How the earth benefits from solar energy

Climate change is threatening the health and safety of the entire world. An evident need exists to make dramatic changes to slow the advent of global warming. Currently, all nations of the world depend on fossil fuels for their energy needs. However, the obligation to reduce CO2 and other gaseous emissions in order to be in conformity with the Kyoto agreement is the reason why countries turn to non-polluting renewable energy sources. In this paper, the pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels is initially presented followed by a study on the environmental protection offered by the two most widely used renewable energy systems, i.e. solar water heating and solar space heating. The results presented in this paper show that by using solar energy, considerable amounts of greenhouse polluting gasses are avoided.

Water heating

For the case of a domestic water heating system, the saving, compared to a conventional system, is about 80% with electricity or diesel backup and is about 75% with both electricity and diesel backup. In the case of space heating and the hot water system, the saving is about 40%. It should be noted, however, that in the latter, much greater quantities of pollutant gasses are avoided. Additionally, all systems investigated give positive and very promising financial characteristics.

Life cycle assessment

In terms of life cycle assessment of the systems, the energy spent for manufacture and installation of the solar systems is recouped in about 1.2 years, whereas the payback time with respect to emissions produced from the embodied energy required for the manufacture and installation of the systems varies from a few months to 9.5 years according to the fuel and the particular pollutant considered. Moreover, due to the higher solar contribution, solar water heating systems have much shorter payback times than solar space heating systems. Therefore, it can be concluded that solar energy systems offer significant protection to the environment and should be employed whenever possible in order to achieve a sustainable future.

How can I make the change to solar?

If you want to move into the future and join the solar revolution, or if you want to find out what solar panels are right for you, go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. You can see how much a system will cost, and how much you can save over the next  20 years.

For more information relating to going solar, don't forget to visit our solar blog section for more handy guides and articles