As I stated in the first article one of the areas America needs to improve most in, in regards to our carbon footprint, is energy production. There are two main ways we can implement solar power into our energy production. On a grand scale we can create enormous "solar islands" that essentially replace power plants and provide power to entire cities or districts. On a smaller scale homeowners can implement solar power to coincide with their monthly electric bill, replace their monthly electric bill, or even make the electric company pay them! This small scale solution will provide greater benefits to individual carbon footprints rather than the national carbon footprint but is the first step towards reducing our national footprint. When individuals get involved in reducing their own carbon footprint and they become more involved it will be easier to reduce the national one. A new product has just come out from the DOW Chemical Company that provides solar energy to individual homeowners. DOW has created a shingle that doubles as a solar panel and can be used side by side with normal roofing shingles. Previously a homeowner's only means of utilizing solar energy was to by large bulky solar panels. These were expensive to produce and install. With these new shingles contractors are able to install them the same way traditional shingles were installed thus lowering installation costs. Depending upon how many shingles are installed a house could become completely self sufficient in regards to energy production and consumption. Often times a house produces so much solar energy that the excess energy is actually sent to the power company. The power company must pay the homeowner for this energy. The reason why this is all so important to the reducing of America's carbon footprint is that "green" technology is often expensive. With inexpensive solar options such as the solar shingle it will be easier for people to go green and reduce the carbon footprint.
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I find the topic that was discussed in the comments from the previous entry very interesting in that there is an issue with the expenses of green technologies. I also agree that solar shingles are a great option which would provide homes with solar energy. My question is if you think that these shingles will not actually be costly in that even though a contractor is able to install them, somebody must reroute all of the wires in a household for these shingles to provide power. My second question is if you think that it would be better for the U.S. to go green, or spend time and money making our current system more efficient? Reports have estimated that as much as 56% of the energy created in our factories does not make it to our homes? What do you think about this issue?
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You raise some very good points that cannot be thoroughly answered in one comment but I will definitely attempt to answer these questions throughout my posts because they are crucial questions. When it comes to the shingle question and the "rewiring" of the house there is a fairly straightforward answer. The same way a house has an electrical line ran to it the singles will simply be an additional electrical line. The shingles will all be routed through a single device that will collect the energy and add it to the energy that is being provided by the electric company. There will be no need for a complete rewiring but simply adding a few wires to the already established power supply. Your other question requires a much more in depth answer that I will attempt to answer in later posts with more research. However, a short answer would be that in the long run "going green" as a nation would be more cost effective and have greater environmental benefits, but the upfront costs will be very high. If we make the current energy system more efficient we will simply be pushing the issue to the side to deal with it later, while still spending a large amount of money.
ReplyDeleteGood read! thanks for sharing.
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