News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

Solar energy can have a brilliant future in America according to an issue of Scientific America in 2007. They claimed that investing around $10 billion per annum over 4 decades can turn America into an energy independent country. Moreover, the most interesting part is the result of decreasing greenhouse emission by 62 percent. This could all be achieved by making solar power a core source of energy.

According to the article in 2007, approximately $400 billion have already been unwisely wasted in the Iraq war. The expenditure has only increased and there is no fall in war expenditure predicted yet. The sum of money that has been wasted on war would be sufficient to put dirty coal aside and establish a fresh clean energy economy.

Technology is already available. There is a stark call for solar energy and the potentials are well above the chart. Some experts say that the sunlight that strikes the earth surface for only 40 minutes is enough to supply the world’s energy requirement for a whole year. America is fortunate to have large land regions where huge solar power plants can be constructed. In the southwest approximately 250,000 square miles of land is available where around 4,500 quadrillion of BTU (British Thermal Units) of pure solar radiation can be harnessed per annum. If around 2.5 percent of that radiation is converted into electricity it would be enough to supply America’s total energy consumption for year 2006.

Solar Grand Plan

A detailed plan of how to reap 69 percent of America’s electricity with solar energy by 2050 was made lucid in Scientific American’s magazine. It entailed:

The key components of the plan
1. Use large fields of land for photovoltaic panels as well as solar heating.
2. Establish a convenient direct-current (DC) transmission line to distribute the solar energy efficiency through-out the national grid.
3. Invest a total of $10 billion per year of federal funding for four decades. This makes a total of $400 billion to fulfil the plan by 2050.

Positive aspects of Plan
- Technology is present.
- Solar plants do practically not use any fuel. Therefore, it will save millions of dollars by reducing dependency on oil.
- The establishment of solar plants would eliminate approximately 300 large coal-fired plants as well as 300 large natural gas plants. This would come with a reduction in the amount of fossil fuel they consume as well.
- There would be no need to import oil.
- There would be a reduction in carbon dioxide emission by approximately 1.7 billion tons per annum.
- The introduction of hybrid vehicles fuelled by solar would in the future bring down another 1.9 billion tones of greenhouse gases.
- The U.S total carbon dioxide emissions would be 62 percent less than the total for 2005.

Negative Aspects of the Plan
- There need to be government subsidies provided to make the solar plan feasible.
- There need to be constant political will, to remove subsidies for the oil industry.

It is difficult to establish proper political will. However, the possibility of a grand solar plan is very likely. It is both practical and economical to establish a renewable future. The real thing is that alternative energies are the unique and best solution for a green and sustainable development programme for any country.

Source: Scientific American and Solve Climate