Here Comes The Sun Analysis

An Analysis of the Potential of Solar Energy in Here Comes the Sun

It is too expensive, takes up too much space, too much material, it costs more energy than it brings in, and it is still not efficient enough. These are all doubts that many different bodies, like oil companies, want us to believe about solar energy. As a response, Back-light, a production company, takes the edge off these myths and shows that a solar economy is much closer than we think by creating the 2008 film Here Comes the Sun, directed by Rob van Hattum. In his documentary, Hattum shows that the alternatives to the present methods for energy extraction have been viable options since a long time already. The film proves impressively that the solar industry has meanwhile
One of the interviewee is a German engineer who talks about how villagers, in Germany, have completely installed solar power on empty lands and found it very efficient (Hattum 4:50). This argument is supported in the article, A Study on Global Solar PV Energy Developments and Policies, which explains that Germany is one of the leading countries for the development of renewable energy sectors because of feed-in tariffs, which make electricity companies buy from renewable energy sources. The tariff has a set rate for the renewable energy and is paid for by a 1 € monthly electricity tax. This tariff allows solar power investors to make a good profit and this profit is helping the solar power industry to quickly expand. Many investors find roofs in rural areas and pay the owners to rent the roof for photovoltaic solar panels (Sahu 625). Another interviewee in Here Comes the Sun is a Spanish engineer who discusses the development of solar energy in Spain. Spain is growing similar to Germany and is set to become the first country where renewable energy costs the same as energy produced by fossil fuels. Spain uses concentrated solar power plants, which focus heat from the sun to heat water to produce steam to turn turbines to generate electricity. Spain is involved in investing in neighboring countries such as Morocco to increase solar
In A Review of Safety, Health and Environmental (SHE) article, the authors say: “It is true that photovoltaic solar panels do not pollute the air during power generation however manufacturing process of them involves many toxic materials, which is highly harmful from SHE perspective. There are some concerns after the completion of expected life of panel and in their recycling process”(Aman et al.1200). Although it is true that solar energy is clean once the solar panels are installed, but the manufacturing process should be considered. The same article expand on this point saying, “For example in PV solar cells manufacturing, some highly toxic materials like cadmium, lead, nickel and other compounds are used, which have been restricted by the global environmental protection agencies” (Aman et al.1191). Another negative impact is the cost of land. It is very hard for countries with high population density to find large-scale solar farms that are also cheap. The only solution to this problem is increasing the solar panels efficiency or to mount the cells on a rooftop. In this case, with current efficiency of solar panel, the top roof area of houses in USA will only fulfill the 1/10th of total US energy requirement(Aman et al.1200). This brings us to our next point, which is the ecological impact. The construction of solar