(This is an actual assignment i posted this week in school.it was interesting enough, I thought I would share with the rest!)
The one thing that caught my attention more than any other article or video was the coal plant video. In multiple places around the country there are coal plants that still operate and contaminate the living environment for the surrounding populations on a regular basis. Since I moved to Arizona back in 2001, the first thing that caught my eye was the SRP (Salt River Project) solar collection field in Tempe, AZ. It is a one mile by one mile square property with solar energy collection arrays in various forms from 15 foot by 15 foot directional collectors as well as satellite dish style concentrators. This was the first time I have seen a massive effort to harness the power of the sun and use it for a constant energy resource that provides power to customers in the area. Since Arizona has more sun filled days than most states, this is a practical solution to using alternative energy, and in respect to the weather and climate here, recently there have been multiple companies that have developed solar collection rental and leasing programs for private homeowners.
These consist of roof mounted collectors that are installed on the southern facing roof of the house, allowing for dramatically reduced electrical costs.
In addition to reducing the cost of electricity, the electrical companies also tie these systems into the ‘main grid’ system which means if you as a customer, produce more than you consume in a billing period, you have no cost for your bill and then based on the amount of energy generated, you can actually get a credit on your account towards your next bill. Our local community gets a majority of its power from solar, hydroelectric and nuclear power so in retrospect, the only thing that Phoenicians really have to worry about is a nuclear meltdown from a plant a great distance away, or a cloudy day. I personally would not consider the efforts of alternative energy a moral dilemma in any way.
Alternative energy such as solar energy is a non-volatile, practical way to reduce the cost of energy for consumers across the board. The only possible dilemma I could foresee in regards to the alternative solar energy matter would be random solar collection sites at various points around the city. However in context to that, if you have ever been to the Phoenix area, you will know that there are multiple empty locations of convenience store size or greater in various places around the city, so common you would think there would be a convenience store there. Why not use the resources and efforts to reduce the cost of energy even greater and allow the power companies to allocate these parcels of land to construct solar collection sites, reducing the cost of energy to nearby residents, and reducing the overall strain on the nuclear power plane at Palo Verde, The Hoover Dam, and allowing us to independently distribute power to California?
