
According to the International Energy Agency, fossil fuels and natural gas provide approximately ⅔ of the world’s total energy. At the current growth rate of population and energy consumption, these nonrenewable energy sources are expected to run out in 110 and 54 years, respectively -- less than 300 years from when they were first utilized for energy. While this is only based on current proven reserves and there is certainly the possibility that additional fossil fuel and natural gas deposits will be discovered, it is impossible to know for sure how long they will last. For something as vital to our way of life as energy, it is necessary to err on the side of caution as it would be tragic to be stuck with no alternative source of energy production in the face of dwindling resources. Fortunately, one of the fastest growing industries in the past decade is alternative energy. In the past few years, solar energy has surpassed wind energy as the most viable renewable energy source of the future. This rapidly maturing technology is still years away from becoming mainstream, but with additional research and development it has the potential to power the entire world one day.

So why is it that solar is considered superior to other methods of renewable energy production? In a comprehensive comparison between solar and wind energy, Iowa Wind and Solar concluded that solar is superior to wind in frequency/cost of maintenance due to less moving parts, integration options because they can be mounted anywhere (vs. 30 foot tall turbines), output reliability because sunlight is easier to predict than wind patterns, and lifespan because solar panels generally last 25+ years as opposed to 5-10 years for wind turbines. Solar also came out on top in noise (solar panels do not generate sound) and lower cost per kWH produced due to solar panels being more efficient than wind turbines according to the study.

Among the most prominent arguments for developing solar power as the energy technology of the future, two main points emerge. The first point is rather obvious: that solar power is much greener than the current coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear technologies. All of these produce harmful outputs ranging from ozone destroying smog to radioactive waste, all things that simply aren’t issues when obtaining energy from the sun. Additionally, all of the aforementioned energy production methods utilize non-renewable resources that took hundreds of millions of years to accumulate, but are on track to be exhausted within 300 years of our first using them for energy. The attractive part about solar energy is that sunlight is an unlimited resource. The second main point in the argument for solar energy is that the industry is inherently more technology based and will create a huge number of high quality jobs in the technology and energy sectors. Many of these new jobs will be at pioneering solar energy companies such as SolarCity, which is in the process of building the largest solar panel manufacturing plant in the country in Buffalo, N.Y. “The plant eventually is expected to produce enough solar panels annually to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity” (Robinson, The Buffalo News). This will have a very positive impact on the economy, bringing hundreds of new jobs to the area.

Both aforementioned points come together to create a solid argument for the transition to solar power. Regarding the superior cleanliness of solar energy there really isn’t much debate, in fact, it would be about as eco-friendly as a plant undergoing photosynthesis. The sunlight will never run out (or else we will have much bigger problems), so there will not be any pressure to develop a new energy source before resources run out. While there are certainly some viable arguments against solar energy, they are largely advocated by oil and gas behemoths that would be put out of business if renewable energy became mainstream. These companies try to argue that the price of solar energy is much higher than older technologies, putting the new technology out of the budget of the average consumer. There is truth to this, however, the price of solar is significantly more affordable than it once was and that trend shows no signs of slowing. Regardless, the truth remains that we are in a race against the clock. That is, a clock in which we have no idea how much time we have left before the nonrenewable resources used to produce energy today are completely depleted. It’s not a matter of if, but when this will happen.

The solar industry is growing exponentially and bringing with it a similar influx of both high end technology jobs as well as traditional manufacturing jobs. The creation of new jobs is one of the primary drivers of a strong economy and the energy sector has traditionally been a key player in this. In fact, solar energy alone is “the largest renewable energy employer with 2.8 million jobs worldwide.” (Irena). There is a common belief that as big oil companies go out of business, thousands of jobs will be lost but in reality, they will quickly be replaced by renewable energy companies. Solar power is inherently more technology eccentric than fossil fuels or natural gas and will bring high quality technology jobs to replace the lost factory jobs. In the past two years, United States based companies have been putting significantly more research into solar energy than ever before. The three companies leading the shift to mainstream solar are Verengo Solar, SolarCity, and Sungevity according to Conserve Energy Future. SolarCity is of particular note because it is the only company with it’s own rapidly expanding solar panel manufacturing division. This will help to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States instead of them being outsourced to countries such as China or India. Besides benefitting the U.S. economy even more, this has the added benefit of maintaining the solar technology at the most stringent quality standards, improving the rate of technology advances in the long run. Outsourcing manufacture would be cheaper, but the fragmentation between research and manufacture would slow advances drastically.

There are several valid arguments against the transition to solar energy, most of which revolve around monetary issues. The most argued point on this side is that the initial investment cost needed to put a sizeable dent into the energy market would be astronomically high. Solar energy only makes up less than five percent of the total energy produced in the world so it isn’t big enough to be considered mainstream yet. Until then, energy companies will want to recover the money that they spent to invest in this technology so they pass the expenses to consumers by charging a higher rate per unit of energy until it is more efficient. Another commonly argued point against the transition to solar energy lies in the reliability of the sunlight needed to power it. Sunlight is only available during the daytime and different parts of the world receive different amounts of sunlight depending on weather patterns and where they are in relation to the equator. In fact, “depending on the time of year, areas that are far north or far south on the globe may find that the seasons are a bit disproportionate, resulting in nights that can last for over 24 hours at a time” (Glenn). This creates obvious problems because solar panels simply can’t produce energy in the absence of sunlight. Regarded by Forbes as the best argument ever made against solar energy, Jimmy Fallon states his opinion on Tonight Show. Fallon starts out by making the point that “for something to be cheap and plentiful, every part of the process to produce it, including every input that goes into it, must be cheap and plentiful” (Fallon). He expands on his point by saying that “the basic problem is that because sunlight and wind are dilute (low-concentration) and intermittent (unreliable) energy inputs, it takes a lot of resources to collect and concentrate them, and even more resources to make them available on-demand” (Fallon). He makes a very good argument here; with current technology, it would take more land than we can afford to use in order to collect enough solar energy to make a sizeable dent in the energy market. The key phrase here is, however, “with current technology”; breakthroughs in solar energy are frequent and the technology of tomorrow could very well render Fallon’s entire argument invalid.

The arguments made against the transition to mainstream solar energy are all valid and worth considering, but if the alternative is to do nothing and wait for the current resources to run out, then it is worth the possible downsides to create a source of energy that will provide for greater longevity. It’s true that the barrier to entry for utilizing sunlight to produce energy on a large scale will be high at first, but there is no way around this. The reality is that any new energy technology implemented on such a scale would have astronomically high initial investment costs. Unfortunately, this will make many people hesitant to transition. That is where incentives for early adopters of solar energy such as tax benefits come into play. The government offers quite a few rebates and subsidies for homeowners switching to solar, “some are generous enough to cover up to 30% of your solar power system cost.” (SolarCity). These incredible programs need to be marketed better to the general public because they provide a huge incentive to make the switch. As more people adopt the technology, the prices will be pushed lower, making it appealing to an even higher proportion of the population, eventually (hopefully) leading to mainstream adoption. 

The issue of unproportional sunlight distribution throughout the world will be a tough one to solve, a more comprehensive power grid will have to be put into place. This is an unavoidable barrier that will undoubtedly cost quite a bit but in this case the future benefits will far outweigh the initial investment cost. While this will certainly be a problem in the future, the current focus is on improving the efficiency of solar technology. The size of solar panels and batteries will need to be decreased and efficiency increased so that they won’t take up precious land that we do not have to spare. Following the current trend of solar research, there is a very good chance that these advancements will be a reality in the next few decades.

Solar technology has advanced rapidly, particularly in the past few years. Although there is still a ways to go before the technology is ready to replace older energy production methods, that day is not far off. My personal outlook on solar energy, taking into account the current trajectory of the market, is that solar will be the renewable energy source that phases out older fossil fuel and natural gas technologies in the next three decades. In order for that to happen, a substantial amount of funding for research and development will be required. This will be accomplished largely by private companies, such as SolarCity, with help from the government in the form of additional funding and early adopter subsidies. If these companies can develop a technology efficient enough to overcome the current issues then we could see solar panels appearing on every building before 2050. Overall, my stance on solar energy is this technology is the way of the future.

Weighing the arguments for and against solar power as the renewable energy of the future, it is easy to see that both sides make clear and valid points. Despite this, one day earth will run out of coal, oil, uranium, and natural gas and an alternative energy source will be needed. It is easy to ignore this issue because it likely will not impact anyone in this generation, but nevertheless, it is in the best interest of the human race to begin the transition. Ignoring the encroaching problems in this generation will leave future generations in an exponentially worse situation -- we need to start acting now. Even slowly increasing the percentage of the world that is powered by renewable energy will increase the amount of time that we have by slowing the rate of nonrenewable resource consumption in the long run. In conclusion, solar energy has the potential to power the entire world one day as long as research and development is emphasized over the next few decades in order to mature the technology.
