There is a current global need for clean and renewable energy sources. Fossil fuels are non-renewable and require finite resources, which are dwindling because of high cost and environmentally damaging retrieval techniques. So, the need for cheap and obtainable resources is greatly needed. An efficient and more feasible alternative option is solar energy.
Solar energy is a more practical type of energy due to its plentiful availability; it is derived directly from the sun. In 2010, renewable energy only provided 8 percent of the total energy consumption in the United States.
Many people probably wonder: if renewable energy is so beneficial, why don't we consume more of it? The answer to the question is that many of the renewable energy sources are more expensive and more difficult to retrieve. Thus, because of these limitations, the consumption of fossil fuels has grown to an exorbitant rate.
Although there has been an increased effort to incorporate solar power, these efforts have not alternated its use by a great amount; less than 1 percent of the electricity in the United States is supplied by solar power. In the United States, California utilizes the most solar power.
After it was denied funding by the federal government, a solar company, SolarCity
, received private funding from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. This project will ultimately provide solar electric panels on roofs for over 120,000 military housing units and spans over the next five years. The bank has agreed to lend up to $350 million for the implementation of the project. The new undertaking is a huge leap for the solar industry.
Renewable energy sources, specifically solar power, can be extremely practical as alternatives to damaging carbon-intensive fuels.