The impact of technology on solar energy

The ongoing debate on global warming is not really a debate any longer. We would have to ignore all the climate research to come to the same determination as the Trump administration.  Despite the protestations of climate change deniers, global warming is real, is happening now, and is mostly caused by burning fossil fuels. To prevent the worst impacts of global warming, the world must take steps to reduce global warming pollution immediately and dramatically. Electricity generation accounts for more than a third of America’s emissions of global warming pollution. Therefore, stopping a global warming catastrophe will require the world to shift away from highly polluting sources of power, such as coal-fired power plants, and toward clean, renewable energy such as solar and wind power. It is taking too long for this development to take place fully and the world is experiencing significant pollution as a result. However, there is real promise from a technology called concentrating solar power.

Concentrating solar power (CSP)

Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies – which use the sun’s heat to generate electricity – can make a large contribution toward lessening global warming pollution all over the globe, and do so expeditiously and at a moderate cost. CSP  also reduces other environmental forces of electric power production, while initiating economic development and generating jobs. The world has insufficient time to transition away from dirty energy sources and toward clean, renewable energy. Will the politicians listen to scientists who warn of global pollution that threatens the safety of mankind?

The latest climate science is rather depressing

The latest climate science is rather gloomy because it's clear the previous projections were much too optimistic. Climate scientists recommend that the United States and the world must reduce emissions of global warming pollutants promptly and dramatically to prevent the most destructive impacts of global warming.

Should global average temperatures increase by more than two degrees Celsius, scientists predict that dangerous impacts from global warming will become determined, including flooding of coastal cities, the destruction of plant and animal species, and increases in extreme weather, wildfire, and drought. To have a fair chance of stopping a two-degree increase in global average temperatures, the world must keep the concentration of global warming discharges in the atmosphere below 450 parts per million.

The world must diminish its greenhouse gases and quickly

The United States is one of the worst offenders. The U.S. must, at a minimum, reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 15-20 percent from 2000 levels by 2020, and by 80 percent by 2050 to prevent the direct results from global warming. Other nations must act aggressively as well but the United States is one of the biggest users of energy. Unfortunately, the U.S. also wastes more energy than any other nation. This can be improved rather easily if everyone was willing to be a little more thoughtful.

China and India, the two most populous nations on earth, are also the biggest polluters. But America’s electric power plants produce more carbon dioxide (the leading global warming pollutant) than the entire economy of any country on the planet other than China.

Even if America enacts energy efficiency improvements to prevent future growth in electricity consumption, the nation will still need to increase its renewable generating capacity substantially. Lessening carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to 20 percent below 2000 levels by 2020, for example, would require the U.S. to generate 15 to 24 percent of its electricity from new renewable sources – or between 158 GW and 257 GW of new renewable energy by 2020. The demand for clean energy will further quicken in future decades as the United States seeks to meet increasingly rigorous targets for emission reductions.

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

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