With finite resources being close to extinction and causing harmful CO2 emissions, sustainable energy has become the way to move forward in the future. While many countries have been adopting hydropower as a way to use water as a resource & generate electricity, it is even better and more eco-friendly to use solar energy instead. If you didn’t know, here are three ways in which using solar panels can end up saving water.
1. Using Floating Solar Energy
Floatvoltaics, also known as floating solar farms are increasingly becoming popular since their use in Japan. When floating solar panels are used on top of water bodies with the added benefit of creating clean energy, they end up saving water from evaporation. Evaporation because of global warming is also problematic in the case of large water bodies like Lake Mead in America which loses nearly 800,000 acre-feet of water each year to evaporation, according to the US Bureau of Reclamation.
2. Generating Power from Solar Panels
Solar panels do not use water to produce & generate power; it is purely done because of sunshine. This can be very beneficial to save water since a typical diesel plant uses tonnes of precious water resources simply to cool down or maintain the equipment, transport the fuel or even refine it. In fact, solar panels are noted to produce electricity with less than 1/200th of the water required in a water plant.
3. Powering Cars with Solar Panels
Powering a car with solar panels uses less water than powering using gasoline or biofuels. Natural gas and oil use plenty of water to extract and process; against this, solar panels don’t use water to generate solar energy. Consider electric charging vehicles, using solar energy from your home. Not only do you reduce the carbon footprint.
