What are the health and environmental benefits of solar energy?

Sunlight, being free and easily accessible is an excellent source to generate energy. Mainly, if we compare it to fossil fuels, which require a whole effort of mining, extraction, and transportation, this not only is time-consuming but also comes with pollution and other environmental assaults.

Nowadays, solar energy is being consumed by homes and businesses to fulfill their electricity requirements in a cleaner, affordable and sustainable manner. Solar energy has been a revolutionary change in business, and many companies take advantage of solar sales proposal software when using solar devices. Seven countries of the world are gaining all of their energy from renewables!

Solar Energy

The most advantageous factor is the financial ease which comes with consuming solar power. This eventually increases your savings as well. Other than these, there are some noteworthy health and environmental benefits that come along with the usage of solar energy. Few are mentioned below:

Environmental Benefits:

1. Climatic changes:

Using solar energy to generate electricity automatically lowers the amount of greenhouse gases in the environment. The manufacture and installment of solar panels come with the emittance of some greenhouse gases, but they are ten times lesser than a coal-powered plant. The rate of these gases will gradually decline with the usage of more solar-powered plants. This is a strong contrast to fossil fuels that are responsible for the release of 75% Carbon dioxide in the environment daily. Even though Carbon dioxide is a natural constituent of the environment, its growth rate is still worrisome due to the consequences such as global warming.

Solar power can be very useful in mitigating such effects. According to a recent study by National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a replacement of coal power plants with 100GW of solar power can result in the decline of CO2 by 100 million tons. Just a normal consumption of 20GW solar power results in the offset of 17 million tons of all the greenhouse gases per annum. Despite that, solar panels can produce a 2° decrement in the normal temperature of their surroundings.  This is because the buildings incorporated with solar panels absorb the heat and don’t let it pass through. This way it is always cooler under a solar panel-equipped roof than an ordinary one.

2. Air pollution:

The content of air pollutants is rising day by day. This is very bad news for the ecosystem. It not only causes airborne diseases and disasters, but the acidity of some constituents results in harmful depositions and erosions as well. This gives rise to the lack of biodiversity, which eventually lowers the crop yield, due to the environmental distress on the growth. Moreover, it welcomes acid rain that affects forests and also leads to the eutrophication of the water bodies.

With the usage of the solar energy system, air pollution can be subsided pretty easily. Usage of 100GW of solar energy magically minimizes the amount of Sulphur and nitrous oxides in the environment. This not only decreases the atmospheric assaults of pollutants but also benefits crops. A better environment leads to an even better yield in agriculture and preserves the natural resources quite well.

3. Usage of Resources:

Solar energy requires fewer resources in contrast to its production and consumption. It only consumes 11 to 14% of water. There are scoop companies which have introduced innovative solutions to link your mobile to a solar device.

The toxicity compared to coal derivatives is 95% lesser. It only consumes 20% of your total land area. It can least contribute to eutrophication in an estimate of about 1 to 2%. It also minuses the chances of acid rain to 97%.

Solar Roof Tiles

It has to be kept in mind that benefits come along the fact that the generation of solar energy is hassle free — the material incorporated in the solar panels, even though is mined but comes with recyclable constituents. The photovoltaic cells in the panels can be reused uncountable times. The solar panels are so made that even after a continual usage for about 30 years, they can still be recycled to produce energy all over again.

Health Benefits:

1. Savior from heat:

Text above states the aid provided by solar panels in lowering the environmental temperature. The cities that are away from coasts, overly crowded and densely populated are benefitted by this effect more. As their temperature can rise because of staying away from the sea breeze, solar panels can work as saviors. Many health issues, heat strokes, and breathing difficulties can be relieved. Not only this, but this also counteracts the number of premature deaths due to environmental stresses.

2. Clean air, clean body:

Breathing in an overly-polluted and poor quality air is notorious to health. This leads to some health problems. It might give rise to asthma, allergies, pneumonia, bronchitis, headache and anxiety, heart problems and skin or lung cancers. Solar energy tends to lower the number of these diseases. It emits a lesser fraction of gases as compared to the fossil fuel. It leads to a decrease in respiratory attack cases, mortality and CVD cases to an unbelievably low rate.

3. Pollution-free environment:

It might not be the right thing to say that people are only facing health problems due to the pollution of fossil fuels. It is, therefore, safer to say that the fraction of affected individuals is still more than from major risk factors, i.e., Malnutrition. Replacement of such harmful energy resources with safer alternatives can decrease health hazards. Not only this but will eventually lead to a cleaner and safer future for the upcoming generation. Even though the cleaning and generative procedures of solar panels are questioned a lot; the side effects remain lesser than the fossil fuels.

Verdict:

Solar panels have plenty of benefits, but their generation, moderation, and proper recycling should be kept under control. Given that, it is very recent technology; there aren’t many options to plant and position them throughout the state or even at your house or workplace.

Environmental Responsibility

With the passing time, more awareness about their benefits and requirement should be made clear to the public. This should be done to the scale that they become economically attractive. Soon as they become commercialized, recycling and fixing technologies should gain their hold upon these setups as well.

Author Bio

Audrey Throne is a mother of a 3-year old and a professional blogger by choice. Throne is passionate about lifestyle, business, automotive, technology and management and blogs frequently on these topics.