Solar
in sentence
1475 examples of Solar in a sentence
In Europe,
solar
power took a hit after the European Commission decided to phase out subsidies for renewable energy by 2017.
The installation of
solar
panels fell by nearly 60% in Germany in 2013, and by 70% in Italy.
And, indeed,
solar
power increasingly appears to be able to survive without regulatory help.
During the last five years, dozens of
solar
manufacturing companies have failed, only to be replaced by stronger, more innovative, and more efficient players.
More than one-quarter of cumulative global
solar
photovoltaic capacity was installed just in the past year.
The International Energy Agency, which has been conservative regarding
solar
energy's prospects, now expects it to be the world's largest power source by 2050.
Third-party ownership, in which a company installs and maintains
solar
panels, in exchange for either a set monthly rate or a fixed price per unit of power, has driven up adoption rates in California, financing more than two-thirds of new installations in 2012 and 2013.
Last year, developing countries accounted for 48.8% of global investment in wind, solar, biofuels, biomass and waste, geothermal, marine, and small hydropower – an increase of nearly 30% since 2004.
Yet mini-grids can – and increasingly do –take the form of
solar
PV and hybrid systems, with hybrid systems being particularly promising.
Hybrid systems that combine diesel with
solar
or wind power mitigate these risks.
To be sure, innovations in the United States, Germany, Japan, and China have already facilitated a 70-80% reduction in the cost of
solar
photovoltaic power generation in the last five years.
But much more can be done to ensure that costs continue to fall, and that
solar
power is accessible in all countries.
Solar
technology has improved, and its declining cost has made it a viable option.
Lobby groups, activists, and the media promote certain causes –
solar
panels, the Zika virus, closing tax loopholes immediately – while less fashionable issues, like nutrition or non-communicable diseases, can slip beneath the radar.
It hopes to generate 40% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, and it expects 100 gigawatts of that to come from
solar
energy by as early as 2022.
According to the Trump administration’s own analysis, more than twice as many Americans are now working in the
solar
industry than in coal, oil, and gas combined.
This is crucial, because whatever technical advances there may be in
solar
and other renewable energy sources, we will depend on coal and oil for the next 40 years.
Preventing temperatures from rising out of control will require a second geoengineering fix, known as
solar
radiation management.
Earlier this year, the US National Academies of Science gave the technique a tepid endorsement, and the Chinese government announced a major investment in weather modification, which could include
solar
radiation management.
But
solar
radiation management does not remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
PIDA gives priority to energy (especially hydropower) projects to support mining operations and oil and gas pipelines, while sidelining renewable energy technologies, such as solar, wind, and geothermal.
Either technology will depend on a national electricity grid that uses low-emission forms of power generation, such as wind, solar, nuclear, or coal-fired plants that capture and store the carbon-dioxide emissions.
The other geoengineering idea,
solar
radiation management (SRM), envisions cooling Earth by putting mirrors in space, pumping salt spray from ships into clouds to make them brighter, or filling the stratosphere with a sulfuric acid cloud, just as volcanic eruptions occasionally do.
However, when it comes to energy production from oil – most notably fuel for cars – it is likely to be years before wind or
solar
energy can provide viable alternatives.
According to African Progress Panel estimates, poor African households would save $58 a year, on average, by installing
solar
panels – money that they could spend on education, health, and productive investment.
So why has the market for
solar
power yet to take off?
Part of the problem is that poor households cannot afford the up-front costs of
solar
technologies.
While the price of
solar
panels has fallen by more than half in the last few years, even a $150 entry-level package remains far beyond the means of someone living on less than $2.50 a day.
The challenge for investors – and for governments – is to lower the cost of connecting to
solar
energy.
The Nairobi-based M-KOPA – which has connected more than 200,000 households in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania to
solar
power – enables their customers to acquire a
solar
kit for a small deposit.
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