SolarPowerNerd
Solar energy and hydropower are both renewable, but they differ in cost, reliability, and environmental impact. This article breaks down the key advantages and disadvantages of each so you can see which one fits your situation best.
Solar Energy: What Is It?
Solar energy is an important source of renewable technology that harnesses the radiant light and heat from the sun.
The idea of converting the sun’s energy to create electricity was first introduced in 1839, by a French scientist named Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel.
In the following years, many scientists followed his research and eventually came up with solar panels.
Solar panels convert the energy from the sun into electricity through a process called the photovoltaic effect. Solar panels work best during the day when the sun’s rays and luminosity are at their highest.
Essentially, the solar panels have around 12-15 effective hours of operation, before the night comes, rendering them to go into a state that we call “sleep mode.”
Countries such as China, the United States, and Japan are three of the biggest countries using solar panels today. At an astonishing amount of 130 gigawatts, China has the biggest solar energy capacity compared to the rest of the world.
Other countries have also followed suit in developing solar technologies to take advantage of the energy that our sun gives and are hoping that one day, a method to generate electricity using the sun’s energy for 24/7 could eventually be found.
The Advantages of Using Solar Energy
The sun does a lot more than just keep us warm and light up our days. It can also help us generate electricity for our houses, buildings, and even solar-powered cars.
Here are some of the advantages of using solar energy for our everyday power needs.
Pollution Free
One big major advantage that solar power has over fossil fuels is that it is pollution-free.
Solar power is environmentally friendly, and it helps lessen the effect of global warming, which is another major issue that humans are facing.
By reducing the amount of pollution that goes up into our atmosphere, the usage of solar power helps us preserve our ozone layer, which is becoming thinner and thinner by the day.
The pollution from industrial areas that produce fossil fuels has been known to cause major illnesses such as bronchitis, lung cancer, and pneumonia for people living nearby.
Additionally, solar panels do not create any noise, which is another benefit of using them. Most machinery and oil stations create a tremendous amount of noise that could cause problems for residents who live in the area.
Renewable
Solar energy is renewable, sustainable, and reliable as long as the sky does not turn dark. The sun is able to provide us with solar power for us to generate electricity until the end of time.
This is also a huge advantage that solar energy has over fossil fuels.
No Maintenance
Solar panels could last for almost half of our average lifetimes. We could keep solar panels standing where they are with virtually no maintenance at all.
Plus, we do not need to create huge oil rigs in the middle of the sea or a giant machine that drills through the middle of the earth to extract the energy that we need.
Installation
Solar panels could be installed literally anywhere, whether in the middle of the desert, on top of your roofs at home, or on top of buildings. The potential is endless.
If you are curious whether panels make sense for your property, our guide on when solar panels are worth it walks through the key factors.
Millions of people in the world live in remote areas where access to the electricity grid is scarce. This means people living in rural areas with no other access to electricity could generate their own using solar panels.
The Disadvantages of Using Solar Energy
We have talked about the good things about solar energy, now let’s talk about the downside of using it.
Useless at Night
An obvious disadvantage that solar energy has is it is useless at night.
When the sky turns dark, solar panels enter “sleep mode” and are therefore ineffective during the night. This creates the need for making large batteries to store the energy that was made during the day.
Pairing panels with a quality solar storage battery can solve this problem.
Winter
This is related to the point above because at night there is not enough warmth from the sun in order to keep the solar panels running.
Although the sun is still present during the winter, there is just not enough heat so that the solar panels could keep generating a substantial amount of electricity. That means keeping solar panels running during the winter is almost like a waste of money on a technology that is expensive to develop in the first place.
Size of Solar Panels
Depending on the geographical location of the country, the size of solar panels has to vary.
Making larger solar panels in some countries to generate the same amount of electricity that smaller solar panels could produce in some country is a major economic disadvantage.
Hydropower Energy: What Is It?
The second source of renewable energy that is going to be talked about in this article is Hydropower energy.
Hydropower technology captures the flow of water and in turn, converts it into electricity. The most common form of water to electricity conversion technology is by using a dam on a river to hoard water in a reservoir.
The water that is stored in the reservoir is then released in order to spin turbines to create electricity.
Countries with ample supply of flowing water such as China, Brazil, Canada, and the United States rely on Hydropower technology to create billions of kilowatt-hours of electricity each year.
The Three Gorges Dam in China, Guri Dam which is located in Venezuela, and the Itaipu Dam located on the Brazil-Paraguay border are three of the most common examples of hydroelectric producing dams.
Let’s take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of Hydropower energy as a renewable source of energy for our future.
The Advantages of Using Hydropower Energy
Using the flow of water to generate electricity comes with its own set of advantages. Here are some examples of the advantages of using hydropower energy.
Pollution-Free
Just like solar panels, hydropower producing dams do not pollute the air like power plants that burn fossil fuels. This reduces the emission of greenhouse gases released to our atmosphere and therefore preserving our planet that is in danger of global warming.
Renewable
Supply of water in this world is limitless, which means we can essentially take advantage of using hydropower energy forever.
The world will be in dire need of a reliable and renewable source of energy once the supply of fossil fuels runs out, making hydropower energy the possible go-to source of energy in the future.
Recreational Activities
In addition to generating a large amount of electricity for many countries, hydropower producing dams create reservoirs that may be a good place to perform recreational activities such as fishing and swimming.
The creation of reservoirs can also help reduce flood in the lower parts of the land below the dams, which is a big benefit for areas that are prone to floods.
Economic Stability
Not all countries in this world can generate a good amount of fossil fuels on their own. The price of fossil fuels could fluctuate, depending on the situation of the current market.
Water, on the other hand, is a domestic resource that can guarantee an ever-flowing production of electricity and is not subject to market fluctuations.
The Disadvantages of Hydropower Energy
Although hydropower energy comes with many benefits, it does not come without a cost. Below are some examples of the disadvantages of using hydropower energy.
Expensive
It takes a large sum of money, even to build a small dam. We are not talking about just a few millions, but billions of dollars to create just one dam.
Additionally, it also takes many years to create a dam because even the small dams are gigantic.
Droughts
Similar to solar energy that is basically useless at night, hydropower energy relies on the availability of water in order to generate electricity. So, no water, no electricity.
Countries that have large amounts of flowing water in their inland are perfect candidates to build dams. Countries where droughts are frequent are not ideal candidates.
Danger to Aquatic Biodiversity
Dams separate water from the highlands and store them in a reservoir below it. This could cause problems for the natural food chain of the river that was otherwise not disrupted before the presence of the dam.
For example, the creation of dams could eliminate some species from the higher or lower levels of the food chains. There could be an overpopulation in one level of the food chain and under population on the other.
Dams could implicitly disturb the natural order in the river that they are built in.
How Solar and Hydropower Energy Compare
So we have talked about the pros and cons of solar and hydropower energy. Let’s talk about how they stack up as solutions for our future energy crisis.
We can all agree that both solar and hydropower energy create little to no pollution. For reliability, hydropower energy definitely edges solar energy because of its availability throughout the day and night.
When you look at mobility, though, solar energy beats hydropower energy because panels can be literally built anywhere. A rooftop solar system is one popular option for homeowners.
Dams need to be created in a river where flowing water is present, while solar panels could be installed in the middle of a Saharan desert, at your home, or at your office.
On the cost side, some countries might argue that running hydropower energy is more cost-efficient than using solar energy. At the same time, other countries might also argue that solar panels are cheaper to build and generate a larger amount of electricity compared to that of hydroelectric producing dams.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can solar panels and hydropower be used together?
Yes, some regions combine both sources to create a more reliable power grid. Solar panels generate electricity during sunny daytime hours, while hydropower dams can pick up the slack at night or on cloudy days.
Using both together helps smooth out the natural gaps that each technology has on its own.
How long do solar panels last compared to a hydropower dam?
Most solar panels carry warranties of 25 to 30 years, and many continue producing electricity well beyond that. Hydropower dams can remain operational for 50 to 100 years with proper maintenance.
Both technologies offer long service lives, but dams require far higher upfront construction costs.
Is solar energy or hydropower better for the environment?
Neither option produces the air pollution associated with fossil fuels. Solar panels have a smaller physical footprint and do not disrupt waterways.
Hydropower dams, however, can alter river ecosystems and affect aquatic life. The better choice depends on the local geography and environmental priorities of a given area.
Which renewable source is cheaper to install?
For individual homeowners, solar panels are generally more affordable and easier to install. Large-scale hydropower projects cost billions of dollars and take years to complete.
Solar costs have also dropped significantly over the past decade, making panels accessible to a wider range of budgets.
Final Thoughts
For now, fossil fuel is still the most reliable source of energy based on the sheer amount it can produce and its availability throughout the world. But when the day comes that fossil fuel finally runs out, there will be a strong need to decide whether solar or hydropower energy is the most effective form of energy in the future.
There are also many different renewable sources of energy not mentioned in this article. Wind power collects the gust of wind and turns it into electricity by spinning turbines.
Geothermal energy uses the thermal energy underneath the earth’s crust to generate power. Bioenergy converts the biological material of recently living organisms to make fuels.
These other forms of renewable energy should not be overlooked, as they have also been proven to be effective ways to generate power in our everyday lives.
