Should We Invest In The Sun?

Powered by Helios:
A Look Inside America’s Solar Energy

By Brett Seiltz
December 18, 2017

“Kinda looks like Mordor,” remarks revered actor Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio was flying in a helicopter over the Canadian tar sands facility in the environmental documentary Before the Flood. This is the facility where workers turn tar sand into oil, which then gets piped to other parts of Canada, the U.S, and into barrels for further exporting. However, to turn the tar sands into oil, the facility has to emit greenhouse gases in order to process the tar sands. These facilities are one of the reasons environmentalists have been calling for the U.S to turn from an oil-powered nation to a solar-powered nation.
This isn’t the first time solar energy has been a hot topic in America. In the late 1800’s – early 1900’s, the innovators of that era developed contraptions that captured solar radiation to transform it into steam that powered the machines of that era. However, because of the rapidly increasing number of technological advances, their designs and innovations were lost to an energy-hungry world needing fossil fuels to sustain its rapid growth (Charles Smith, 2015). We are now seeing that history is indeed repeating itself. Yet again, we see innovations in the solar industry with cheaper and improved solar panels and once again, the U.S seems resistant to change from a fossil-fuel addicted nation to a nation powered by Helios himself. Should the U.S start investing in solar energy now as a main source of energy for the future or should we stay away from the sun?
One reason that people argue against the idea of investing in solar energy as a main source of energy is that solar energy is expensive. Even with the latest innovations and advances in the solar industry, solar panels are still expensive. The best quality solar cells could very well cost you over $1,000 each (Rinkesh, 2017) and if families need more than one, that’s a costly starting price for solar panels. The solar panels do save the family money since the household is producing their own electricity instead of using the city electricity. However, the starting cost of the solar panels is so expensive that it takes approximately ten to fifteen years before the panels break even financially and the family starts to save money (Rinkesh, 2017). Because of the extended length of time needed in order to actually start saving money, families have to make sure that they aren’t planning on moving for at least a decade and a half. Of course, the family could move the solar panels with them, however, there is both a de-installation and a re-installation cost that is incurred that the family has to pay for. In addition to these points, there is still one very important detail that needs to be addressed: storage for the excess solar energy. We, as a species, do not have a reliable way of storing the solar energy that isn’t immediately used up. Because humans can’t control the amount of sunlight that comes down on the earth, the excess solar energy can overflow our modern energy storage mechanisms and create an instability in the grid. This problem could be solved by building large-scale batteries, however, those batteries cost $1000 per kilowatt hour. By comparison, “the average fridge uses about five kilowatt hours a day” (Wile, 2013).
Solar energy being expensive isn’t the only reason why opponents of solar energy stand against it. They also reason that while solar panels in use don’t release greenhouse gases, the production of the solar panels does release chemicals and greenhouse gases into the air. To create some solar panels, producers have to release a chemical called nitrogen trifluoride. This chemical is 17,000 times stronger than the infamous greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. Even worse, the production of other solar panels releases a chemical called sulfur hexafluoride. This chemical is even more dangerous than nitrogen trifluoride, with its strength being 22,800 times more than carbon dioxide (Boyd, 2015). Still yet another dangerous element in the making of solar panels is cadmium. This element is a key part of creating the thin film of cadmium telluride in the panel. According to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, “inhaling or being exposed to cadmium can lead to cancerous and noncancerous damage to lungs and organ systems” (Boyd, 2015).
These reasons against solar energy are adequate and are not taken lightly. We know the risks that we are taking right now to change from a fossil-fuel guzzling nation to one that’ll be plugged by the sun. However, we believe that the rewards far outweigh the consequences for switching to the sun. First, unlike fossil fuels, the sun is in almost limitless supply. Scientists today calculate that the sun will keep on burning for approximately five billion years (Williams, 2016). Not only is the sun probably going to last till the end of time (or the end of the planet, whichever comes first), it’s shining down an incredible amount of energy every day. Each day, the sun shines 120,000 terawatts down upon the earth. How much is that? According to science writer Oliver Morton, 120,000 terawatts is “10,000 times the amount that flows through our industrial civilization – all the world’s reactors, turbines, cars, furnaces, boilers, generators, and so on put together” (Rosen, 2012). So not only do we have a potential power source that won’t end, that same power source can also sustain our entire civilization on earth every single day if utilized properly. In addition, the sun shines on every single country on earth every year; that means that every country has the ability to produce solar energy. Combined with the fact that we have a very limited supply of fossil fuels left on earth, that should be reason enough to switch to the sun. According to the World Coal Association, there are 1.1 trillion tons of coal reserves in the world. That sounds like a lot; however, because of the number of countries and the amount each country uses, the WCA calculate this 1.1 trillion tons of coal will last the earth approximately 150 years. Even scarier is the fact that oil and gas reserves will last us 50 and 52 years respectively if we keep up the current level of production (World Coal Association, 2017).
Since the sun is a limitless supply source of energy and the U.S has a more than adequate ability to take advantage of that source, switching to solar energy will enable the U.S to decrease our reliance on oil, especially imported oil. Every year the U.S spends over $25 billion a year on Persian Gulf imports alone (Blair, 2017). That’s just from the Persian Gulf; that’s not counting all the OPEC countries we import from like Canada and Venezuela. According to the U.S Energy Information Administration, in 2016, we imported around 3.67 billion barrels of oil and produced approximately 3.24 billion barrels of oil, but we also consumed about 7.21 billion barrels of petroleum products (2017). If we switched to solar energy, we can bring down our use of oil significantly and rely less on other countries for the products that we need to even run our country. Think about it: if we get into a war with the Persian Gulf countries, they wouldn’t send their oil over to us, which severely limits what our military can do to protect us since we don’t have nearly as much oil. If we solely use solar energy to make our electricity, then we can send all of the oil that we produce to our cars and the military instead of using it to also make our electricity.
In addition to being able to rely less on other countries to be able to run our country, solar energy also gives the U.S more jobs. According to the Solar Jobs Census of 2016, “solar employment increased by over 51,000 workers, a 25 percent increase over 2015”, bringing the total to 260,077 workers (2016). The Solar Jobs Census also went on to say that “solar jobs in the United States have increased by at least 20 percent per year for the past four years” (2016). Since the number of solar jobs is exploding, the U.S economy is also bound to explode with it. It did not disappoint either; “the solar industry added $84 billion to the U.S GDP in 2016” (Solar Foundation, 2016). The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) also put together study to see how the number of solar workers compared to the number of coal workers, and the answer may surprise you. The EESI calculated that there were only 80,396 coal workers compared to the 260,077 workers that the Solar Jobs Census calculated. Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that the solar industry has already become more important to the GDP than the coal industry. It, therefore, make sense that the U.S would want to strengthen its already booming solar industry in order for it to rapidly add to the GDP and further help the economy boom.
While creating jobs is very attractive, that’s not the best part about solar energy. It is most likely the most obvious point for the U.S to switch from fossil fuels to solar: solar energy reduces pollution. While it may seem obvious, it is an important point to make all the same. First, solar energy doesn’t release carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur oxide, any other greenhouse gas, helping the planet try to reduce its overall temperature. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, constantly pollute the earth and help raise Earth’s temperature. Coal-fired power plants contribute 72 percent of the total water pollution that goes on, leading to cancer, heart attacks, and brain damage and 31 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from electricity production in the U.S (Ecomark Solar, 2016). That’s not the end; the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) calculated that more than 400 million tons of hazardous waste is produced every year (Ecomark Solar, 2016). Even worse, the waste is not being disposed of safely. UNEP discovered that in Canada, as much as “30 percent of waste producers fail to meet government guidelines for correct disposal procedures” (Ecomark Solar, 2016). All of this pollution can be eliminated if the U.S just switched to solar energy. Since solar energy doesn’t rely on fuel or water to generate electricity, both the drinking water and the air are infinitely cleaner.
Solar energy is on the rise, but it needs help to keep it from falling away again. Most Americans don’t think about the processes that it takes to create the electricity that powers their homes, phones, computers, etc.; most only care if their electricity is working. However, the more Americans are aware of the benefits solar energy can bring to them, the more they’ll start to get involved in solar energy. The more Americans get involved in solar energy, the cheaper the cost of the panels and installation will become. In addition, when Americans start to show interest about solar energy, the more the government will start to pay attention to the solar industry and start investing into it. Once the government starts investing in it, scientists will have the ability to truly research solar energy and explore ways to reduce pollution in the manufacturing process and how to effectively dispose of terminated solar panels. If solar energy becomes the future of America, I can honestly say that America’s future will literally (and figuratively) be bright.

References

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