Michael Maiden, Noah Creech, Jacob Schaber, Hardikkunar Patel, Jonathan Cano (Group 5)

Dr. Robert Adams

EE101
November 18, 2015
Issues with solar energy development.
As time goes on and our sources of fossil fuels replenish we are forced to rely more and
more on other energy sources. One of those sources most talked about is solar energy. Solar
energy today remains very expensive. However, in the years to come and advances in technology
over the years this cost will decrease as engineers develop more efficient ways to capture the
suns energy. As engineers develop new solar panels, we see that they face many issues ranging
from ethical, to social, to financial. We will discuss these issues they may face while developing
efficient solar panels.
Some of the ethical issues that engineers may face when developing solar panels are the
issues with disposal of old batteries used to store the solar energy. Batteries for solar panels
become weak over time, just as a car or laptop battery. All batteries have a limited amount of
charge cycles, cycles in which a battery may be ran down, and then recharged. After a battery has
been rendered useless it must be disposed of. Batteries contain material hazardous to the
environment. Another ethical issue engineers might face is that while solar panels are easier and
cheaper to install in deserts and open areas, the energy is needed more in densely populated areas
where the panels cant be placed. Thus, power lines have to be routed from the solar fields to
storage facilities and then to the consumer. This could result in an environmental hazard. Finally,
when solar fields are placed in more rural areas it often requires deforestation. This could also be

seen as an ethical issue as it results in harm to the environment and possible removal of peoples
homes.
Engineers may also face social issues in relation to developing solar panels. Some
societies where fossil fuel energies are the predominant source of jobs, we may see people
oppose a new energy source. For example, in Kentucky we see a lot of jobs in the mining of
fossil fuels, the introduction of solar energy would have lots of backlash in these communities
simply because of the amounts of jobs that would be lost. This could be counteracted by the
amount of jobs produced by the solar energy production. Secondly, an engineer may also find
that the government has to fund the development and that be paid for by a tax which people
would also oppose. Finally, a solar farm would have to be maintained mostly by people with a
higher level of education, such as electricians, engineers, etc. we would see that people who have
a basic education would not be able to help maintain the solar farm besides the cleaning of the
panels. The solar farm may produce temporary jobs during the building process but would not
need any lower level jobs aside from cleaning due to safety restrictions limiting who can work on
the wiring of the panels and batteries.
One final large issue engineers may face is financial support and funding for solar
development. In order to develop more efficient solar panels we would need to develop the
semiconductors and things they are made up of. This leads to large amounts of trial and error.
Trial and error can be very expensive and result in a large financial burden. The push for solar
development would probably be financed mainly by the government and the government would
attain this money from the taxpayers which may have a large backlash, as most taxes do.
However, when we see private organizations working on the development of solar energy, we
often see that they run out of money and have to stop before they can develop anything.

(German advisory council on global change)

Figure 1

(Stefan)
Figure 2
In conclusion, we can see that the engineers of the 21st century have their work cut out for
them. They will face many issues outside of the actual development of the solar panels. They
will face ethical issues which they will have to address and fight to surpass. They will face
positive and negative criticism from much of the community. But most of all, engineers will face
financial struggles as they attempt to solve financial issues. We chose the topic of solar energy
because we feel they are one of the safer forms of alternate energy, they are more efficient, they
are more personalized in a sense that they can be on every house. We feel that solar energy is a
way to create a healthier planet as well as a future of a cheaper energy source. As it is, our fossil
fuels are running out and we will eventually be spending more to harvest fossil fuels than solar
energies as fossil fuels are expected to begin a decline in production in the next decade. We can

see this in figure one, which is a projection of what our energies will come from in the next
centuries. (German advisory council on global change) We can also look a figure 2 and see that
our projected use of solar energy is expected to outpace our energy consumption by 2025
(Stefan). Currently, 86 percent of the worlds energy is from fossil fuels. (Forbes) This means
within the next century nearly all recoverable fossil fuels will be used. (Forbes)