For solar energy, the sky’s the limit
With improved technology and declining costs, renewable energy soars
In the 1950’s, if someone said that our civilization was capable of harnessing the power of the sun to meet our energy needs, it would have sounded like something out of a science fiction movie. Over the past six decades, though, that science fiction world is starting to become part of everyday life. We now have the ability to use more solar energy, more efficiently than ever. In just the last decade, America has increased its solar power production about 39 times — and now produces enough solar to power more than 10 million homes, according to the new report Renewables on the Rise, from Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group.
It’s easy to get excited about the future of clean energy. For decades, we’ve heard naysayers and fossil fuels interests say that solar energy is too expensive and unreliable as an argument for why we should stick with fossil fuels. Now, thanks to scientific advances and good policy, solar has proven not only cleaner and healthier, but also increasingly viable. For example, recent breakthroughs in storage efficiency have now made solar and wind more cost-effective than natural gas.
When we speak of renewable energy, solar is as renewable as it comes. The sun rises every morning, and it provides us with pollution-free energy with no fuel costs. Enough sunlight hits the United States every day to power the country 100 times over. All we need to do is figure out the best way to harness it.
Americans, cities and businesses have embraced solar power, and their enthusiasm translates into innovating new ways to incorporate solar power into our daily lives. Advances in energy storage have made it so that solar energy is more reliable than ever before, even in days with little sunshine, by storing excess energy instead of wasting it. With this improved technology and declining costs, U.S. storage capacity has seen a tremendous 17-fold increase in the last ten years — and that’s just the beginning. As more people adopt renewable energy and battery storage, this trend will continue. With solar panels, battery storage — and even new, exciting technologies like solar shingles and window panes — renewable energy is becoming the go-to option for many Americans.
Even with its virtually limitless benefits, we still depend far too much on fossil fuels here in the U.S. Until we cut that dependency, our planet and way of life are at stake. There is no reason why we should hold on to the energy relics of the past, especially when they are so damaging to our environment and health.
Despite the many roadblocks the solar industry has faced, solar remains one of the fastest growing forms of energy. To paraphrase the great Isaac Newton: “An object in motion, stays in motion.”
Solar energy is the future. And it is a bright future indeed.
