Questions On The Energy Crisis

     In 1954 Bell Laboratories invented the first photovoltaic (or solar) cell, made from the semi-conductor silicon, and other elements. It was the first way to convert sunlight directly into electricity. When the space program was launched in the 60's, it

At the beginning of the year the President of the United States announced that the United States was in the middle of a nation wide energy crisis. The President gave many solutions including using more solar and wind energy, nuclear power, and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The President told the American people that they would have to watch their energy use and conserve as much as possible. Gas prices reached $2 per gallon in the Midwest for the second straight summer, and California continued to be hit by unprecedented power woes that forced rolling blackouts. The price of crude oil rose sharply, from around $10 a barrel to a peak of $37. The

The greatest energy that can be produced by the sun is electricity. Photovoltaics, or solar cells, capture the sun and convert it into electricity. Solar cells were discovered by the Europeans back in the 1870’s when they used selenium to develop the telegraph. They found that when light hits selenium it would produce and electrical current. Soon enough there were many scientists and engineers working on photovoltaic systems. Silicon and Selenium proved to be the two best elements to conduct electricity when light hits them. Photovoltaic systems (PV cell) work by converting the suns light into electricity. A semi conducting material absorbs the sunlight, that energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, this allows the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity. The further development of solar cells can be attributed to the satellite industry. Solar cells were expensive and there was no use for them until satellites came. Because it is impractical to tether satellites it became important to develop solar energy at any cost that would power these satellites. This created a sustainable market for solar power, the first of its kind.

Energy is a daily consumption that everybody uses in their daily lives. As a nation, we as modern people in the United States rely heavily upon energy sources such as oil, wind, thermal, natural, solar, hydraulic, etc. During the 70s, energy was a booming industry that everybody wanted to be a part of. This industry affected people 's way of living and everyday use of technology such as house appliances, automobiles, industry, and city power grids. During this era, an energy crisis occurred which had a big impact on many people nationally and internationally. This energy crisis was the result of the production peak in the 1970s, the oil crisis of 1973, and the energy crisis of 1979.

The United States is in an energy crisis. We rely almost solely on crude oil for most of our “gasoline” needs, meaning our fuels. The issue with our current reliance on crude oil is, plainly, that it is running out. We don’t currently have enough crude oil production in the US to support our current demand, so we are forced to import oil from overseas. And, we import a lot of it. With a gas demand of roughly 134 billion gallons per year, there exists a large risk relying on a fuel that is unsustainable and imported from overseas. Our country has the capability of greatly reducing our dependence on foreign oil, perhaps to the point where we would not have any need to import oil from overseas. With the use of our own crude oil, natural gas, and other alternative fuels, the United States can become nearly completely self-sustainable in terms of fuels. Moreover, becoming self-sustainable can have an effect of reducing geopolitical tensions particularly with regard to relations in the Middle East, the world’s largest producer and exporter of oil.

“The photovoltaic effect is the basic physical process through which a photovoltaic cell converts sunlight into electricity.”(Seale E, 2003) Sunlight is composed of photons, the photons contain various amounts of energy corresponding to different wavelengths of light. When the light strikes the photovoltaic cell, it will be reflected, absorbed or pass through the two side photovoltaic cell. One side has a positive electric charge while the other side has a negative charge. Light striking crystals such as silicon or germanium, in which electrons are usually not free to move from atom to atom within the crystal,

1954, three American researchers, Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin, designed a silicon solar cell capable of a six percent energy conversion efficiency with direct sunlight

When we flip a light switch, or plug our laptop or cell phone charger into the wall, we expect that electricity will flow to illuminate the room or to power up the device at the other end of the cord. But what if the power companies weren’t able to generate enough electricity to make these actions possible? As the United States’ population increases and continues to undergo economic growth, this demand for energy will only continue to grow. The International Energy Agency (IEA) believes that “the world’s energy needs could be 50% higher in 2030 than they are today” [1]. And while Americans only make up about 5% of the world’s population, we consume more than 20% of the world’s energy supply [2].

Solar energy has been used for a very long time. The first account of the use of solar energy was from the Greeks. They built their homes in a way that the sun would heat up their houses, even during the cold winters. Ancient Indians also used this method. Let's skip to 1839. In 1839, Edmond Becquerel observed that when certain material was exposed to light, it would create a small amount of electric current. This is the photovoltaic effect(A Brief). This led to John Ericsson developing what he said to be a solar powered steam engine in 1870. Now let’s jump to the late 1950s when a one-watt solar cell costed $300 and a commercial power plant watt cost $0.50 per watt. A scientist was able to demonstrate how a car can

The sun is the source of all life on Earth. In just one hour the sunlight hitting the earth’s surface provides enough energy to power the global economy for a full year (Brown, 2015). The sun will continue to burn for billions of years, making it an unquestionably reliable source for renewable energy. Modern-day photovoltaic (PV) solar cells rely on the photoelectric effect, a phenomenon where light is used to free electrons from a solid surface - usually silicon - to create electricity. PV panels are typically installed on homes and buildings, or in ground arrangements, sometimes called solar farms.

Previously, we didn’t have to rely to much on energy, however times change causing a large consumption of energy. Solar panels may seem like a good idea due to its constant release of energy. On the contrary, in Source A, Michael Dhar states,” when a photon of sunlight knocks an electron free, the electric field will push that electron out of the silicon junction. A couple of other components of the cell turn these electrons into usable power” showing that at an optimal state, the sun will produce energy. These result often vary due to the amount of inconstant

Solar cell or photovoltaic (PV) systems usually transformed energy from the sun in to electric current. It can be measured in terms of ‘‘conversion efficiency’’, the proportion of solar energy transformed to electricity. (Henderson, Conkling, & Roberts, 2007) Sunpower primarily focused on the production of solar cell. But by moving in to wafer manufacturing it soon incorporated in to manufacturing of solar power module units. In general Sunpower manufacturing process needed approximately two times as many steps as the usual solar manufacturing process need and many of these steps were distinctive to Sunpower. Sunpower has nearly 15 -20 established cell manufactures, a handful of silicon – based cell manufacturing upstarts and a number of thin film solar companies offering potentially unsettling technologies.

America relies heavily on foreign sources for the energy to run the country. The issue has received much media attention due to the political and economic implications it will have in the near future. This problem could at least be partially solved by using technology that already exists, rather than relying heavily on ones that have yet to come to fruition. America’s energy woes – specifically its reliance on fossil fuels – can be solved by reviving nuclear energy with the use of politics to tackle perceived dangers, technological advancements to make them more feasible, and public outreach to promote acceptance.

Think about solar energy and the first image that springs to the mind is that of those arrays of shiny photovoltaic panels adorning the rooftops and the countryside. Indeed, photovoltaic cells still remain the most popular way of generating solar power. Solar power, for one thing, is not cheap. However, even though the initial set up costs can be quite high, the long-term financial benefits of using solar power are too strong to deny.

Abstract: The current energy situation with fossil fuels as the main source of the world’s energy has two main flaws: fossil fuels contribute to global warming via the greenhouse effect and they are limited in the quantity that remains. Solar power solves both of these problems and can be captured by utilizing photovoltaic cells. However, photovoltaic cells have their own drawbacks due to their high costs of installation and maintenance.