Abstract
The environmental problem has reached the level to become a global issue that needs to be addressed by all countries and steps that are already decided between nations have to be implemented at the earliest to ensure a sustainable environment for generations to come. Almost every country has assembled various organizations, media sectors and societies all over the world from the past three decades. The study investigates the major environmental issues that are currently taking place in the environment and the activities that are associated with this major problem. In particular, the report discusses environmental issues related to the solar energy in China and the US. The report identifies the current status of these countries and the steps that these countries are taking to benefit from this source of alternative energy. The purpose of this report is to understand the impacts of human activities carefully and to analyze the approaches of different nations in mitigating the damage to the global environment.
Introduction
Environmental issues can be explained as the harmful effects of the activities that are carried by human beings on the planet Earth. Earth is one of those planets of the universe that has supported life and it is crucial for living beings have a clean environment. In the last few decades, it has been observed that activities carried by human beings are bringing drastic effects on the environmental system and also becoming a reason for various diseases in society. The rapid increase in the environmental issues has also influenced biodiversity due to which massive extinction of wildlife and aquatic animals has taken occurred. Many practices that are followed by the people in their daily life are affecting the ecosystem and society at a mass level (Rinkesh, Deforestation-Causes, Effects and Solution-Conserve Energy Future, 2016).
Among many other factors responsible for environmental issues is the solar energy, which is increasingly being used in many countries to replace fossil fuels for power generation. Solar power is regarded as the best alternative and renewable energy technology, which provides the electricity from the sunlight. Specifically, in China and USA, many households have already installed solar electricity facilities. Moreover, large-scale power generation facilities are also being installed in the US and China to accommodate the need of thousands of electricity consumers. However, despite its increasing use and advantages, solar power still faces a number of barriers before it can completely replace fossil fuels and could be used as a means for power generation.
The report presents solar energy as an alternative form of energy that could help both China and the US to overcome these environmental issues. Although solar energy is a comparatively expensive source of energy, it could help meet the pollution reduction targets of these countries.
Solar Energy
Solar energy can be explained as the form of energy that is obtained directly from the sunlight. The solar power is used in most countries for different purposes, particularly for producing electricity (Boxwell, 2011). It is believed that solar energy allows producing electricity at cheaper rates than from oil or coal. To obtain energy from the sun for generating electricity, solar panels are placed on the top of buildings and are facing towards the sun. The radiations that are released by the sun help the solar panels to generate energy. Thus, it decreases the dependency level of human beings on fossil fuels and saves a significant amount of the monthly electricity bills.
The primary significance of the solar energy is that it is the renewable source of energy. It can never get inadequate despite of using for years. The solar radiation that is gained by the Earth is 20,000 times greater than what is required to supply the whole world. Also, the solar energy is sustainable which means it’s over consumption cannot affect the need for future generation. The most significant advantage of the solar energy is that helps to maintain the friendly environment of the Earth and can be consumed at cheaper rates than fossil fuels.
Solar Power in the United States of America
The use of solar power in the USA incorporates utility-scale solar power plants and local distributed generation (Hestnes, Hastings, & Saxhof, 2013). It is estimated that till the end of 2015, space for the installed photo voltaic in USA only comprised of 25 gigawatts with the supplementary concentrated solar power of 1.8 GW. It is estimated that the US successfully made the record in the current year for installing more solar panels on the roofs of the houses. It indicates the government’s planning’s and efforts that are executed for the support of the consumers.
Moreover, in the current times, the solar panels are installed in the solar farms that will efficiently generate 729 megawatts for the utilities. There are some solar panels installed in the distant areas to great solar farms that are effectively producing electricity to be sold to utilities that are later distributed to the consumers in cheaper rates. Also, the state installed solar panels worth 473 megawatts on the roofs of the houses that benefited the consumers at the mass level. It is estimated that the installation of solar roof panels in the US is growing rapidly and has grown up to 70% in different states of the US (Fehrenbacher, Solar Panels Just Broke Another Record In The U.S, 2015).
Although it has been evidenced that the solar energy industry of the USA is moving towards development day by day, but still there are still some major obstacles that need to get solved immediately in order to replace the solar energy from fossil fuel. Primarily, the major problem is the current energy infrastructure of the USA that is slowing the pace of solar energy growth in the country. The power grid system of the USA, including the poles and wires is being used for more than a century and lacks the efficiency to store the solar energy power. In addition, the traditional network is effective to generate electricity from the fossil fuels, but using the same network of traditional poles and wires for renewable energy is not possible.
Another issue is the inefficiency of the solar panels that are installed in the USA. It is believed that the transfer of sunlight to the Earth is enough to generate the power for the whole year, but unfortunately, the incompetency of these solar panels just transfer twenty to twenty five percent of the sunlight into electricity. The researches have proved that the most efficient panels that are available in the market have the ability to convert only thirty-five percent of sunlight into electricity. It is believed that the inefficiency of these solar panels is the biggest challenge for the solar power industry that needs to overcome immediately.
The installation cost of solar power systems has declined considerably in the past few years. The solar energy industries association presented a report in which it stated that solar energy had become around 60% cheaper as compared to 2011. However, despite of the declining cost of solar energy, the investments in such projects have decreased. The report produced by the Bloomberg new energy finance revealed that investments in the clean energy projects have declined about 21%, while in the US the total investments in clean energy, as of 2014, is merely 254 billion.
Energy experts forecast that in order to address the challenges of global temperature change and global warming, annual investments of $500 billion would be required by the end of 2020 and $1 trillion near 2030. The researchers claim that solar energy in the USA cannot be regarded as a feasible alternative to the fossil fuels until the barrier of investment, traditional power grid, and solar panel’s inefficiency are not overcome by the USA government.
Solar power in the China
Usually, the solar panels are placed on the tops of the roofs from where they obtain the heat energy from the sun. However, China is currently acting as the world’s largest market for the solar panels that consist of a vast amount of solar panels that are mounted in remote areas in the grounds. It is estimated that the installation of the solar power in China has risen to 30% in the year 2015 as compared to the previous year (Fehrenbacher, China is Utterly and Totally Dominating Solar Panels, 2015).
China, being the largest manufacturer of the solar panels since the year 2008 has successfully manufactured many global photovoltaic cells on the yearly basis. However, it is estimated by the industrialists that in the year 2017, China will have the capacity to generate 51GW of photovoltaic on the annual basis. The research proves that China will include further 5.3 GW solar power stations in the current year. The new locations of solar power will be added in the North of Hebei, the central Mongolia, and the West of the Xinjiang (Fehrenbacher, China is Utterly and Totally Dominating Solar Panels, 2015).
Unfortunately, the limited grid capacity of China and overloading has limited the progress of the sector. It is reported by the National Energy Administration (NEA) that around the tenth of the solar power was unable to deliver in the mid of the year due to inadequate grid capacity. The development China in the sector of solar power can be analyzed through the fact that it installed 7.73GW capacity in the initial six months of 2015 and still heading rapidly to meet its new targets (Fehrenbacher, China is Utterly and Totally Dominating Solar Panels, 2015).
The most significant issue in the China’s solar power industry is the repeated fault of solar panels. In the last few years, the damages in the solar panels have significantly decreased the production of electricity in China. The report, published by the Bloomberg stated that around one-fourth of the country’s solar panels are below the standard and do not meet the standard technical requirement of the country. Moreover, the investors of the projects have experienced a delay in the interconnection that resulted in the reduction of installation by 3 gigawatts in the year 2014 in contrast to the levels of 2013.
Another major hurdle in the growth of China solar power industry is the dynamic competition from the coal industry. The struggle of solar power industry to gain access to the power grid has slowed down the national consumption of electricity. The Chinese government data presented a report that stated that around 10 percent of the country’s solar production was restricted in the start of 2015 due to grid limitation. It is also mentioned in the report that around one-fourth of the solar energy production was unable to have access to the network of Gansu province. Also, 19 percent deduction in the electricity was experienced in the province of Xinjiang. It is analyzed that China has also faced similar problems in wind producers while having a connection to the grid.
As far as the progress of China in different industrial fields is considered, it is worth mentioning that it has played the major part in polluting the environment. However, China has committed to using non-fossil fuels that will ultimately result in the reduction of CO2 gasses (Chen & Aizhu, 2015). Fortunately, the China has controlled its air pollution crises in the recent years to a great extent that has cleared its way to boost the supply of electricity with the same pace.
Recommendation
The solar energy in the recent times is the best opportunity to produce electricity abundantly, but some of its disadvantages other than monetary terms can result in massive drawbacks for the environment (Maehlum, 2014). The installation of solar panels on the roof of the houses is quite expensive, and requires skilled and experienced workers for its installation. Also, the cost that is spent on the facility does not allow the average homeowner to invest in this product. It is therefore recommended to discover such production techniques that are more efficient and incur less cost in the manufacture of the single unit. The generation of electricity can multiply to a great extent if countries like China and USA find more efficient semiconductors for the solar panels.
Also, the countries with large solar panel market should focus on the efficient factories with mass production and new production techniques. The production of solar panels on a large scale, will provide the advantage of economies of scale and the companies would be able to produce the solar panels at cheaper rates. In addition, innovative technological changes should be introduced to bring cleaner energy into use. For instance, new transmission technology and energy storage system should be introduced. Such innovative changes will be of great assistance in smoothing over the production barriers that are caused by the climatic and atmospheric interruptions.
References
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Barrow, C. (2002). Environmental Management for Sustainable Development. Abingdon: Routledge.
Boxwell, M. (2011). Solar Electricity Handbook: A Simple, Practical Guide to Solar Energy : how to Design and Install Photovoltaic Solar Electric Systems. Coventry: Greenstream Publishing.
Chen, K., & Aizhu, C. (2015 8-October). China raises solar installation target for 2015. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-solar-idUSKCN0S21FG20151008
Fehrenbacher, K. (2015 18-June). China is Utterly and Totally Dominating Solar Panels. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2015/06/18/china-is-utterly-and-totally-dominating-solar-panels/
Fehrenbacher, K. (2015 9-September). Solar Panels Just Broke Another Record In The U.S. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2015/09/09/solar-panel-record-america/
Hestnes, A. G., Hastings, R., & Saxhof, B. (2013). Solar Energy Houses: Strategies, Technologies, Examples. Routledge: Abingdon.
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