Solar Energy as Renewable Energy Source: SWOT
Analysis
Fiseha Mekonnen Guangul
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Middle East College
Muscat, Oman
fiseham2002@yahoo.com
Abstract— The adverse environmental effects from fossil fuels
and their depletion through time push the world to consider
sustainable and environmentally friendly forms of energy sources.
The advancement put forward to improve the performance of Solar
energy has made it to be one of the potential alternative energy
sources in the years ahead. This paper, therefore, assesses the
strength, weakness, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of using
solar energy. The suitability of solar energy to the environment,
minimal cost in the long ran, and its versatility are few to mention
among other significant advantages of this energy source to get
noticeable attention in an effort to substitute fossil fuels. The
expected cost reduction through time with the technology
advancement is also taken as opportunity to use solar energy.
However, using solar energy has also weaknesses and threats
which yet require further attentions. The low efficiency, high initial
cost, energy storage requirement are some of the challenges. In
addition, shifting the energy source for industries from fossil fuel to
solar energy remains as a challenge due to the utilities which are
already in place and working with conventional fuels. Although
some of the weaknesses and threats to solar energy application still
exist, through technology advancement most of the problems would
be addressed in the future.
Keywords—solar energy, SWOT analysis, renewable energy,
fossil fuels.
I. INTRODUCTION
The depletion of conventional fuels and their adverse effect
on the environment are pushing the world to search alternative
fuel sources which are sustainable and environmentally
friendly [1-3]. Technology advancement has boosted the effort
in finding an alternative source of energy to conventional
source of energy, and the efficiency of harvesting energy from
renewable sources is also being improved from time to time.
Solar energy is one of the best options as it is a clean
renewable energy source, and found abundantly in most places.
In 90 minutes, the earth receives an amount of energy that is
sufficient to meet the energy demand of the planet for one year
from the sun. Although the solar energy is abundant to this
extent, the energy taped from this source is a tiny fraction of
the world’s current energy mix. However, this is changing
rapidly and is being driven by global action to improve energy
access and supply security, and to mitigate climate change [4].
Countries and companies all over the world are currently
investing huge amount of money on solar energy. As a
consequence, the technologies are advancing and cost of
operating the solar energy is reducing from time to time.
978-1-5386-8046-9/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
Girma T. Chala
Department of Mechanical Engineering
International College of Engineering and Management
C.P.O Seeb 111, Muscat, Oman
girma_tade@yahoo.com
Hence, analyzing the strength and weakness, and showing the
available opportunities and obstacles is essential to create
awareness for policy makers, governments, companies, and
redirect the focus of energy investment into solar energy [2, 4].
During strategic planning SWOT analysis is used to
analyze and evaluate the internal and external factors that favor
or hinder the success of strategic objectives of business,
company, project, etc. The analysis identifies the internal
attributes of a company that gives an advantage over others
(Strengths) or deficiencies (Weaknesses) which disadvantage
the company to others; and external attributes of a company
that could be exploited as advantage (Opportunities) or that
could cause trouble (Threats) in reaching the objective. In
SWOT analysis only precise and verifiable factors are
considered for evaluation. Internal and external factors which
are relevant for evaluation are prioritized based on their
significance to the strategic objectives and used for decision
making [5].
II. SWOT ANALYSIS
A. Strength
1) Limitless: Solar energy originates from the sun, and it is
one of the main source of unlimited free energy available on
Earth. Theoretically solar energy has the capacity to fulfill the
energy demand of the world. Annually the amount of solar
energy reaching the earth is approximated to be four million
exajoules (1EJ = 1018J), of which 5 × 104 EJ is claimed to be
easily harvestable. Despite this huge potential and increase in
awareness, the contribution of solar energy to the global energy
supply is still insignificant [6]. Theoretically the amount of
solar energy that touches the earth is 4200 times the energy that
human population would consume in the year 2035. In few
hours the earth can get the amount of solar energy that covers
the annual energy consumption [7]. Hence, developing an
efficient and effective capacity of collecting solar energy could
potentially solve the energy demand of the world without
requiring additional sources of energies. The amount of solar
energy that can be collected depends on the location. For
example, India receives 4 to 7 KW/hr of solar radiation per
square meter per day for more than 250 days per year [8].
Figure 1 shows the annual solar irradiance on the Earth surface.

Fig. 1. Annual average solar irradiance distribution over the
surface of the Earth [6].
2) Environmental Friendly: The energy from the sun is
collected and stored to generate electricity. This method is
considered as a renewable alternative to non-renewable
technologies. Thus, the usage of solar energy greatly reduces
the negative impact of carbon emissions. In California USA, an
average of 696,544 metric tons of carbon emission was
reduced through the installation of solar system onto 113,533
households [6]. In addition, solar energy does not release other
harmful gases that could harm the environment. The solar
panels used on household can be recycled. It can then be
concluded that solar energy is a non-polluting, reliable and
clean source of energy [7].
3) Ease of usage/harvest: Solar energy is collected
mostly using solar panels that generate electricity by using
photovoltaic technology. Installation of solar energy system
can be done anywhere. For instance, solar panels are now
easily placed on the rooftops of houses and commercial
buildings [8]. However, one could say that it would be
impossible to install solar system on their homes especially if
they are not the sole owner or due to lack of space or shade
requirement by others. In countries like America with the
introduction of shared solar energy there is no more problem
with space unavailability. Homeowners can obtain electricity
from the community solar garden without having solar panels
on rooftop.
4) Less overall cost: At first the investment of solar
system seems expensive. Once solar system is installed the
running cost is very low. Hence, in the long-run the cost
benefit of using solar energy would be better than other sources
of energy [6]. Solar panels have low maintenance cost and can
serve for 10 to 15 years with minor service. In addition, solar
power benefits us in various ways such as tax incentives and
added property values. Particularly when solar energy is used
for specific purpose such as in draying of different products,
the benefit obtained will be significant. In certain countries like
USA, Germany, Denmark, UK and France drying of food
products consumes 7-15% of industrial energy which can be
done simply by solar energy [9]. Thus, for such processes solar
energy is being used as an alternative source to reduce the high
cost associated with drying.
5) Versatile: Solar power is utilized either directly or
indirectly in numerous applications that are not limited to
industry purposes but also applicable on day to day usage such
as, drying of agricultural and industrial products, solar
powered refrigerator, water heating, solar cooking, etc. Using
solar radiation for drying or removal of excess moisture from
a product is a widely used method to meet the specification
required for industrial processes. For instance, in the
gasification process of biomass the moisture content of the
feedstock should not exceed 20%, and this can be achieved by
removing the moisture using solar driers [10-12]. Solar energy
is also widely used in cooking particularly in areas when the
solar radiation intensity is high and no electricity [9]. In solar
cooking, radiation from the sun is concentrated at one point
with the help of reflectors. Various type of solar cookers have
already been invented such as box cooker, parabolic cooker,
panel cooker and so on.
B. Weakness
1) Solar Power is Available Only in Day Time: As solar
radiation is available only in day time, photovoltaic panels and
other collectors are able to convert solar energy into other
forms of energy only when there is sunlight. For this reason
solar power needs to have energy storage system to get
uninterrupted power supply. The solar system is also installed
with other power supplement to replace when the available
solar radiation is not enough or the energy storage is not
enough to supply for the rest of the day when solar radiation is
not available. The backup system is also an additional cost
that makes solar system more expensive [13].
2) Solar Panels are inefficient: The conversion efficiency
of solar panels are very low compared to other energy
conversion system. The achievable conversation efficiency of
the solar energy into usable energy by solar panels are not
exceeding 20% in general. Because of the inefficiency of the
panels, a large space is required to collect solar energy which
is just enough for an average household [13].
3) The Space Required for PV: Many photovoltaic cells
are needed to absorb enough energy for larger applications.
The efficiency of photovoltaic panel drops dramatically due to
overheating of the panel and as a result large quantities of
solar panel is required [14]. Since the space required for the
solar collectors are large, identifying a space where it is not
used for other purposes is frequently a challenging task.
4) High Initial Cost: Although installation of solar system
brings immense benefits, the initial investment cost is
expensive. Quantifying the total cost is also difficult without
the assistance of the manufacturing company. However, as
most of the governments are concerned with the global
warming that is caused by burning of fossil fuels, a subsidy
and tax exemptions are provided for users of solar energy
which helps to reduce the burden of overall installation cost of
solar energy [15].
C. Opportunities
1) Create New Business Oportunities: Every new
innovation opens business opportunities. Currently, Tesla and
Panasonic are orchestrating a huge solar panel manufacturing
plant in Buffalo, New York. The powerwall produced by
Tesla has increased dramatically in the recent years [16]. The
demand of solar panels by real states are growing in recent
years. Landowners have got opportunities to rent their unused
land for new solar farms and get income. In countries like US,
Germany, Italy, China, India, Japan and the UK, the market
for solar products are growing very fast. Worldwide the
demand for utilization of solar energy increases by more than
9% every year [17].
2) Increase Concerns in Using Fossil Fuels and
Nuclear Energy: In many countries communities are
protesting against installation of coal power plants and nuclear
stations in their village. For example, in town of Kudankulam
in Tamil Nadu, India, the local fisherman were protesting
against the nuclear power station which was started to be built
in 2002 [8]. This condition would push governments and
companies to focus on renewable energy source such as solar
energy instead of other conventional fuels.
3) Availablity of Subsidy and Support: In most countries
governmental and non-governmental organizations have
subsidy and income tax exemptions schemes. The government
of Malaysia has offered incentives for individuals and
companies which use solar PV as energy sources instead of the
conventional fuels. Since December 2011, the Government of
Malaysia has implimented a Feed In Tariff scheme aiming to
increase an investment in renewable energy sources.
The Malaysian Feed In Tariff system permits production of
electrical energy from renewable source and sell the energy by
connecting to the utility grid at a premium rate [18]. The
Malaysian government has also a tax exmption on a local
manufactured solar PVs.
The government of India has provided 30% capital subsidy for
all solar power project under Jawaharlal Nehru Mission
Scheme [8].
4) Cost Reduction: Solar energy technologies are
developing quickly and the computation in the market on the
technologies are increasing. The competition in the technology
leads to an improved efficiency and cost reduction. Over the
past few decades the cost of silicon photovoltaic cells has
dropped dramatically as shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Cost of silicon photovoltaic cell over the last few
decades [19].
The cost of silicon PV cells has dropped from $76.67 in 1977
to $o.36 in 2014 [19]. The costs of different solar technologies
are expected to drop further as researches in the area are
intensively continuing [6].
D. Threats
Although solar energy has been called as one of the clean
energy sources, it still provides some sort of risk to the
environment when being used in public. Some of the threat are
discussed below.
1) Health risks: A new investigation by Environmental
Progress (EP) reported that lethal waste from the used solar
panels presents a worldwide environmental danger. The
disposal of solar panels, which contain unsafe components
such as lead, chromium, and cadmium are running over the
world, but effort to minimize the adverse effect is very
minimal [20].
According to EP research, developing nations like India and
China frequently burn the e-waste to reclaim the copper wires
which is profitable for resale. Since this procedure requires
burning off plastic, the resulting smoke contains poisonous
vapor that may cause cancer and teratogenic (birth deformity)
when it’s being inhaled. It is approximated that per quadrillion
joules of energy produced, 11 and 21 deaths have been
identified in conjunction with the solar energy health threats
[21].
2) High carbon footprint: A carbon footprint is
characterized as the total amount of greenhouse gases
produced to either directly or indirectly in the process of
realization of a product. It is usually specified in equal tons of
carbon dioxide (CO2). The fact is that even solar power plants
have an environmental footprint on a lifecycle basis. For
example, the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) has an
impression of 20 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilowatt-
 hour (kWh) of power delivered. In addition, CSP consumes
tremendous amount of water. On life cycle basis photovoltaic
(PV) power plants have also carbon footprints which may
reach 12g per kWh [22]. The main components of solar PV
panels are made from crystalline silicon. Manufacturing these
components is an energy-intensive process that represents a
high percentage of the total energy used to make solar panels.
The exact carbon footprint of any solar panel relies upon
numerous variables, including the materials source, the
transported distance, and the energy used by the plants [23].
3) Acquaintance with Fossil Fuels: It is crystal clear
that fossil fuels are widely used all over the world since long
time ago [21]. Enormous amount of capital have been invested
on power generation plants across countries that are using fossil
fuels as a source of energy. These well-established existing
technologies present a formidable barrier to shift the source of
fuel from the conventional fuel source to solar source. In The
United States the electric power source is highly dominated by
fossil fuels as shown in Fig. 3. Shifting to solar energy will
impose high cost on companies and governments as most of the
electric power generation plants are designed to use fossil fuels
as a source of fuel [24, 25].
Fig. 3. US electricity sources, 2016. Renewables face stiff
competition from more established, higher-carbon sectors
[24].
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