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

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