and, someday, the cost graphs will cross over. But that day is not here yet! The same situation applies to vehicular (cars and trucks) power-- nothing, presently, has a better UNIT cost per BTU of power, than gasoline- even if the price of a gallon of gasoline were to raise to $10.00 (U.S.A. dollars) per gallon!

Answer 7

funny i was wondering that the other day. its mostly the initial expense. i tell ya what though.the "tree hugging" celebrities and millionaires dont have any excuses for not having solar power in their houses.its way too costly for the average joe to have it.we're talking in the 5 figure range.if i had the means i would certainly install solar panels. windmills too.

Answer 8

Because to use it practically is expensive and technical, you have to consider that you just dont hook up some photovoltaic cells on your roof, to your electrical distribution box! You need very sophisticated equipment like battery banks, rectifiers, inverters, voltage regulators and associated computer/software to monitor/maximize usage, and solar generated power is difficult to use with induction motors, like refrigerators, washer/dryer, Air Conditioning compressors..etc.

Answer 9

First of all, solar panels are quite expensive. Second, it is so because its hard to make one. Last, it generates low amounts of electricity.

Answer 10

They are probably way to expensive to install. After that I'm sure they would save you money.