Pollution abatement and solar

The earth is more polluted today than ever before. Burning fossil fuels is the biggest offender, but several energy sources contribute to the poisoning of our planet. Fossil fuels are almost depleted, so there's an urgent need to discover an energy source that is renewable and doesn't pollute the earth. For those reasons, solar energy is on course to dominate energy production in the next century. Without it, predictions of worldwide catastrophes will dominate the news. Pollution, according to the climate experts, is caused by man and can be expected to continue as long as fossil fuels are ignited in massive quantities.

Fossil fuel consequences are rather dire

Fossil-fuel based electricity generation in the United States and China has enormous environmental consequences. In 2007, 2.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) were discharged from electricity generation in the United States, about 40 percent of the country’s energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. “Electricity generation in China produced just over 2 billion metric tons of CO2, accounting for about one-third of its energy-related GHG emissions in the same year. Fossil-fuel ignition is also responsible for the emission of other pollutants, such as nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). Electricity production also puts a strain on water and land resources. In 2000, thermal power plants accounted for nearly half of the total withdrawals of water in the United States and almost 40 percent of water withdrawals for industrialized use in China. In summation, reducing environmental impacts is a major goal for shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy for electricity generation.

Solar power generation is critically important now and in the future

Developing renewable energy technologies that utilize the sun, the wind, and geothermal energy is vital to combating climate change. However, using renewable energy sources will not reduce all environmental concerns. Although renewable energy sources produce low levels of GHG emissions and conventional air pollution, manufacturing and transporting them will create some emissions. The production of photovoltaic (PV) cells, for instance, generates toxic substances that may poison water resources. Renewable energy facilities can also have a destructive effect on land use and wildlife habitat, and some technologies also use significant quantities of water. To develop sound ecological policies, lawmakers must understand the environmental impacts of alternative energy sources, including how the impacts of renewable energy technologies compare to those of fossil-fuel technologies and to opportunities for advances in energy efficiency. Understanding the potential environmental impacts of renewable energy technologies is also necessary for identifying and pursuing designs, manufacturing methods, project siting, utility operations, and so on to mitigate or offset these effects.

Environmental impacts of energy sources are generally graded on two scales. The first scale is the regional or national scale, which is an attempt to characterize the average impact of a typical facility for the purposes of specific comparisons and planning. Life cycle assessment (LCA), for example, is an attempt to estimate the full array of impacts connected with all stages of an energy project, from the extraction of raw materials to the decommissioning of a facility and the disposition of equipment. The second scale is on the local level, where site-specific impacts, such as impacts on wildlife and local water supplies, can be assessed.

There has never been a better time to install a solar energy system!

If you want to move into the future and join the solar revolution, or if you want to find out what solar panels are right for you, don't forget to visit our solar blog section for more handy guides and articles.

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