science

Energy can not be created or destroyed, but it can be transformed: the first law of conservation of energy. Since the earliest days of humanity, man has always been trying to control energy. It was not till the last century when Humans finally learned to harness the high concentration of energy existent in fossil fuels. Energy sources from fossil fuels such as oil and gas are going to run out eventually, they are non renewable sources of energy. Even though humans achieved to apply the first law of energy; we failed to understand the principle. That is energy can not be destroyed. Missing this concept and walking society towards modernization, humanity has been destroying the environment with contamination and misuse of natural resources on Earth. This is why we come to problems such as global warming and depleting resources. Therefore renewable sources of energy such as solar power is the better option over oil and the solution to humanity’s problems. Solar energy is a renewable energy source. This means that we cannot run out of solar energy, as opposed to non-renewable energy sources, We will have access to solar energy for as long as the sun is alive – another 6.5 billion years according to NASA. The potential of solar energy is beyond imagination. The surface of the earth receives 120,000 terawatts of solar radiation (sunlight) – 20,000 times more power than what is needed to supply the entire world. Also this source is environmental friendly decreasing harmful emissions sent to the air, which means slowing down global warming. Lastly solar energy reduces electricity bills. With the abundant amount of energy you get from solar energy, homeowners can now “sell” excess electricity, or receive bill credits, during times when they produce more electricity than what they actually consume. This means that homeowners can reduce their overall electricity expenses by going solar. Even though solar energy is a great alternative source there are some cons, one is price, to install solar energy can be a little pricey averaging 28,000 dollars. Also Solar energy is an intermittent energy source. Access to sunlight is limited at certain times (e.g. morning and night), and predicting overcast days can be difficult. Next is that solar panels need ''exotic materials”. Meaning that there really hard to make and expensive. Such materials like cadmium telluride and compendium selenide. Lastly solar panels require a lot of space. Power density, or watt per square meter (W/m²), is essential when looking at how much power can be derived from a certain area of real estate of an energy source. The global mean power density for solar radiation is 170 W/m².[5] This is more than any other renewable energy source. The second source of energy I will to talk about is oil. One of oils or petroleum pros is that it creates jobs. Petroleum engineering has risen each year by 4.2 percent and give 1.2 million Americans work each year. Second oil is abundant for now at least, it is proven 1,238 billion barrels of oil is left 40 percent of it is under Venezuela and Saudi Arabia alone.
Another Pro about oil is that Moves vehicles faster and longer than any other energy source. One gallon of oil in your tank can take you about 25 miles relatively high compared to other energy sources. Last but not least oil doesn’t require any expensive or advanced technology. Petroleum is mainly extracted from the ground either by drilling or pumping by a machine called a pump jack.