Intro:

For position paper, the writer is required to take a side after providing enough information for the audience. The paper is certainly allowed to be biased, but all the opinions that appears in the paper must be based on scientific fact, and all the citations must be retrieved from credible sites.

IS THE SOLAR ENERGY GOOD?

The City College of New York

Feng Zhuo

IS THE SOLAR ENERGY GOOD?

Reducing fossil fuel dependence cannot wait. Global warming, one of the major issues we must deal with, caused by the emissions from fossil fuels. The scientists have spent decades on the field of renewable energy, and the study shows that there are multiple ways to solve the issue of overusing fossil fuel. Since renewable energy might be the future we want, and public concerns should be evaluated, we should carefully consider which renewable energy is the best option between all of them. Solar energy is one of alternative energies, it is sustainable, and has various of application can be developed because of solar energy. Certainly, there are cons, for example, solar panel will take up a lot of space in the city, and ecosystem near the solar panel will be harmed. Without a doubt, all of the pros and cons should be considered when choosing an alternative energy to use, however, those factors are not always equally important. For example, investment and environment situation are two important factors when it comes to choosing a new alternative energy, but the public cannot really tell which one is more important. But if we create a scenario that all species on earth would be extinct next year because of global warming if we don’t stop using fossil fuels, money would become the least concern.

Solar energy is sustainable. “The Commission defined sustainable development, as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (United Nations, 1987). By the definition of sustainability, it’s clear that solar energy has sustainability because it will never be depleted over time. Besides, more energy can help science develop faster. If we assume science will develop exponentially in the future, we cannot predict how much energy we will be needing. “Solar energy is the most abundant energy resource on earth — 173,000 terawatts of solar energy strikes the Earth continuously. That’s more than 10,000 times the world’s total energy use.”( ERIN R. PIERCE, 2016). Although from the perspective of the certain group of people, abundant might not be an obvious advantage for countries that already have enough electricity, but it’s a greatly huge news for all the developing countries. For example, electricity might not be used to save all the kids from hunger but having enough electricity can help them get heating and air-conditioning system to get through the change of seasons.

Solar energy can be used to develop various application. “It can be used to generate electricity in places that lack a grid connection, for distilling water in Africa, or even to power satellites in space. Solar power is also known as “The People`s Power”, which refers to how easily deployable solar panels are at the consumer level (both photovoltaic and solar thermal). With the introduction of flexible thin-film solar cells, solar power can even be seemingly integrated into the material of buildings (building integrated photovoltaics) – Sharp, a solar panel manufacturer with headquarters in Japan, recently introduced transparent solar power windows.” (Mathias Aarre Mæhlum, 2012). Drilling water is just one of the great applications, we can easily see that therefore solar energy source is one of the best choices. Because of its abundance, people can try all kinds of application they want, and they never have to worry about using too much energy for tests, which is extremely important for engineers and scientists.

It’s debatable that some cons of solar energy should really be considered cons. “Some toxic materials and chemicals are used to make the photovoltaic (PV) cells that convert sunlight into electricity. Some solar thermal systems use potentially hazardous fluids to transfer heat. Leaks of these materials could be harmful to the environment. U.S. environmental laws regulate the use and disposal of these types of materials.” (Mathias Aarre Mæhlum, 2012).  It states that using solar panel creates pollution and harms the ecosystem. However, solar energy itself does not harm the ecosystem as a natural energy source. So far, the most common way to use solar energy is using solar panels, and it at least does not cause global warming. If we think solving global warming cannot wait, we should consider starting using solar energy as our major energy source, even though it does harm ecosystem.  Another disadvantage of using solar panels would be land use. “Large area solar farms can create heat islands or cause ecological damage such as habitat loss. Solar farms also require a large area (up to thousands of acres) and therefore have a large land footprint.” (Impacts of Energy Sources). It’s a huge flaw of solar panel, the way our city looks would certainly be changed because of the land use. If we use more energy in the city as the need grows, then more solar panels would take up more spaces.

However, are land use and harming ecosystem really two strong cons? Think about our current situation. Global warming is getting serious, many species have become extinct because of that; from that perspective, it’s worth to harm ecosystem near the solar panel plants to stop global warming, and it’s certainly worth to stop global warming by just changing the look of our city.

The bottom line is that all the alternative energy sources have pros and cons, but we must stop using fossil fuels as soon as possible, even if that might mean that we have to slow down a country’s development of some aspect. The solar energy source is a great choice because of its sustainability, but harming the ecosystem is also a huge problem. Important things always come first, and pros and cons might change over time. In other words, harming the ecosystem might be a risk we have to take in order to stop global warming, even if we might create some new issue by using solar panel. And who’s to say, we cannot find other ways to convert solar energy into electricity in the future?

Reference

Erin, R.P., (2016). Top 6 things you didn’t know about solar energy:

          https://www.energy.gov/articles/top-6-things-you-didnt-know-about-solar-energy

An introduction to sustainable energy. (n.d.). Retrieved from

          https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science/environmental-science/introduction-sustainable-energy/content-               section-2

Mathias A.M.,(2012). Solar Energy Pros and Cons:

          http://energyinformative.org/solar-energy-pros-and-cons/

Impacts of Energy Sources.(n.d.). Retrieved From

          http://www.ei.lehigh.edu/learners/energy/impacts2.html

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