In 1968 it was theorized that the United States power generation requirements could be solved with an estimated 105 square miles of solar development, so why hasn't this happened? “Photovoltaics (PV) encompasses the entire technology of the use of solar cells. Solar cells absorb sunlight and change it directly and continuously into electricity,” (Zweibel). Though the photovoltaics form of power generation has been around since the 1950s, today this energy source makes up less than 1% of the power we use in the Midwest region of the United States. This chapter examines the hurdles and opportunities of integrating solar energy into an existing fossil power fueled electrical grid. It investigates the feasibility of incorporating solar energy via building mounted solar panels, large scale developments and the investments necessary to utilize a cleaner fuel type.
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The world today faces different phenomena key among them climate change. Climate change affects every tenet of life. According to Kılkış et al. (2021), there are numerous factors that fuel climate change. Among the factors is unsustainable development (Kılkış et al., 2021). Due to the scarcity of resources, a lot of effort is put into ensuring that people meet their needs. In an attempt to meet these needs, humans more often than not over exploit the resources for today’s needs forgetting to consider future needs (Randall, 2021). Some of these unsustainable human activities lead to production of massive amounts of greenhouse gases (Jeffry et al., 2021). Greenhouse gas release then leads to the rise of global temperatures with the trickle effects being climate change.
In a bid to promote sustainable development, the world is gradually moving from non-renewable power to renewable power. Different sectors have already initiated programs that see a reduction in the overreliance of non-renewable energy. For instance, in the automobile industry, adoption of electric vehicles has taken the world by storm. According to Haddad and Chughtai (2023), electric vehicle (EV) sales have tripled in the recent past from nearly three million new electric cars sold globally in 2020 to 10 million electric cars in 2023. Despite the huge shift of energy source in the automobile industry, the industry remains one of the biggest sources of pollution globally (Shigeta & Hosseini, 2020). Other industries also contribute to pollution in different ways. For a significant change to be noted, the world needs to get hold of a renewable source of energy that can meet the huge energy demand that exists today.
There are six main sources of energy in the world today namely fossil fuel, geothermal, hydropower, wind energy, nuclear energy, and solar energy (Sayed et al., 2021; Asiedu et al., 2021). Among these sources of energy, fossil fuel is by far the most utilized, yet it is the biggest source of pollution compared to other sources of power. Solar energy is the most abundant but to date, its potential has not been utilized. Nevertheless, huge milestones have been achieved in harnessing and utilizing solar energy. In 1980, exploitation of solar energy was at a nascent stage, with much room for growth and development. It was estimated, for instance, that for a region like Northern United States would require 105 square miles of solar-conversion area for the region to meet its energy demands (Glaser, 1968). This approach was unattractive and alternative methods were needed. According to Tesla’s Master Plan Part 3, the land required to convert the entire earth to solar power would be 71.4 million acres or roughly .19% of earth’s available land area (Maire et al., 2023). Among the alternative methods was the development of organic semiconductors which were characterized by different properties including the photovoltaic effect.
Figure 1. (Maire et al., 2023) The use of photovoltaic materials in the production of solar photovoltaic (PV) power has grown significantly in recent years. PV power generation, according to Hayat et al. (2019), is the process of employing solar panels to transform solar energy into electrical power. PV components and materials transform solar radiation into electrical energy. A single PV device is known as a cell (Benda & Černá, 2020). A PV cell is small and normally produces about 1 or 2 watts of power. These cells are made of different semiconductors. Cells are linked in chains to form modules or panels. A combination of panels forms arrays (Yadav et al., 2020). It is the arrays that are then connected to the power grid.