The Most Significant Advantage of Solar PV Technology - Essay Example

This technology has various advantages and disadvantages in its use with implications for its future developments as explained in the following sections. The most significant advantage of solar PV technology is that it produces an environmentally friendly form of energy (Solanski, 2009). Solar cells produce silent and clean energy which illustrates the advantage of PV solar systems which do not produce harmful pollutants since they are only fueled by natural sunshine or solar radiation. In this regard, solar systems do not lead to the depletion of natural resources and thus prevent endangering of human, animal and plant health (Goetzberger and Hoffmann, 2005).

In terms of space, solar PV systems have the advantage of being installed on rooftops, especially in small-scale energy production. Furthermore, solar PV systems have a benefit of a long life span with limited need for maintenance (Solanski, 2009). Solar energy is also cheap because it is renewable energy which illustrates that there is no need importation of fuel as it is locally available and free. More importantly, solar PV technology allows for the building of PV systems of any size depending on the energy requirements, whether large scale or small scale and thus these systems are scalable (Energy Weekly News, 2012). 

Whereas solar PV systems have been described as environmentally friendly, it is important to note that there are some toxic elements or chemicals such as arsenic and cadmium which are used during the process of PV energy production. Nonetheless, the environmental impact of these chemicals is relatively minor in addition to the fact that they would be controlled or managed through proper disposal and recycling (Solanski, 2009). Additionally, solar PV technology presents with a disadvantage or significantly high cost of producing solar PV systems or devices. However, it has been observed that the cost of manufacturing solar PV systems is increasingly dropping with the application of innovative and creative technologies. Shortages in solar energy may be experienced due to dependence on the sun’s radiation, especially in extremely cold weather (Goetzberger and Hoffmann, 2005).

Environmental pollution is a common feature in modern industrial and manufacturing processes. It is thus through environmentally friendly solar energy that the world’s ecosystems and environments can be saved from environmental degradation. Moreover, it has been reflected that solar energy will be merged with technological applications in the future to enable its wide application with electronic devices (Energy Weekly News, 2012). Significantly, the increased innovation in solar PV system manufacturing is expected to lead to increases in the efficiencies in the conversion of solar radiation into solar energy and subsequent further reduction of the costs of solar energy. These advancements would lead to the increased and wide application of solar energy in industrial and domestic processes as the main source of energy as opposed to pollutant energy sources such as coal and oil.