The World Would Benefit from Using Solar Energy
Leroy Valdez
EN1320
3/4/14

The world would benefit from using solar power energy technology especially in developing countries and poorer neighborhoods.
Here is some information about the basic types of Solar Energy. There are two main types available – Photovoltaic (PV) solar panel and solarthermal heating panels. While PV panels generate electricity to run appliances and lighting, solarthermal panels use energy to warm water stored in a hot water cylinder, (Dailey Record, 2012). Over the years the price of solar panels arrays has dropped significantly. Around 1.5 billion people, or more than a fifth of the world’s population, have no access to electricity; and a billion have only an unreliable and intermittent supply, (Economist, 2010). Solar power can be directly installed in a home or building in a town or village that has no access to an electrical grid, there is no need for miles of costly power lines to be installed for the use of solar power. Once solar cell panels are installed there is little maintenance to be needed. With the growing use of cell phones in rural areas in Africa and India and South and Central America solar power can be a cost effective way for powering such devices. Solar power can also be used in rural clinics to refrigerate life saving medicines. These are just some of the examples of how solar energy can be utilized in the developing world and the possibilities are endless once people are given this valuable resource called electricity. Electrical energy is the pivot of all developmental effort in both the developed and the developing nations. Because sources of conventional energy are finite and fast depleting, most industrialized countries have started research on solar energy as a renewable source of energy, (International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 2006). Federal and