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Solar Energy Pros and Cons

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Energy is defined in physics as the capacity to make things move; it is widely used in today people’s residences, a variety of industries and technology fields. Most of the energy we use now comes from fossil fuels coal, oil and natural gas, which are being consumed more rapidly than they are being replaced. That means eventually we will use up these fuels. That is why we as a society need to broaden our research to develop new forms of energy resources are for this happens. There are kinds of energy that can be replenished in short periods of time called renewable energy, these come from sources that are frequently being recycled and are consistently less polluting than energy that is produced from fossil fuels. There are five main …show more content…

This is just example of oil but natural gas is another fossil fuel that is and has polluted the environment by seeping in to residence drinking water because of the exploratory extraction techniques companies’ use. Waste products from refineries not only affect the climate but the rest of the environment by seeping in to the land and ground water. These are some examples of how fossil fuels have a negative impact on our environment and how solar is viable renewable resources to counteract that but there are some negatives to solar energy cost is one. The major problem with solar energy is that it is very costly to buy the equipment although the price has plummeted since 1970 (Corcoran, 2003). At that time solar energy cells cost about $200 per watt, today, it is about $5.00 per watt (Corcoran, 2003). There are a number of innovations intended to change this disadvantage. For instance, SunPower of Sunnyvale in California has devised a way to make the solar energy cells cheaper (Business Wire. 2004). The new cells have a 20 percent efficiency which means they will generate about 33 percent more energy (Hogan, 2003). Part of the savings is in a new way to extract silicon. The company SunPower estimates that average American families need 2000 to 3000 watts and the new solar cells can be met by using about 15 square meters of solar panels (Hogan, 2003). This is far less space than the regular

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