If solar power is better than electric why aren't street lights solar powered?
Friday, March 12th, 2010 at
7:34 am
You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “If solar power is better than electric why aren't street lights solar powered?”.
Filed under: Wind Power
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Currently solar panels are only 30% efficient; they don’t work very well so they aren’t used very often. Most street lights are lit with electricity from the electric grid so they will be still lit even if the sun isn’t out for a few days.
However, I have seen traffic warning signs like "School Crossing" that have a solar panel on them. I have also seen signs that have to be lit out in the middle of nowhere with a solar panel on them to charge them up. So it is done, it just isn’t done very often.
Scientists are trying to increase the efficiency of solar panels to 40% at that point they start to become economical to use. Currently most solar powered panels actually use heat from the sun to heat water. This is one way to replace your large water heater with a smaller less energy using one. Also some houses in the right areas, which get enough sunlight and have the right southern exposure, use solar panels to provide hot water to heat the building.
Solar panels are not always something that transforms sunlight to electricity. Sometimes they are just panels with water inside.
You can’t trust the sun to power street lights, the solar cells are not powerful enough or efficient enough, the battery technology we have isn’t up to the job either. It is best to connect street lights to the main electric grid and that will be true for some time to come.
Your suggestion is a vaild one and has been looked at, but it can’t work yet. However, there are some situations where a solar cell can be used to power street signs.
Theres no garuntee that they will always get enough sun.
because of laziness and cost.
it would cost a lot and be somewhat wasteful to just get rid of everything and change to solar power, but in the long run yes it would be better, solar power is becoming a lot more popular and is slowly growing, so in the future maybe
Many cities do have this going already.
Solar power is still very low in efficiency, and costly to boot.
because street lights go on at night there is no solar power at night thats why its called solar…we need the sun!
your kidding right? how can you solar power your lights during the night when you need the streetlights?
OMG the people posting above me are idiots. The point of SOLAR POWER is to charge during the day so that you can USE them at night. Jesus have you never heard of solar powered garden lights? Thats THE POINT. Its like glow in the dark stickers on your ceiling. You shine light on them, then turn the light off and they will glow brighter. God people are stupid.
At this point in time, solar panels are not as efficient as electricity, gas, etc. That is why we do not use them. Like the first person said, they’re only 30% efficient right now.
As for the person above me, some people don’t know much about solar power. Also, there is a big difference in the amount of energy a small garden light uses as compared to a network of street lights. It may seem like the same thing, but there is much more energy involved.
If you have TiVo or some sort of Guide on your television set that lets you search for shows, try looking up "2057." It is a show that Discovery Channel recently put out. It’s about what the world might be like in 50 years. It focuses on solar power. It’s a great show, very informative about solar power and the panels, how efficient they are, why, etc.
Boy would I like to HEAR Power Companys answer THAT one!!! That’s a TERRIFIC idea! And there had BETTER be a GOOD reason -too; because I think streetlighting is one of the BIGGEST Electricity wasters- there are!
The solar panels and the batteries, even where sunlight is pretty reliable, are very costly. If the money was put into a bank account the interest accruing would pay the cost of buying the necessary electricity with plenty left over.
There are a range of factors.
Firstly, adapting to solar power is expensive, so that the converstion process would be expensive. This would require a large capital expenditure, which may be better off spent on other areas (such as installing more efficient lightbulbs or insulating government owned buildings).
Second, solar cells of expensive. So could be a target for theft.
Third. What if the solar cells are not capable of collecting enough energy. It is better to generate energy centrally and distribute. So some power comes from solar, some from wind, some from coal, some from nuclear, some from waves, some from natural gas.
Fourth, solar power requires batteries, which are full of toxic chemicals. So on balance it may not be worth using solar.
Fifth, it some places they do in fact use solar power for such things. In remote areas in Australia such solar powered systems are common. But this is because Australia has a lot of sunlight all year round, the remoteness makes it more viable than centrally generated electricity.
The basic truth is that there are many good ideas that are good on the service but in practice don’t make it. Solar power is a good system to incorporate in houses. Rooves have the surface area, and in the future we are likely to be able to sell the excess energy we produce back to the electrical grid.
As Ghandi said, be the change you want to see in the world. So go out and use solar yourself.
because solar power is NOT better. Solar power in fact costs more energy to make then it will put out in it’s life time.
If solar was really that great. All power companies would use it. The pay back is 7 years + interest so maybe 15. Then you have to hope your inverters last that long. I can’t even get a tv to last 2 years so payback is going to be longer then 15 after repair costs. So after 20ish years time to replace the pannels or maybe less if you paid for some cheap china junk.
Solar is all be a big lie. wind/water is still the best.