How Solar Can Help Climate Change
Population growth is not the only problem that exists in power generation.
“We are like tenant farmers, chopping down the fence around our house for fuel, when we should be using nature's inexhaustible sources of energy: sun, wind, and tide… I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy.” These are the words of Thomas Edison, a champion of solar energy. “What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”
Our world's climate is changing and many in the scientific community believe it is due to an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This increase in carbon does not allow for the earth to cool at the same rate it has in years past. And many believe that man-made carbon emissions are a major contributing factor in this atmospheric change.
Fast Facts:
The electric power sector is among the largest contributors of greenhouse gases in the United States, representing 28% of all emissions.
Both concentrating solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) technologies produce clean, emissions-free electricity, helping to reduce U.S. GHG emissions.
Solar heating and cooling systems can provide about 80% of the energy used for necessary space heating and water heating.
In an effort to slow climate change, many world leaders have looked to cleaner ways of generating and consuming power. There have been many legislative pieces put in place to help reduce the dependence on fossil fuels as a source of energy. Some legislation penalizes those who burn fossil fuels while other legislation promotes the use of renewable energy resources to generate and use power. One of the most common tools used by legislatures? Financial incentives. It’s easy to want to do better for the planet when doing better costs less. Now, adopters of clean energy can help to bridge the financial gap for adopting an emerging technology which can have a higher initial cost of implementation.
This system has led to the mass adoption of solar energy around the world. Sean White, a leader in the solar education space and author of five books on solar education, pointed out that it's not only cleaner but cheaper to build a new utility scale solar array for power production than it is to keep a coal plant in production.
This was not always the case– but now, on a utility scale, solar is cheaper universally than traditional technology to power the national grid. The economic green and environmental green are now both better than the traditional method of burning something to make power.
This is why we are seeing a mass adoption of renewable energy.
How We Consume Power
The other side of the equation of generation is consumption. We have turned to electric vehicles in an effort to reduce the carbon output of the transportation industry.
This has revolutionized the way we drive, and is easily one of the best things we’ve done for the transportation industry. Several automakers tried to make electric vehicles (EV) work but it wasn’t until Tesla entered the space in a big way that the technology became more viable.
As a result of Tesla's success, new emission laws and the drop in cost to own an EV, most major automakers have committed to shift production to electric vehicles over the next decade.
This is great news for the climate change industry but not for the national electric grid. Over the next 10-15 years, much of the energy currently being sourced by drivers at gas pumps will shift to being sourced out of people's homes. This increase in energy demand is going to cause major problems if no changes are made.
Solar is the Solution
By going solar, you can reduce demand for fossil fuels, limit greenhouse gas emissions and shrink your overall carbon footprint. Even just one home installing a solar energy system can have a measurable effect on the environment.
Plus, one of the biggest benefits of solar energy is that it results in very few air pollutants. An analysis by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that widespread solar adoption would significantly reduce nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter emissions, all of which can cause health problems. So, not only can solar help climate change– it can impact our own health for the better too! In fact, NREL found that, among other health benefits, solar power results in fewer cases of chronic bronchitis, respiratory and cardiovascular problems.
