The earth’s environment is slowly declining, mainly attributable to the inventions of man. One most notable invention that supplied tons of electricity to various places worldwide is the power plant. It is one of the many significant contributors to pollution because of how much smoke it blows into the atmosphere. However, there are also inventions to combat the power plants; solar panels. Solar panels collect natural energy generated by the sun, and it doesn’t involve any damage to the environment. Now is your chance to learn about the pros and cons of solar panels to help you weigh out your options, especially when installing for your commercial buildings.
Benefits of Installing Solar Panels in Commercial Buildings
What’s great about solar panels is that they have a ton of benefits that you will like. Some well-known benefits include:
1. Solar Panels Save Money
The main advantage solar panel lights can give to commercial building owners is that they can help reduce the costs by a significant margin. Note that most commercial buildings worldwide feed off electricity distributed by electric companies resulting in thousands of dollars of energy bills.
Reducing the number of gadgets or appliances you use in a day will not help because you are still acquiring electricity from a distributor, which you have to pay every month. However, you can avoid consuming a ton of electricity with the use of solar panels. As mentioned, they only require the energy generated by sunlight, which is free.
The solar panel catches the sunlight and converts it into electrical energy that your commercial building can use. The amount of energy you use will depend on what solar panel size and the storage capacity you install on your building. But one thing is for sure: solar panels can help any commercial building save money.
2. Large-Scale Commercial Buildings Can Use Solar Panels
Back when solar panels were still new, everyone thought that they couldn’t generate enough electricity to power a large-sized commercial building. But due to technological innovation in recent years, scientists and researchers have developed solar panels that can power almost any size of a commercial building.
Nowadays, you can see small, medium, and large-scale commercial buildings with solar panels because manufacturers created the most effective solar panels. If you think you can’t get solar panels because of your large commercial building, you have nothing to fret about because you can get solar panels that will fit your building’s preferences.
3. Solar Power Is Clean
Another benefit you can get with solar panels is they don’t harm the environment. No matter how many solar panels you install, you can still power your building and use the electricity while keeping the environment safe from deadly pollution. Nowadays, many commercial building owners are switching over to using solar panels when their focus is to utilize renewable energy.
The Drawbacks of Installing Solar Panels on Commercial Buildings
Now that you have an idea of the solar panel’s benefits, the next one is to know its disadvantages and what it can do to you and your building. Some disadvantages include:
1. It’s Weather-Dependant
Your solar panels cannot convert sunlight into electricity if there’s no sunlight. During cloudy or rainy days, the heavy clouds usually block the sunlight from hitting the solar panels. And when the clouds block sunlight the entire day, your building can’t use electricity generated from the solar panels.
You will have no choice but to switch to the main power line, which will increase your energy bills. If you want to avoid that mishap from happening, you should get power banks to store the extra energy when your solar panel fails to collect sunlight.
2. Environment Can Affect the Solar Panel’s Effectiveness
One other disadvantage with solar panels is that they won’t work if large trees or shade cover them. Other clients purposely build their commercial buildings in or beside areas filled with trees because it provides them a natural breeze all the time. But when they want to switch to solar panels, the giant trees make it hard for the panels to gather sunlight and convert them into electricity.
The only way you can get sunlight for your solar panels is to place them away from the shade, and it might be too far away from your building. You either have to cut down the trees or relocate to a building to utilize solar panels. It’s not a good idea to cut down the trees because your goal is to save the environment.
3. Extensive Care and Inspections
Installing solar panels can indeed save the commercial building tons of money. But one downside that can counteract that advantage is the amount of care and inspections you need to do on the solar panels. They need regular inspections because one slight bit of damage on the solar panel’s surface can cause it not to work anymore.
And when you have a damaged panel, your solar contractors may recommend replacing them, which will cost you money. You have to prepare a specific budget for the solar panel’s maintenance and repairs alone to prevent costly expenses in the long run.
Under the new ECO4,solar panel grants are available to households across the UK in 2023. Read the Warma UK guide to know how to qualify for a solar panel grant.
4. Hefty Initial Investment
Besides care and inspections being a costly expense, you also have to pay a large sum to get them. It’s also why some commercial buildings avoid installing solar panels because of the considerable upfront money they need to pay to get them. And once you pay for the solar panels, you also have other things to consider that will require you to spend money.
Conclusion
An example is the reconfiguration of traditional electricity and ensuring the solar panels can work alongside it. Another one is that your solar contractors may need to replace your roof because the solar panels will not fit the existing roof. There are still others to consider when getting solar panels; so you have to plan it extensively if you want everything to go smoothly and avoid wasting money.
Ensure you consider the different pros and cons mentioned above when you want to get solar panels for your commercial buildings. It’s also best to talk with a professional about solar panels to gain more insight and information to use for the planning stages.
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