Solar Energy Solutions

By Anthony D'Angelo III

Our sun is the king of our solar system.   

It contains 99.8% of the entire mass of our solar system, is 4.6 billion years old, and burns at a surface temperature of 5,500 C. The sun is so massive that roughly 960,000 Earths could fit inside it. It’s responsible for all the orbits of every planet in our solar system, and its solar winds can be felt as far as interstellar space. 

The sun is the giver of life here on this planet. Our perfect location within the “goldilocks zone” of the sun enables our planet to sustain liquid water, something that our science believes is essential for life as we know it. We’re just far enough that we won’t melt, but were close enough that we won’t freeze in the voids of space. The next time you lay on the beach sun bathing, think about how lucky you are. Millions of years ago, nuclear fusion occurred within the sun’s core, at about roughly 15 million degrees C. That energy, after millions of years, found its way from the surface of the sun to your skin within roughly 8 minutes and 20 seconds, traveling anywhere from 147-152 million kilometers at a given time. That energy, the same energy responsible for nuclear bombs and a surface temperature of 462 C on our sister planet Venus, is just so perfectly far away from us, that it warms your skin. The energy of our Sun has provided a foundation for weather, climate and human vision, amongst everything else. 

There is a lot we do not know about the sun. However, we know enough to realize the planet’s potential for efficient solar energy consumption. We know the solar constant is “the amount of energy from the Sun at the distance of the Earth (outside the atmosphere). It is 1367 Watts per meter squared.” In non-science terms, “If all the sunlight energy striking the Earth's surface in Texas alone could be converted to electricity, it would be up to 300 times the total power output of all the power plants in the world!” That information is staggering. All of the energy we will ever need in the existence of our species could be attained in a matter of days, if our technology catches up to the potential. 

Knowing this, it’s imperative that we as a species give serious consideration to solar energy solutions. The media will play a huge role in how the average person thinks and feels about solar energy potential. Let’s explore a few different media perspectives on solar energy. 

An online article I read dealt with one of the key issues concerning feasible solar energy: energy storage. As mentioned earlier, the sun gives us more than enough energy to use. We just need to figure out how to convert and store it efficiently. This online article, posted on July 22, 2014 from the online magazine RenewableEnergyWorld.com titled “Keeping Up with Energy Storage,” points out the obvious links with the energy storage sector and the solar energy sector. Together, these two industries are going to change how we convert and store solar power, by making the technologies more affordable and more efficient. The writing isn’t very reader friendly if you’re not into scientific articles, however it still details important messages in a readable way. The power grids in many countries, including our own, are outdated and inefficient in terms of toady’s technologies. By implementing smart grids, capable of storing more energy at cheaper rates, we have a chance to start making environmentally friendly decisions from the foundation of our energy uses, and that is immensely important. 

Solar energy for technological use, such as electricity and heat conversion, is in and of itself rooted in technology. The sun can warm your rooms with low-impact technologies such as skylights and angled windows, however if you want the sun to power your T.V. or make your shower water hot, you need to install a good amount of technology in and on your home. Many states, 45 to be exact, have solar energy companies that will install these technologies in your home for no money down, which is a wonderful incentive to get people to convert. However, five states, including North Carolina, have state legislation that bans free installation of solar technology. A pro solar activist website, NCWARN.org, is fighting against the lobbyist of Duke Energy and the monopoly they have over the North Carolina solar industry. A common theme in environmentalism is the greed of fossil fuel energy companies. There is definitely some irony with this issue as it pertains to solar companies. We think of solar energy companies as having this positive connation because they are helping the alternative energy cause. However, the same greed and politics that have handcuffed our ability to change the fossil fuel dominance over our government is now showing its face in the alternative energy industry, all to make a buck. If you believe that the people of North Carolina and every state deserve the incentive of free solar technology installation, you can sign a petition here.    

According to seia.org, “72% of online adults in the U.S. use social networking sites, representing a huge potential market for your solar business. Social media can help advertise your product and grow leads, but it can also help brand you as an expert on solar in your community.” As an “online adult” who at any given time uses 5-6 different types of social media, I completely understand and agree with this assessment. But even going further, I believe we need to make the youth believe in alternative energy, to foster a sizable movement from the oil burning days of our grandfathers to green movement of the 21^st century. And social media is a great tool to get the message out there, to all markets. The American Solar Energy Society Facebook page has over 100,000 likes. The Solar Energy Industries Association Instagram site (seia.org) has a meager 452 followers.  That’s not enough, considering Kim Kardashian has 25 million Instagram followers. What we need is celebrity help and endorsement, along with a stronger push by all solar companies to develop a connection with their customer base through social media and any other outlet. 

The reason I absolutely love this YouTube video, Energy 101: Solar Power, uploaded on Aug 23, 2011 by Energy and Environmental News, is because it does a great job combining the various issues I have discussed so far, such as solar energy storage and reaching the youth about alternative energy, while also doing a great job of describing how solar energy is used. The video is very viewer friendly and fits into the stimulus needs of younger audiences who might otherwise be bored with an alternative energy informative video. The animations, and the very simplistic way of describing how solar works, combine for an effective teaching tool. Another reason I loved this video was because it made the connection to a point in my thesis, that the sun is the giver of all life here on this planet, and all (99.9%) life forms use the sun in various ways. I think this is an important point to make when spreading the word about alternative energy. The sun has been, and still can be, our biggest source of energy.    

To bring in a different perspective, I decided to investigate a 2009 Technical risk assessment performed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Program. The article is pretty straightforward. The research was conducted to assess the technical risk of implementing large scale solar investments, as well as how the technology itself will impact the research and development budgets of the U.S. Department of Energy. It is important to look at this point of view because often when we think about alternative energy, we romanticize the environmental impacts, but don’t calculate the feasibility. This assessment did just that: using experts from all over the country, including leading researchers and professors in the field, to create projection charts for estimated costs at various time intervals (2010, 215, 2020, etc.) The results are encouraging: as technology and computing power improves each year, the cost of implementing new solar technology will decrease over time. The power will become more efficient, and conversion rates will increase, thus making the investment over time cheaper and less risky. This was not a terribly interesting read, in fact, it was really boring. However, the scientists were very accredited and the research seems legitimate.  

Finally, I investigated a blog on a prominent environmentalist website, reset.org, titled “Potential Environmental Impacts and Obstacles of Solar Energy,” written by Ajay Pal Singh Chabba on July 1, 2013. Again, I feel that it is important to investigate the negative impacts of implementing solar technology, the same way we assess the negative impacts of fossil fuel use. Almost all energy use and consumption will come with either short term or long term consequences, and this article highlights these consequences, not to deter people from solar energy use, but rather to educate everyone about the potential impacts. For example, the creation and manufacturing of solar panels requires high levels of energy output that can also have environmental effects on the areas in which they are being built. Also, there are the concerns over sound and vision pollution of the areas in which these plants are being built, as well as potential for toxic waste spills. 

I think that what these various media sources show about solar energy is that there is great potential. It’s not going to be easy, and there are going to be negative impacts in the short term. However, all the energy we will ever need is being released every second on the surface of the sun. If we really care about the future of our planet, we need to rethink energy usage. The sun is the most powerful entity in our lives. We need to use the positive technological advances of our generation and apply them towards our future energy needs. The sun has always been here for us. It was here before humans, it will be here after. Maybe if we learn to better utilize the greatest gift in our solar system, we can make a positive difference here on Earth and potentially beyond.