In the past decades, there has been an important argument regarding energy and its sources. Energy resources are classified into two groups: renewable and non-renewable. Although renewable sources have not yet been exploited to their maximum, their use has been increasing since the 1960’s. The main renewable energy sources are Wind, Geothermal, and Solar energy. Contrary to renewable sources, non-renewable sources lead in the production of electricity and other forms of energy. For non-renewable sources, Fossil fuel and Coal are the main producers of energy in many parts of the world, followed by the Nuclear energy that has increased in its used and production in the past decades. Solar and nuclear energy are possible suitors in the task …show more content…
The safety regulations for the solar industry are mostly concentrated in the materials used for the production of PV cells. The greatest danger during the job itself is an employee falling from the PV cell platform(roof) during installation or maintenance. Regarding the fabrication, some compounds used may be harmful to the people or the environment if not wasted properly. An example is Tin Oxide (Sno2) which is known to be a water and soil contaminant. With respect to the environment, solar panels are considered friendly. These cells do not contaminate or pollute its surrounding, making them desirable when trying to reach a balance between nature and energy production in a specific location.
Despite the fact that solar energy harvesting has been possible for decades, its use did not increase in the way it was expected. One of the main reasons behind the slow growth of solar energy harvesting is the economy surrounding it. The cost of photovoltaic cells has decreased significantly over the years, mainly due to improvements for mass production purposes, yet it has not proven to be affordable. In comparison with hydrocarbon energy, solar energy’s cost is still high. Regardless its high cost, the solar industry produces positive economic impacts. Opposing to the decrement in job vacancies in the coal industry, solar industry increases job positions yearly. In
Solar energy is defined as the transformation of the sun’s rays into useful forms of energy, for instance, electricity and heat. The capacity of solar radiation a place receives depends on a variety of factors such as geographic location, time of day, season, and local weather. According to Knier (n.d.) photo voltaic and concentrating solar power cells are the two forms of sources to produce electricity. Photo voltaic cells generate electricity directly using solar cells and concentrated solar power cells generate electricity using steam. According to The World Bank - for the past three years, India has taken a enormous step in forwarding and in implementing the green growth agenda by producing 2,000 MW of solar power at the world’s cheap tariff. Solar power is likely to reduce India’s usage of imports of diesel and coal. A number of measurements are probably taking to generate 20,000 MW of solar power in future by 2022. The Solar industry is likely to create 200-400 jobs in the industries like research, development and installation, for every 10 MW of solar power generated. Hence, the government of India had taken enormous steps to increase the productivity of the solar energy. This research report will discuss the effectiveness and the limitations of solar power in India
Solar energy and its use isn’t new to the world. It has been used by various societies beginning from 7thCentury B.C, when the sun’s heat was concentrated by glass and mirrors to light fires. Today, we have everything from solar-powered buildings to solar-powered vehicles. By and large solar technology has some environmental, economic, psychological and ethical implications for our society. Actions taken by companies and individuals to increase the use of solar technology will create good local jobs, improve our environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil while doing what’s ethical and moral for our society.
In today’s society, we have an almost immediate demand for an alternative source of energy. This is due to the gradual depletion of our finite sources of fossil fuels as well as due to the damage of the burning of fossil fuels to our environment. All of these alternative sources, such as solar, wind and nuclear power come with their upsides and downsides. The most controversial of which, nuclear power, also manages to have the most potential in the near future due to its lack of a carbon emission output.
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.
The concept of solar energy is not a new one. We have seen it in practice from solar powered calculators, garden lights, watches, and a wide variety of other novelty products. However, the idea of solar energy as a sustainable, renewable form of electricity, is on another level completely. Solar energy is one of the most popular and fastest growing sources of alternative energy not only in the country, but in the world.
Recently, the price of unrenewable energy resource such as oil, coral and natural gas is increasing by time because of rare and more and more usage for individual and industries. Solar panels which use energy from Sun are considered as renewable energy through the form of solar radiation, UV. Solar technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the way they
The primary source of energy in the United States is fossil fuels – for heating, power, and electricity generation – but we have a limited supply [1]. In addition to limited quantity, the burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming as well as pollutants that cause asthma, acid rain, smog, and more [1]. Alternate sources of energy generation have been studied – among them hydro, tidal, wind, biomass, geothermal, and of course solar energy – to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, to have “clean” energy sources, and because they are all unlimited resources [1].
Someday, our energy sources are going to run out. What will we do? What can we do? Our major source of energy now is fossil fuel. If that were to run out, there must be an alternate way to get energy. Because of this problem, there has been a lot of research going on. Through that research, alternate ways to get energy have been developed. They include wind energy, solar energy, nuclear energy, tidal energy and many more. In this paper I will focus on the aspects of solar energy. I will look at the history of solar energy, cover the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy and then finally I will talk about the concept of solar energy (how it works) and ways that solar energy can be used in your everyday life.
Innovation is the core principle behind the consistency in energy today. Throughout history, various intellectuals have revolutionized the world through their creative methods of cultivating energy. In recent years, people have witnessed some of the greatest advancements and have reached unprecedented levels in technology. These technological advancements are only possible using energy sources. An energy source is a system which creates energy in a certain way. The lifestyle of the future is determined by the energy sources practiced today. Each energy source has distinct characteristics making it more valuable than others. Examples of positive characteristics in energy sources are availability and environmental friendliness. Thus, the most viable energy sources for the future are natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable resources. These energy sources possess the best attributes for an improvement in mankind’s lifestyle.
Energy conversion has been essential in every human activity since the prehistoric age. A basic extent of the evolution of society is directly associated with the changes in the fundamental sources of energy and its uses. Through the last 250 years, people have learned how to harvest and deal with energy in different forms to make work easier and live more comfortable. Nevertheless, this human activity is overloading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases emission, which make the temperature higher, trap heat and generates serious and harmful impacts on the environment and on climate. Therefore, the governments all around the world are making an effort to promote and develop renewable energy as the new main energy source.
Renewable energy has the ability to play a major role in the energy industry of the twenty-first century. Shell and other big oil companies are ironically investing in renewable energy sources. Environmental experts realize that renewable energy helps reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. They also predict that by the year 2050, renewable power may grow to supply half the world’s energy. It may seem unreachable, but generating electricity by using the constant power of the sun and wind is already a reality. Solar power relies on the energy produced by the sun, storing energy for nighttime as well. “This energy can be converted in many ways, such as simple water heating or by the direct conversion of sunlight to energy using mirrors or boilers” (Riley).
Solar energy is the most plentiful and purist renewable energy source available. Because it is completely natural, it is considered to be a clean energy source. It does not disrupt the environment or threaten the Eco-systems the way oil and some other energy sources tend to. Nor does it cause greenhouse gases, air or water pollution. Solar energy is an immensely important aspect of life and has been since the beginning of time. Increasingly, we are learning how to harness this important resource and use it to replace traditional energy sources. Modern technology can utilize this energy in a variety of ways, such as; generating electricity, providing light or a comfortable interior environment, and heating water for domestic, industrial, or commercial use. One day solar energy may well become our primary form of energy. This would lead to a clean environment, less money spent on utilities, and a healthier world. It is highly important because it has the potential to allow technology and nature to co-exist peacefully.
As humans continue to generate more carbon emissions and other harmful gases to the atmosphere, climate change and global warming slowly happens. People have sought ways to reduce carbon emissions by switching to other sources that are both renewable and clean. Over the centuries, people were able to harness energy from other resources besides coal and petroleum. Alternative energy resources produce little to no carbon at all thus, reducing carbon emissions. Alternative energy sources include wind energy, solar energy, hydroelectric energy, biomass energy, and nuclear energy. Only twenty-two percent of the world’s electricity is from renewable energy leaving seventy-eight percent to fossil fuels. Although all alternative resources reduce carbon emissions, most of these energies are not affordable, efficient, or portable, making alternative resources not able to fully eliminate all fossil fuel usage. Out of all the renewable resources, it seems nuclear energy rises to the top with the lowest land and location usage,and highest availability and efficiency.compared to other alternative energy sources. Nuclear energy is the best. (Toshi)
Since fossil fuels have become such a concern for our environment, alternative energy has become a source of energy that is an alternative to the problem that these fossil fuels have caused our Earth. Alternative energy are renewable and is considered to be free energy sources (Alternative Energy). All alternative energy sources have lower carbon emissions when being compared to conventional energy sources. These sources include Biomass Energy, Wind, Solar, Geothermal, and Hydroelectric Energy (Alternative Energy). With the use of recycling, the clean alternative energies such as the use of solar power systems will benefit in the survival of these energy resources beyond the 21st century (Alternative Energy). Alternative resources
In August of 2003, the largest blackout in US history happened because of Ohio 's failure to trim trees away from power lines. As a result, more than 50 million people in the Northeast, Midwest, and Canada were out of power for days. While Ohio is going back and forth on it its laws dealing with solar power installation, our friends across the Canadian border have already shut down the last of their coal powered plants. The current US power grid is over 100 years old and due to its heavy use, is getting weaker every day. Blackouts, power imbalances, power interruptions, and changing voltage levels are all too common today, especially in the summer (Weeks). Fossil fuels like coal and oil pollute the world we live in. Ohio is among the many states where laws are being put in place for states requiring it 's energy to be obtained from alternative renewable sources. Solar energy is the best possible source, and Ohio should look to it for its future energy needs.