Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Fossil fuels and alternate sources of energy
Benefits of solar energy essay
Alternative to fossil fuels energy sources essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Fossil fuels and alternate sources of energy
Despite generating electricity with fossil fuels for years and years there is a much better way that does not harm the environment. Using Solar panels does not produce any carbon dioxide unlike fossil fuels that “produces huge volumes of carbon dioxide, which is a gas that influences the global climate” (“Solar Power Vs. Fossil Fuels”). Having the choice to get power in a new way that saves the environment, home owners should not have to think twice about trying solar. In fact if home owners collect some amount of watts per hour on Monday, that will not reduce the amount of solar energy a home owner can collect on Wednesday or any other day that week. They can always keep collecting the power. No matter what people may argue about how much coal, natural gas and petroleum remains buried in the Earth, those fossil fuels will run out far earlier than the life of the sun ("Solar Power Vs. Fossil Fuels"). Home owners should invest in solar energy because solar systems have very dependable technology with little maintenance, they offer financial savings and they are better for the environment.
Solar systems, also known as solar panels, are built to be very efficient and require very little maintenance. Technology has helped to improve the look and construction of the solar panels. The solar systems that are built and installed today have to meet very strict guidelines. “Stringent quality control in the Modern Solar supply chain ensures the quality of solar product installed on your roof is reliable, durable, and of the highest quality standards.” (“Solar Energy Benefits”). These panels are built using “monocrystalline cells that are held together with solder. They are surrounded by a hard, glass cover, polymer EVA sheet and a sp...
... middle of paper ...
...reat way to us this un usable space. Putting the solar panels on roof also gives it the best angle where the sun will hit to get the most sun light. Unlike any other piece of equipment that produces energy Solar panels are silent. They convert sun light into electricity without making a sound (“What Is Solar Energy”).
Everyone is looking for a better way to have power. Solar power has very dependable technology, with little to no maintenance. It can bring finical savings by making more power a home owner may need and you can resell back the power company. Lastly help the environment by having no waste so less pollution and takes up unused space by putting them on to the roofs of the houses. In the end Home owners should try looking pass the initial price of Solar panels and see that this is a great way to produce energy that does not produce any carbon foot print.
The Solyndra Company, founded in 2005 by Christian Gronet, designed, manufactured, and sold a unique type of solar panels. They were termed “solar photovoltaic (PV) systems” and were designed for large, flat to low sloped commercial building roofs. The panels were designed to have the best performance when mounted horizontally and to be installed very close together so that they covered a much higher percentage of the roof top thus producing more electricity than the typical flat panel solar panels by comparison. This was created through the production by absorbing light from all directions including indirect and reflected light as well as direct sunlight when combined with a white roof. This was due to the design of having rolled its copper indium gallium selenite or CIGS into a cylindrical shape. Each tube had 40 of them in each 1-meter-by-2-meter panel (Solyndra, 2008).
The Effect of Intensity on the Power of Solar Cells This experiment involves changing the intensity of light falling on different cells and measuring their power outputs. Higher intensity of light means that there are more photons hitting the surface of the cell per unit area per second. The more hit the cell, the more rapidly the electrons move across the p-n junction, so the larger the emf produced. If the rate of movement of electrons is inhibited, then the greater the rate of supply of photons (intensity), the more will not successfully excite an electron, so the lower the efficiency of the cell.
How Efficient is Solar Energy Technology? Engineering Challenges. n. d. a. d. a. d. d. 8 April 2014. http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9082.aspx>. How do Nuclear Plants Work?”
Solar power for instance is one of the most popular and easiest of all of the renewable energy sources to harness, especially for home and business uses. (Galbraith) For around the same ...
This is necessary because I am not an expert on photovoltaics, so a source is needed to validate the information I give on them. The source contains a detailed explanation of how and why photovoltaics work. The website’s notable features are its numerous graphics showing how the systems work. For example, there is an image showing the first solar battery prototype, and a diagram showing how solar panels are made. There is no explicit author, however because NASA is renowned for its knowledge of astronomy and science, I believe this to be a credible source.
Two people who believe this are reporters at the Breit Bart News Network. Julian Morris and Victor Nava believe that, “‘Green’ energy subsidies benefit the politically connected while harming future generations as hundreds of millions of dollars are added to the country’s debt burden with each green failure.” In a way Morris and Nava are correct. According to Mathias Aarre Maehlum, “Residential solar systems are typically sized from 3 to 8kW and end up costing between $15,000 and $40,000.” This can add up to become very expensive when implementing solar energy throughout the country. However, with the advancements in technology growing every year the cost will decrease over time. The cost of implementation can in fact go down as well through the use of community solar gardens. This helps the homes that are shaded and cannot absorbs the Sun’s energy. The energy from the community solar gardens are shared through out those homes. Switching to solar energy can also save money over time. Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association confirms this. Resch says, “Today, the solar industry employs nearly 175,000 Americans and pumps more than $15 billion a year into the U.S. economy – and we’re just scratching the surface of our enormous potential” (qtd. in
Solar Energy Life is sustained by the energy from the sun. Without the sun all plants and animals would die. The sun provides 99.98% of the energy, which naturally flows through the surface environment of the earth. Put another way, the sun supplies 5000 times more energy than all other sources combined. This emphasizes the importance of solar energy to us.
Our country is currently suffering energy-wise, we have been powering with inefficient sources for years now and the harm that it is doing to the country has started to become apparent. Renewable energy is the only way to stop, or at the very least set back the inevitable downfall of our ecosystem. I think that the next big breakthrough for renewable energy is implementing off-grid communities that use renewable sources as their main sources of power, so that we can potentially escape the energy rut that we got ourselves stuck in.
For the past few weeks, my classmates and I have been collecting data on the amount energy in kilowatts produced by solar panels on a given day. We have been guessing how many kilowatts of energy would be generated based on the forecast for each day, and then we were left with our estimates and the actual production of that day. In order to make this activity useful, we then took both numbers and found our percent error both weekly and daily. My best percent error days throughout the whole time were 1.09 and 0.44%. Now, needless to say, there were some bad days too. It was only easy to get a good percent error when the weather did what is was supposed to do, when we had an accurate scale to follow, and when there wasn’t
Solar thermal energy is dead! A solar thermal heating system can cost upwards of $7,000 to install and it most likely won't even save you too much money. This is why many people debate over whether they should use a solar thermal water heating system, because they think they are saving money, or an inexpensive traditional water heating system. A traditional heating system is a system that is powered off of electricity, gas, oil or some other fuel. A solar thermal heating system uses the energy from the sun, hence “solar”, and it turns that energy into hot water to either heat a home or to provide domestic hot water. The energy from the sun is captured by energy collectors, also known as solar panels. The water is heated inside the panels and then distributed throughout the home for use or stored in a tank for later use. The ideas behind this sound great, but in reality that is not the case.Solar thermal energy is not the best choice for home heating a home or hot water heating.
I have already written about the obvious benefits of going solar. There are other benefits as well that decrease the impact on our earth over time. Solar panels and battery banks have a life of 25-35 years and don't need anything more than general cleaning, snow removal and monthly water filling. Solar energy is the cleanest and purest form of energy, allowing for cleaner air overall in our environment. There is great hope for a lot more solar panels to be installed worldwide.
I am certain that all have heard of the terms green house gases, fossil fuels, and global warming. Have you ever questioned what will happen if nothing is done about the environmental problems facing the world today? What if I answer you that, we can merely use the power from the sun to power up our entire planet without the use of harmful energy sources, which affect our atmosphere? The power from the sun is what we call solar power. Solar power is the energy that comes from the sun as light and heat energy, and then it is later converted into electrical energy through solar panels (Nelson, 2008). This kind of power is completely free, right? Why should we put a lot of expense on other sources of energy, when there is a complete free and healthy power? It is evident that solar energy is a healthy source of energy, which will help stop global warming all together, but it is economically efficient to switch everything to solar energy. Solar energy is capable of becoming the world's future power supply because, it is renewable, eco-friendly, and extremely efficient when strategically placed.
The Earth captures around 342 W/m2 of energy from the sun. This energy is in the form of solar radiation, which the atmosphere reflects about 77 W/m2 and will absorb around 68 W/m2 of solar radiation annually. Therefore, the Earth’s surface is receiving, on average, about 197 W/m2 of solar radiation annually. This amount of energy received is roughly more than 10,000 times the amount of all energy humans consume per year. This energy can be used to produce electricity or heat. This energy source is not being used to it’s potential considering how much effort would come into effect to store and transport this energy.
Regarding to solar power, Mistry claims that although the solar power does not generate pollution, it has a lot of costs. To built solar panels with a photovoltaic equipment has high costs. For instance, a photovoltaic system just for a home can cost around $35,000 (Kumar, 2012). However, if our goal for the future is to get a healthy environment, switch fossil fuels for solar power might be the best choice to achieve that goal. According to Kumar (2012), Solar power is a clean and renewable energy so, it decreases the dependency on fossil fuel and also reduces the air pollution. When the sun heats the panel, it generates clean energy which does not pollute the environment. All in all, the costs of solar power might not be applicable when it is certainly the best way for having a clean
Using fossil fuels such as coal and oil is inefficient, dangerous, and otherwise a process that is known to eventually fail as a long lasting energy source. Yet, there is hope for the future of energy, this new hope has many shapes and forms, but requires a chance to be fully implemented in our everyday life. Such energy sources like solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, and hydro power are the key to our future. These energy sources are proven to be long lasting, safe, more reliable, and the next innovation. In short, all Americans should switch to renewable energy, resulting in a safer and more efficient world.