How Solar Energy Will Make A Better Future
Cleaner, brighter air outside...and inside...an affordable gift that could be coming soon to your neighborhood.
Competition is driving prices for solar energy components down rapidly in reaction to the global move for creating a "greener" planet. In fact, right now there are two active solar power technologies that are moving mainstream...photovoltaic (converting sunlight directly into electricity), and concentrated solar thermal (mirrors and lenses are focusing sunlight into concentrated beams, converted into steam, to create electricity). And an old technology, new and improved now, is passive solar energy. Available now and rapidly growing, building material and design elements take advantage of the sun's rays to create solar energy.
Having access to affordable, available solar energy components will let us arrive sooner at our clean, pollution free world...a world that might otherwise not be available at all.
Taking advantage of the sun's energy is currently being supplemented by support from federal governments worldwide. Either through direct government building or providing incentives to encourage businesses and individuals to take greater advantage of solar energy techniques that are available today, governments everywhere are beginning not only to see the advantages of using solar, but seizing it.
Solar energy in remote locations...space satellites, roadside emergency phones, isolated buildings, solar powered road signs...are all indications that solar energy is quickly moving forward in these arenas.
Take a look at the number of solar powered automobiles on the road today. They are definitely moving into the forefront of energy-efficient transportation as gas and oil prices continue to escalate rapidly. As the demand for solar, or hybrid vehicles increases, automobile makers are producing more. Demand creates mass production and more competition, resulting in price reductions.
Huge investments are being made by China to create solar energy plants. Their vast, deserted deserts are the perfect location for construction. China will become a leading global harvester of solar energy, according to their national energy bureau, as they have a huge population to consume the energy they produce.
Japan, long a leader in solar energy production, is still a large contributor to global solar wattage produced. Domestic production, however, has predominantly gone to domestic demand. Taiwan, Germany and Spain have also been large producers, although Germany and Spain are falling behind with high labor costs keeping production costs for solar energy components high. This has reduced their competitiveness with China and Taiwan, whose labor costs remain low. North America, with high labor costs, has not really been competitive in the world market until recently with new technology and production methods reducing the costs and increasing interest.
The good news from all of this is that the crossover point at which solar comes to parity with other energy options ...without government subsidies... is getting closer. With greater demand and world production creating competition, solar energy is becoming a rapidly viable energy option worldwide.
The solar energy version of the world is definitely a brighter picture. Driving through New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, Cairo, and other densely populated areas now converted to solar power...in our solar powered vehicles of course...will seem the difference between night and day.
Solar energy will spread in many ways, including the sparkles on rooftops that you see in the new materials being used for solar roofing. Similarly, buildings exterior walls will not only be outside walls, they'll also be solar collectors. Farmers, whose soil has been overused and is sitting dormant, may decide to produce a new crop...solar cell PV panels, or thermal troughs. Desolate, unused desert space and barren windblown prairies will become sun-capturing power plants.
The methods of collection are varying significantly, all adding benefit and additional initiative to put the sun to work creating solar power energy systems that will create a better world. Picture yourself driving through a city without smog...with no brown haze filtering the sunlight and allowing you to breathe clean air. Picture all of us becoming a stronger, healthier population without creating more pollution and global warming...without burning fossil fuels.
Some of you are in the camp that firmly believes disastrous climate changes are being precipitated by the greenhouse gases created by the burning of fossil fuels. There is no doubt you already believe that the use of solar energy, along with the other renewable energy sources, may help us keep the planet we know today from destruction.
There are those of you who are in the other camp...who want to...or choose to...believe fossil fuel greenhouse gases are not the culprit, or that the climate changes are just a natural, and reversible cycle. There is one fact, however, that cannot be escaped...fossil fuels are not renewable. They are disappearing. How fast is debatable. There is no debate, however, that even if fossil fuels don't disappear in your lifetime, the next generations will feel the effects of their disappearance. Nor is there debate that prices are going up...and will continue to do so. A scarce resource is an expensive resource.
"We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using nature's inexhaustible sources of energy - sun, wind and tide. I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left." Thomas Alva Edison
Don't you think it's time that we reached the same conclusion and let the light bulb go on in our heads? Should we, like Thomas Edison, recognize and immediately acknowledge how much better our future will be with solar energy?
by: Timothy Peters.
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