A Transition To Solar Resource Utilization Is Environmentally Necessary

By Solar Systems USA


The sun is the center of the solar system and the hinge upon which the entire biosphere is dependent on. It's on-going fusion reaction, while still being replicated on earth, is the power which makes all life possible. Thus, one can view the sun as the ultimate power plant for us orbiting it, providing heat, light, radiation, and sometimes an electromagnetic shock. Thus, one can make better use of this resource by a simple transition; a transition to solar energy is environmentally responsible for society.

Everything we take for granted is more or less a product of the sun. Even the things we eat, or the things they eat, come directly or indirectly from sunlight. Making more efficient use of sunlight is ensuring that we have energy for future generations and for more utilization to come.

Fossil fuels are one of the main sources of power today. Whether it's coal, oil, or natural gas, you utilize here the remains of formerly living organisms, particularly plants and algae. These plants store their energy because they utilize the sun's energy through photosynthesis.

Thus, one may view these fossil fuels as a form of fossilized sunlight, concentrated there through millions of years worth of compacting into a rock. This therefore makes an absurdity when viewed this way: why spend the effort digging up these preserved specimens when you can get fresh sunlight everyday?

It may be true that fossil fuels concentrate power more effectively, but current solar technology has already achieved parity with fossil fuels in terms of cost. The biggest blow to this argument, however, comes from the fact that you can concentrate sunlight through the use of mirrors to focus them to one receiver. This allows you to utilize the solar radiation more effectively and can store a residual amount of radiation too.

New solar cells are as thin and lightweight as paper. This allows them to fit any space, whether big or small, contorted or not. This allows you to lessen the cost of installation for this kind of panels as opposed to more traditional arrays which are heavier and require bigger investment. This also opens up the possibility for you to be able to place them in mobile platforms, like cars and planes, or more weird places like on the electric poles and wires themselves. One could also dispense with sun tracking here, since the cells will ensure that one part is always lit by the sun.

The main drawback of solar power is the fact that it is only available for a certain amount of time. It is a simple dilemma which makes the night look like an adversary. This is also in addition to the fact that it is at night when most consumption of electricity occurs, like in the added demand for lighting for both personal and civic use. Thus, storing the extra electricity is necessary. Fortunately, grid-level storage is now available, allowing you to power up using an over sized battery which will then power up the entire city or province. The biggest such application is in Fairbanks, Alaska, where the batteries could currently power the city up at full capacity for 7 minutes. A more promising application is in using electric cars as grid storage when not in use as a vehicle.

A transition to solar energy is environmentally responsible since it conserves our natural resources by using one which is not at all scarce. While it can be argued that solar power is finite, since the sun will blow up, it will inevitably take more time for us to be able to live (at around 10 billion years more, it's not too much of an issue), the sun is still the best source for heat, radiation and power to help us do our daily tasks.




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