Energy is an essential element for human life and a nation 's economic development. Throughout the years, human’s primary sources of energy have come from oil and coal. However, the world is facing the issue where it is not sure if it can produce an increasing amount of energy to supply what it consumes. The world wants to assure everyone that there is enough energy for the future generations to come. There are now new natural ways of providing energy that might ensure enough energy for the future without harming the environment, but these types of energy are not easy and cheap to obtain. As a result, the world would have to change from traditional energy sources to more credible ways of producing energy such as solar power, wind power, biomass
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The sun creates solar energy when nuclear fusion reactions occur in the sun’s core; then the solar power has to be collected to convert it into different types of energy. Countries that use solar energy have two ways to get; one is by solar thermal Power Plants and it works is by using the sun’s radiation to heat fluid then transfer its heat to water to produce steam, then that steam is converted into mechanical energy that powers a generator to generate electricity. The second way to collect solar energy is by using photovoltaic cells, “Solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity that can be used to supplement or replace the power that comes from public utility grids” Ch. 8, pg. 209. Solar energy is so abundant that scientist has said that in one minute the sun can provide enough energy to supply the world’s need of energy for a whole year, but it is hard for countries to be able to obtain solar energy. Germany is the highest country with installed capacity of solar photovoltaic power. In 2012 Germany’s solar panels generated about 23 terawatts and that translate to 23,000,000 megawatts hours of electricity in 2012, which is impressive, but unfortunately only covers 3% of the country’s total electricity consumption. Germany is not a country with significant amounts of energy, but they do have an excellent subsidizing framework, and that …show more content…
Knowing this the government and private corporations should collaborate to create a sufficient way to obtain solar energy, but it is not as simple as it sounds. Solar energy panels are expensive, and there are not enough panel farms (photovoltaic power plants) installed. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM Research, 878 MW (megawatts) of photovoltaic capacity and 78 MW, which translate to 0.078 gigawatts of concentrating solar power were installed in the United States in 2010. That was enough to supply around 200,000 homes with energy in the U.S. But being realistic that is only a small portion of the 125 million households in the U.S. A new recent study shows that in 2015, 30% of all new electricity generation capacity in the U.S came from solar power. The United States has a lot of panel farms (photovoltaic power plants) installed around the country. An example of the potential of these farms is Solar Star I and II in California with 579 megawatts. Built by SunPower, it is the largest solar farm based on panels, using 1.7 million panels in total. The second is also in California by the name of Topaz Solar Farm with a 550-megawatt, and it is also one of the largest farms in the world. This photovoltaic power station project was $2.5 billion and First Solar U.S. Company manufactured it. There
The sun creates solar energy when nuclear fusion reactions occur in the sun’s core; then the solar power has to be collected to convert it into different types of energy. Countries that use solar energy have two ways to get; one is by solar thermal Power Plants and it works is by using the sun’s radiation to heat fluid then transfer its heat to water to produce steam, then that steam is converted into mechanical energy that powers a generator to generate electricity. The second way to collect solar energy is by using photovoltaic cells, “Solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity that can be used to supplement or replace the power that comes from public utility grids” Ch. 8, pg. 209. Solar energy is so abundant that scientist has said that in one minute the sun can provide enough energy to supply the world’s need of energy for a whole year, but it is hard for countries to be able to obtain solar energy. Germany is the highest country with installed capacity of solar photovoltaic power. In 2012 Germany’s solar panels generated about 23 terawatts and that translate to 23,000,000 megawatts hours of electricity in 2012, which is impressive, but unfortunately only covers 3% of the country’s total electricity consumption. Germany is not a country with significant amounts of energy, but they do have an excellent subsidizing framework, and that …show more content…
Knowing this the government and private corporations should collaborate to create a sufficient way to obtain solar energy, but it is not as simple as it sounds. Solar energy panels are expensive, and there are not enough panel farms (photovoltaic power plants) installed. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM Research, 878 MW (megawatts) of photovoltaic capacity and 78 MW, which translate to 0.078 gigawatts of concentrating solar power were installed in the United States in 2010. That was enough to supply around 200,000 homes with energy in the U.S. But being realistic that is only a small portion of the 125 million households in the U.S. A new recent study shows that in 2015, 30% of all new electricity generation capacity in the U.S came from solar power. The United States has a lot of panel farms (photovoltaic power plants) installed around the country. An example of the potential of these farms is Solar Star I and II in California with 579 megawatts. Built by SunPower, it is the largest solar farm based on panels, using 1.7 million panels in total. The second is also in California by the name of Topaz Solar Farm with a 550-megawatt, and it is also one of the largest farms in the world. This photovoltaic power station project was $2.5 billion and First Solar U.S. Company manufactured it. There