She writes, "Utility companies are offering 'buy-down programs,' which grant rebates to customers who purchase solar equipment in order to help them bear the initial costs of the system" (Woloski). If more utility companies and governments would offer these programs, more people could afford solar energy and that would help break our dependence on fossil fuels by reducing the need for coal-fired electrical plants that pollute and depend on non-renewable energy.
There is another major problem with the development of large solar developments capable of producing electricity for thousands of homes. Currently, they take up a massive amount of space. Another writer notes, "But the biggest objection -- the massive quantities of land needed for large-scale solar development -- remains. Solar energy output large enough to displace our current consumption of fossil fuel might easily require 53,000 square miles of land in the desert Southwest" (Stein). There are large-scale developments in the Mohave Desert in California and in Southern Nevada, and they are huge, with thousands of solar collectors spread out over great distances. These developments are feasible in other sun-prone areas of the country, but they need to be scaled down to be feasible and effective.
The solution to this problem is to create new technology that uses the sun's rays to produce electricity and heat water. The size of the solar panels or PV panels needs to be reduced and new technologies need to be developed that can make these solar collectors smaller, yet more efficient, reducing...
That is up to
engineering and architectural professionals of the future, but it is a solution that needs to be addressed, as most experts believe the world could run out of
oil by as soon as 2050, or even sooner, according to some estimates (Woloski).
In
conclusion, solar energy is one of the problems facing the world today because non-renewable fossil fuels are running out, using them pollutes the planet, and
global warming is already taking effect in some areas, and most people understand that global warming comes from burning non-renewable fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gasoline. Solar energy is extremely effective in many situations, but it is expensive, it takes up a lot of space, and it is inefficient on cloudy days. Therefore, new systems need to be developed that are more efficient, take up less space, and are affordable even for the average homeowner. If these problems can be addressed and solved, solar energy could be a much more viable alternative for industry, homeowners, utility companies, and governments, and that could reduce the world's continuing dependence on fossil fuels.
References
Editors. "Solar Energy Basics." National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 2009. 27 Feb. 2009. http://www.nrel.gov/learning/re_solar.html
Resch, Rhone, and Noah Kaye. "The Promise of Solar Energy: A Low-Carbon Energy Strategy for the
21st Century." UN Chronicle June 2007: 63+.
Stein, Steve. "Energy Independence Isn't Very Green." Policy Review (2008): 3+.
Woloski, Andrea. "Fuel of the Future: A Global Push toward New Energy." Harvard International Review 27.4 (2006): 40+.
