Hannah Siebert
While our population is promoting to maintain a clean planet, the use of solar energy is growing rapidly this year especially in California. Although California has always been the nation's leader and trendsetter in clean energy, other states like Arizona and North Carolina are growing their solar markets as well, like shown in the chart. However, in the past two years the industry struggled due to the tariffs. The tariffs were set to bring in 30% imported solar panels. This brought uncertainty to the industry which caused an increase in price since importing is so expensive. Many workers lost their job due to this. Based on the data, last year solar energy employment decreased by 18,000 workers. The Solar Energy Industry Association stated that when the tariffs were established, the prices became more expensive since there was competition against other renewable energy businesses. Buyers went to other energy source firms as their substitute, since prices were so high. The solar industry loss many jobs and money during this time.
Now, in 2019, the solar industry is recovering fast. Supply and demand for solar panels has increased after the mandate in California. The mandate is set to act in 2020, it states that all new homes built in California will require an installation of solar power. Which means that this year so far there has been 12,000 solar power installations. Hopefully California will influence other states to follow there rule.
There is a large number of people employed in renewable energy jobs, as you can see in the graph the amount of jobs within this industry skyrocketed after 2010. With so many new homes needing an installation of solar panels, the solar industry is expanding their company by hiring more than 243,000 workers resulting in the fastest growing job in the US. The graph also shows a predicted amount of solar industry jobs in 2019, the amount excels previous years and will continually grow. Employment rate in 2019 is set to increase by 7%. Not only does this industry increase employment rates, it also contributes money. Solar energy industries contribute about 200 billion dollars to the US economy. By increasing renewable energy we can decrease the amounts of fossil fuel and coal, since it will not be at such high demand. By eliminating our use of coal, the US saves a ton of money. Also, renewable energy would increase the GDP by 1.1%. As fossil fuel usage in the future may decline, due to solar energy, the amount of emissions in the air will decrease. This means that the amount of chemicals in our air will decrease, and as we eliminate air pollution our planet becomes much safer. So are solar panels worth installing? In order to maintain a healthy, clean environment our country should keep utilizing solar energy and as the industry develops more job opportunities will be created. Solar energy can be overlooked but can be very beneficial when it comes to saving money, growing our economy and creating more jobs.
Works Cited
Betz, Bradford. “California Mandates Solar Panels for Homes Built in 2020 and Later.” Fox News, FOX News Network, www.foxnews.com/us/california-mandates-homes-built-in-2020-and-later-include-solar-panels.
Penn, Ivan. “California Will Require Solar Power for New Homes.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 May 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/05/09/business/energy-environment/california-solar-power.html.
Rogers, Kate. “After Being Rocked by Trump Tariffs, the Solar Energy Business Is Bouncing Back.” CNBC, CNBC, 5 Apr. 2019, www.cnbc.com/2019/04/05/after-being-rocked-by-trump-tariffs-the-solar-energy-business-is-bouncing-back.html.
I agree with you that people are constantly promoting to have a clean planet, however not much change is really being made efficiently. Solar energy is a great way to conserve power since we always seen to be running into the problem of wasting it. Although this is an great solution, it will take time to put in these systems. In addition, it will be quite expensive to install the solar panels. Change can not happen over night, but this is an effective change to be made.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it is a good thing that California is mandating that every new house that is built needs to have solar panels installed on it, because this is a great way for people to save money on their electricity bills, with not having to pay as much for power from them generating it, they will have more money to put towards other essentials that they may need and still have some money to spend on the other things in life that they may want to do instead.
ReplyDeleteThis post was amazing on the fact that it taught me stuff I never knew about solar energy. But it didn't surprise me that California is the nation's leader in clean energy because California is a very Green state. A real eye opener for me was when you said last year solar energy employment decreased by 18,000 workers. I thought that was surprising because if I wouldn’t of read this I would of thought the solar industry was doing well. But overall I can’t wait to see how this industry goes moving forward.
ReplyDeleteThe renewable energy industry being led by solar power companies isn't all too surprising, considering how accessible that type of energy production is. However, I would be willing to bet that the industry really won’t be able to grow as efficiently as we need until the technology is made to be a much cheaper option for the consumer than traditional fossil fuel energy is. As long as a solar panel costs a majority more than it is worth in how much energy it can produce, consumers will just continue to use their fossil fuel energy instead. I would also think that the demand for solar energy would fluctuate far more than other types of renewable energy, mostly due to the fact that the weather is an unpredictable thing, and most consumers would be unwilling to purchase solar panels if they aren’t going to be useful 24/7. I’m not sure what kind of solutions can be found to counteract these flaws in the demand for solar energy, but I’m sure that scientists should be able to figure it out, seeing as we’ve managed to become technologically advanced enough to capture an image of a black hole.
ReplyDeleteNot only do I agree that the incorporation of solar panels to be produced and utilized in the United States will definitely provide sufficient jobs and income. From prior knowledge on the use of photovoltaic solar panels. With the incorporation of them, not only do we as a society will benefit more. It will help consumers be able to generate their own source of power. Instead of relying on local monopolies such as power plants that provide the mass providence of electricity. Just as you stated, that as of 2010 around 200,000 workers have been employed to installation of solar panels. Not only, provides more workers contributing to the economy but, also providing a more environmentally friendly option to choose. Which will provide us with more wealth to spend on other projects of investment and not have to worry about the consequences of using factories and equipment that provide negative externalities as a result. With the use of non fossil fuel sources of fuel will overall benefit the society as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI always love the idea of clean energy and the usage of solar, water and wind for our energy. However these improvements and usage of solar power, especially in California, is actually not as environmentally clean as one might expect. It may not even be as economically beneficial either. Solar power is expensive, unreliable and produces 50% to 35% the energy that burning coal or oil. Also manufacturing to make the solar powered plates uses the burning of oil and gas to power the equipment to make the large panels, which need to be so big to power a home because of the lack of efficiency these panels offer. From an economic standpoint you also have to look at the thousands to millions of jobs that work in fossil fuel burning power plants, such as coal, nuclear and oil power plants. Solar power doesn't require numerous people to constantly control the input of energy and therefore doesn't require as many jobs as other power plants. This means that unemployment will increase and the cost of solar power energy will also increase. This causes people to move toward fossil fuels as a substitute as well as force the government to consider placing a price ceiling for energy. I am not against the idea of using solar power as it is much better for the environment, but first we need to find more efficient ways of providing cleaner energy that actually is 0% emissions. For the time being the combination of clean and fossil energy is at least cutting down our carbon footprint, but I wouldn't praise the progress we've made so high quite yet.
ReplyDeleteSolar power energy has had a great impact on our world today, it not only helped lead to a healthier planet, but also helped decrease the power bill. Although, recently solar power energy has become expensive, in the long run it will help save money. Solar power energy not only helped the consumers, but also helped create more jobs. Because of solar power energy it assisted on putting more jobs on the market and decrease unemployment. Overall, solar power energy helps the planet, saves money, and creates more jobs.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this article! I've always liked solar power just because of the degree to which it is able to reduce our fossil fuel usage--and therefore, decrease our carbon footprint and hopefully begin to stop the effect we as humans have on global warming. That being said, I knew that they were expensive, but didn't realize the job opportunities that the solar power industry created. I had never thought about solar power from an economist point of view, and so I found this to make the case for installing more solar panels and renewable energy sources all the more compelling. What's also interesting is how solar panels lower the utility costs for the average household (over their lifetime, they could save a homeowner thousands of dollars), making them an eco-friendly and an economically-friendly option for us a country, but also, as individuals.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a very interesting topic. I do agree that this will help create jobs because there is a need to manufacture them, install them and so on. It is also a great way to boost the economy, because it is just an expense to get them installed, consumer spending increases. But in the short run, the big expense to install solar panels decreases how much consumers will spend in years to come. Moving into the long run, it will take a few years for consumers to earn their money back that was spent on the solar panels.
ReplyDeleteSolar energy is definitely going to be a lucrative industry going forward considering we only have 12 years left to save our earth from global warming. I am curious as to why the tariffs were imposed in the way that they were and I wonder a) how much more expensive would it be if we produced more solar panels domestically or b) if we lowered the tariffs for imported panels. Also, with the Green New Deal, they are making it a point to add new jobs to the solar panel industry which would allow it to better bounce back and create a sustainable new source of energy. Additionally, with the current state of climate change, the demand for solar panels will certainly increase which will increase the demand for workers, which will definitely support the industry.
ReplyDeleteResidential solar energy has a ton of potential and is definitely worth the investment. The initial cost and installation may put most people off right away, but the long term environmental and economical benefits prove to be worth it. Based off some research that I did in Green Tech, there are three different tax exemptions that the government provides to those who installed solar panels, those include: property tax exemption with average savings of $15,000, the federal solar tax credit which covers 30% of the whole system, and the renewable energy sales tax of up to 6%. All of the economic benefits offset the cost of owning, installing, and maintaining solar panels which disputes the main reason why people don't want to buy them. Not to mention the economic benefits that you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI agree that solar panels would be great as more jobs would be available. Not only would more jobs be available but this would really help save the environment if every home started implementing these solar panels. Since factories emit so many pollutants into the air one way to slowly help save the environment could be through using solar panels. This would boost the economy as more people would have jobs of installing them. For more people to use them I feel like producer and sellers should try and lower the price as this would make the product more affordable for customers and would help the company compete against other companies that customers are already using. Implementing solar panels would help decrease the amount of deaths that happen a year from air pollution, would create more jobs, and would in the end help to save the environment.
ReplyDeleteI believe that solar energy is a great change to our environment by providing a safer and possibly more effective way of gaining energy. It is somewhat confusing why solar panels had a tariff of 30%. Could the reason possibly be because solar panels are expensive to make and supply, so the price is higher for customers? Are solar panels overall more expensive compared to obtaining fossil fuels? If so, will people overlook this price in order to help the environment? My hope would be yes, people would choose solar power, especially since the industry allows for more job opportunities compared to other ways of energy creation or people could find a new form of energy to save the environment in a cheaper way.
ReplyDeleteWith putting in solar energy it is definitely going to help out earth because we only have a short time to save it from global warming. I agree with the fact that this will help create more jobs for people. There would be a huge need to people to make them and be able to install them. This would really help boost our economy because it is just an expense to get them made and installed. This will increase the consumer spending in the short run but in the long run this will pay off in huge amounts. Also in the long run it will take a few years to earn the consumers money back that was spent on the solar panels. But all in all this would really over all help the economy and the earth and help prevent or slow down global warming.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the idea of solar energy. And I do think that the U.S. should have 100% renewable energy long term, but like many people have mentioned it is very expensive up front. I think that we should use nuclear power as a transition. Nuclear power was responsible for 55% of America’s carbon-free electricity in 2018. While opponents of nuclear energy say that it is dangerous and could be targets of terrorist groups, the truth is they produce enormous amounts of energy without releasing harmful admissions. Eventually we will produce our energy from wind, water and the sun. But for now nuclear is the way to go.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that renewable energy is becoming more common is a step in the right direction. This is a good thing in terms of promoting lifestyles that support the environment because right now, we are using so many non-renewable resources that are really damaging our planet. However, most people don't care about the planet as much as they do about their wallets. I think it is interesting how the information you said touches on the economics of the industry. The truth is there will be a small percentage of consumers that would be willing to pay more to promote sustainability, however if different forms of energy outside of fossil fuel such as solar energy prove to be more expensive, people will not want to make the transition. Of course with improved technology and promotion of solar panels becoming more mainstream, more and more consumers will want to transition. I think it is a good sign that it is becoming more popular, expanding to states other than California.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to see how the solar energy industry has such a big impact on the economy. Everyone now a days is trying to go green and save the planet. But in the end, by doing this we are killing more jobs than we are helping the planet. There is a need to be greener, but there also needs to be an economic balance between that and the old ways of doing things. This was very interesting to read and I can't wait to see where is goes in the future.
ReplyDeleteI really like your topic because it ties in with our planet and our economy. It's very interesting to see the impact of solar power in the economy. When you stated "By increasing renewable energy we can decrease the amounts of fossil fuel and coal, since it will not be at such high demand" I was intrigued by the cause and effect of incorporating solar power technology. Knowing how little solar power is used now, seeing the increase in solar power will be interesting because thee impact on the economy. Overall I thought your take on solar impact was helpful for a better insight on the whole situation.
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ReplyDeleteI did not know how much the solar energy and things in space we do not see actually have an impact on our economy in earth so this is really interesting to me. I didn't know all of the positive impact that it has on the world. Positive and negative. I think it is a good idea to use more solar energy/power because ultimately it is more safe and smart to utilize for our economy and I hope that it will become more popular and used by more states that California and California can be a model to inspire others to use it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing valuable post regarding solar energy but one question in our mind i.e. How To Calculate Solar Savings
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