Yes

by Jeremy Ford

Created on: December 20, 2009   Last Updated: December 21, 2009

Solar energy can definitely be a viable solution to reduce oil dependence. Not just in the United States, but around the world. The sun is perpetually producing enormous amounts of energy.

According to Ken Zweibel in his article, “A Grand Plan for Solar Energy,” “The energy in sunlight striking the earth for 40 minutes is equivalent to global energy consumption for a year.”  The difficulty is harnessing this energy, and manufacturing mechanisms that can disseminate this energy to the masses at an economically profitable price.

One method for converting solar energy into electricity is through the use of photovoltaic cells. These cells utilize the photoelectric effect, first identified by French scientist Edmund Bequerel in 1839. He noticed that certain substances have the capability of generating an electric current when exposed to sunlight. 

These substances absorb protons and release electrons and when these electrons are detained, an electric current is produced. The most common semiconductor material used to produce this electric current is crystalline silicon.

If photovoltaic cells can be massed produced at a relatively cheap price and be hooked in to the central grid of electricity, massive amounts of electricity can be generated with much lower environmental costs than the current electricity producing methods provide.

According to an article by Aaron Cohen entitled, “Organic Solar Collection,” Marc Baldo and a group of research scientists at MIT have developed a new solar concentrator that increases energy efficiency by 50%, reduces energy loss by allowing light to travel further than in previously developed solar panels creating and tenfold increase in generated power.

The reason why the expanding the utilization of solar energy can reduce oil dependence is that the electricity produced from photovoltaic cells can be used to charge batteries for running automobiles. 

Automobiles is the major use of oil, and because of the large population of the United States and the large number of automobile owners, as well as the American desire to own powerful cars - 8 and 12 cylinder engines -  the importation of oil for foreign sources is a necessity.

Our focus as a nation needs to surround the advancement of renewable energy technology, including solar power, to reduce our dependence on oil.  Because of our high oil consumption and the economic reliance on imported oil, economic welfare as a nation becomes very contingent on natural resources that we do not fully control. 

This fact forces us to use sometimes drastic measures to fulfill our natural resource demand. The next country that develops a reliable renewable energy mechanism that can be mass produced for a reasonable price, their economy will skyrocket as the global demand for this product increases. 

China and India could be major players in the economics of a mass produced renewable resource. Both countries are advancing their technology and looking for ways to aid this advancement. They are searching for cheap and reliable ways to progress their respective countries. 

Both countries have large amounts of coal reserves that can be used for electricity. However, given the residual pollution that burning coal can produce, I contend that solar power, if reliable and cheap, could be in major demand.

America certainly will not be independent of oil for a long time. It is too essential to our everyday livelihoods. However, an increase in the use of solar power can certainly decrease our dependence on foreign oil, expanding our self-sufficiency, lifting the burden of occupying and impoverishing small countries to make a few oil and infrastructure companies richer, obviously to the chagrin of the CEOs of these companies that have so much control on our economy and political maneuvers.

The global economy is changing and we need to be on the front of this change. Increasing solar energy use as well as the use of other renewable resources can create jobs, level the playing field of the influences on our policy and motives for war, politics, and infrastructure, and put America at the top of the global economic pyramid with an increase in natural resource exports and a decrease in imports.

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