Why is solar energy bad energy source?

Solar energy certainly has more benefits than drawbacks but there are still some major issues that solar energy industry needs to improve:

Solar panels still cost lot of money, even despite the huge drop in costs. Solar energy is still significantly more expensive than traditional fossil fuels (Solar power still remains around three times more expensive than coal and natural gas.) The main reason why solar panels have high price tag is because their main ingredient is silicon, and silicon is very expensive material.

Solar energy needs backup energy solution in order to be considered as a reliable source of energy (Sun doesn’t shine during the night).

 Solar panels have relatively low efficiency of 15-18% which means that lot of available solar energy gets wasted in the process of transforming sunlight into the electricity.

Solar power plants have high upfront costs. They also require large areas to be built (it takes approximately one square kilometer for every 30-60 megawatts of generated solar energy.) Solar power plants also have large water requirements (for cooling purposes).

Solar energy research needs huge funds (scientific research aims to make solar panels cheaper and more efficient to become cost-competitive with traditional energy sources).

Solar energy industry needs incentives in order to achieve cost-parity with fossil fuels.

With current technologies solar energy is only effective in areas with plenty of sunshine throughout the entire year.

Even despite the abundant solar energy potential, solar power still accounts for just around 1 percent of the nation's energy supply.