Kayla Shepard
Solar energy is quickly becoming one of the best things civilians can do for our earth. It is the cleanest and most efficient way to naturally gain power. Made up of photovoltaic cells, which are semiconductor materials like those in computer chips. When sunlight touches the cells it sends electrons loose and flying from the atoms, which in fact creates electricity. Solar power plants are the same idea but on a larger scale.
President Obama has recently stated that he will be doubling down efforts to enhance the solar industry. Though the recent failure of Bush’s Solyndra act, which resulted in half a billion of taxpayer’s money, Obama has decided to push on. Stated in a Fox News article Obama was said to be angry with the non-believers,
“In a nod to Solyndra, Obama said, ‘some companies will fail, some companies will succeed.’ But he also lashed out at Republicans who make jokes about the promise of solar and wind power as people who have a ‘lack of imagination’ as the nation debates how to deal with rising gasoline prices.” (Foxnews.com)
Like many new ideas people are hard to imagine a positive outcome, also with new ideas it is hard to get something great started from something so little. There are very few workers at solar plants at the moment that making development is hard to jumpstart. Though there seems to be hope, SEIA is making sure that this development is not a failure and will in fact succeed. In the past year, even with economic struggles there has been a strong growth in U.S solar energy jobs, around 13 percent.
Recently there has been a joint effort in the usage of solar powering, Solar Energy Industries Association® (SEIA®) and the U.S. Solar Heating and Cooling Council (SHC Council) launched the U.S. Solar Heating & Cooling Alliance (SHC Alliance). This alliance is focusing on growing solar heating and cooling naturally by taking down hurdles together.
“Solar heating and cooling is an expanding, significant sector of our industry — which is providing affordable, accessible and reliable clean energy technology for our nation while helping us achieve energy independence and security” (altenergmag.com).
Alongside the pros of clean and mostly noiseless production of energy there are a few cons that seem to be dwelled on, National Geographic touches on these arguments,
“But solar energy doesn’t work at night without a storage device such as a battery, and cloudy weather can make the technology unreliable during the day. Solar technologies are also very expensive and require a lot of land area to collect the sun’s energy at rates useful to lots of people” (Nationalgeographic.com).
These are all temporary problems scientists are searching to fix, but the key to a successful change is to keep a positive mind. National Geographic later explains that fortunately prices are falling and in about five to ten years solar power will most likely be able to pay for itself, proving to be a far better future ahead of us.
“President Obama Doubles Down on Efforts to Boost Solar Industry.” Fox News[Boulder City] 22 Mar. 2012: n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/21/president-obama-doubles-down-on-efforts-to-boost-solar-industry/>.
“Solar Energy.” National Geographic n.d.: n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/solar-power-profile/>.
“Solar Energy Industries Association and U.S. Solar Heating and Cooling Council Announce Launch of the U.S. Solar Heating and Cooling Alliance.” The Alternative Energy EMagazine 19 Feb. 2013: n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.altenergymag.com/news/2013/02/19/solar-energy-industries-association-and-us-solar-heating-and-cooling-council-announce-launch-of-the-us-solar-heating-and-cooling-alliance/28284>.
