Climate change and solar technology

Despite the protestations of climate change deniers, global warming is real, is happening now, and is largely caused by human activities. To prevent the worst impacts of global warming, the world must take action to reduce global warming pollution quickly and dramatically. Electricity generation accounts for more than a third of America’s emissions of global warming pollution. Therefore, preventing 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.

Concentrating solar power (CSP)

Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies – which use the sun’s heat to generate electricity – can make a large contribution toward reducing global warming pollution all over the world, and do so quickly and at a reasonable cost. CSP  also reduces other environmental impacts of electric power production, while initiating economic development and creating jobs. The world has limited time to transition away from dirty energy sources and toward clean, renewable energy. Will the politicians listen to scientists who warn of global pollution?

The latest climate science

The latest climate science reports that the United States and the world must reduce emissions of global warming pollutants quickly and dramatically to prevent the most destructive impacts of global warming. Should global average temperatures increase by more than 2° Celsius, scientists warn that dangerous impacts from global warming will become inevitable, including flooding of coastal cities, the loss of large numbers of plant and animal species, and increases in extreme weather, wildfire, and drought. To have a reasonable chance of preventing a 2° C increase in global average temperatures, the world must keep the concentration of global warming pollution in the atmosphere below 450 parts per million.

The world must reduce its greenhouse gases

The United States 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 most terrifying results from global warming. Other nations must act aggressively as well.

America’s electric power plants produce more carbon dioxide (the leading global warming pollutant) than the entire economy of any nation in the world other than China.
Even if America uses energy efficiency improvements to prevent future growth in electricity consumption, the nation will still need to expand its renewable generating capacity dramatically. Reducing 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 need for clean energy will further accelerate in future decades as the United States seeks to meet increasingly stringent targets for emission reductions.

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, go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. You can see how much a system will cost, and how much you can save over the next 
20 years. 

For more information relating to going solar, don't forget to visit our solar blog section for more handy guides and articles.