Doyle.Flaherty

=The Problem at Hand:= The world is facing a major problem with the atmosphere. The human population has been and still is emitting to much CO2 into the atmosphere. As a result of our ignorance we started a global climate change. The main reason we haven't fixed the problem yet is because we are to dependent on fossil fuels. We use fossil fuels for every thing from heating our houses to mowing your lawn. Some people have made changes to try and decrease the amount of gases they emit into the air by driving hybrid cars or taking the bus. But most of us continue to go about our day without any concern about how much we are hurting the atmosphere.

Solar power is a great way to start getting away from the use of fossil fuels. Solar power converts sunlight into electricity by the use of photovoltaics or by a concentrated solar power system. A concentrated solar power system uses mirrors or lenses to boil water. The mirror and lenses are used to direct the energy from the sun to a small area. The electrical power from the energy of the sun is then used to fuela heat engine which is usually a steam turbine. Photovoltaics directly convert the radiation from the sun into a direct current of electricity. The way this process works is because the cells on the solar panel are made of photovoltaic material. Photovoltaic material is what converts the radiation into electricity. The best aspect of solar power hands down is that it does not emit any CO2 into the atmosphere. Solar power is also helpful because it can help cut your electricity costs. People do say it is expensive and not worth the cost. But I feel like the only reason it is so expensive is because we aren't really mass producing it. If we put more effort it to finding a more economical way in creating these solar systems we could put a system in every house. Even though this could be an expensive process upfront think of the y you will save in the long run. You will be able to cut down on your heating and electrical bills. Critics also say that it isn't a good system because when it is cloudy out you can't generate as much energy and during the winter the days areshorter so there is less light. This is true, butat least it helps. Were never going to find a perfect system that is going to fit everyone's situation but it can help most of the world. If you look at the picture below you can see where solar power will help out the most.This picture is from []. In todays world solar energy only makes up about 0.5% of the worlds supply of energy. Though solar energy is becoming more popular now a days the practicality of it replacing oil or coal does not hold. If we were to become completely dependent on solar power we would run out of our resources in under a half century. This is because the demand varys. For example on a hot day in the summer the demand would be much higher due to everyone blasting their air conditioners and watching T.V. Solar energy cannot keep up with the fluctuating power needs that society today demands. But solar energy is on the up rise. New technologies are coming out and new solar farms are being built. Solar energy will always be acessable so there are infinate oppertunities for the expansion of solar power. A lot of new buildings and houses are being built with solar technologies installed. This shows that solar power is developing in todays society because twenty years ago solar power on houses and buildings was basically unheard of.



Solar power is used in numerous different fields. Contracting and the contruction of buildings have been recently incorperating new solar technologies into homes and buildings. Doing this makes the home a lot more affordable. It is more affordable because the solar panels decrease the electric bill and the owner also gets tax incentives for having these panels. Another market that solar is blossoming in is automotive. In the picture above yoou can see that solar panels are placed on the roof. The automotive industry has been testing solar power for a number of years now. At the begining the vehicles that were made lookoed more like space ships but now as you can see with the new technology of solar power the new cars look like a normal car. Solar power would make a lot of sense for a car. It would take a lot of stress off the alternator, battery, and would also lead to more gas mileage. Solar farms are also on the rise all over the world. The biggest solar farm to date is in Germany. These solar farms can act like a power plant. The innovative factor of these solar farms are the fact that there are no emissions or fuel costs. The major issue with these farms is that they are still are not flly developed and they cost a lot of money. A great example of a solar farm is Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania. It is the only raceway in the world that is fully powered by renewable energy. It is a 25 acre solar farm the feeds all the raceway's power needs. media type="youtube" key="gCrkpcEKlUo?fs=1" height="385" width="640" align="center"

Solar power can help out the energy crisis in many ways but the reason that it does not play a major role in the crisis it because it is still in the developmental stages. Also the world is so dependent on fossil fuels that it would take so much time, money, and research to get away from those resources. On the other hand with all the new technology that we have today new solar power plants are being built and new solar powered technologies are being offered to residential areas. Though solar power is still in the developmental stages it already, and in the future, going to make a huge impact on the energy crisis. Another reason that solar power plants are on the rise is because they can be installed by the government and private agencies with makes solar power plants easier to build. A perfect example of a private agency building a plant is the Pocono plant.

In order to take solar power to a larger scale more solar power plants need to be built. The issue with that is that there is only so much space in the world to put these plants. In order to have a big effect the power plant need to take up a lot of space and in an are that gets a lot of sun. Great spots would be in the desert, mountains, farms, and plains. There is only so much space for these power plants. For example the Pocono power plant is 25 acres and that only supplies the raceway. Now picture how much acreage would be needed to power the east coast or ever New York City. So in order to make Solar power on a large scale there needs to a lot of area and a lot of money which in todays society is not of abundance.



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After learning about solar power there is not much we would do to change how it is used. Scientist and engineers are trying to figure out how to make solar power more prominant in society everyday. The obivious change would be to make the power plants smaller and to make more power out of the panels. Doing both of those things involves a lot of money, time, resources, and studies. Hopesfully someday we can be dependant on solar power but in our life time and probably for the next couple of generations we can only try to excel with solar power.




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