Gone are the days when solar energy products catered to a niche target audience and used to be very lavish insofar as the cost was concerned. With huge strides in the field of science and technology, solar energy is now being harnessed in such a way that almost anyone can afford it. And, the glaring benefits of solar energy are boundless.
Compared with mechanized and capital-intensive fossil fuel technologies, the renewable solar energy industry is more on the lines of being labor-intensive. Therefore, on average, more jobs are created for every single unit of electricity generated by renewable sources than by fossil fuels. Furthermore, renewable energy already fosters thousands of jobs in the United States alone.
For instance, in 2011, the wind energy industry directly employed over 70,000 full-time employees in a variety of verticals, ranging from construction and turbine installation to manufacturing and project development! Discussed below are a few highlights of solar energy and its new-found effect on some global economies
Employment Generator
The solar sector has emerged as a new industrial domain over the recent years and rightly so since it was imminent and long-impending. As more and more people begin installing solar panels in their homes and offices to meet their energy requirements, the solar industry is developing faster than ever before in sales, installation, and manufacturing verticals. In the United States, the solar industry has employed more than 350,000 people thus far and it is projected that by 2025, an additional 202,000 jobs are going to be created. There’s some good news for India too, where unemployment has marred the world’s fastest-rising economy. It is estimated that by 2022, the solar energy industry will generate as many as 1.6 million jobs with over 600,000 jobs focused in the construction vertical alone!
Fool-proof against Natural Calamities
With the threat of global warming, the risk of disruptive events such as heat waves, droughts, intense storms, and severe wildfires has become more frequent. Since solar energy is a renewable energy source, it is more resilient than natural gas, petrol, or coal and provides its services relentlessly. Similarly, during a severe drought or heat wave, electricity generation faces a huge amount of risk. With the usage of solar photovoltaic systems and Wind turbines, the future of solar power in India looks bright, as water is not a requisite for generating electricity, and solar systems help mitigate threats associated with water scarcity too.
Stable Prices
Renewable Solar energy is ably providing affordable electricity solutions to countries as diverse as the USA and India and can help stabilize even the prices of non-renewable sources such as petrol and diesel in the future. The good news is that the cost of renewable energy technology has declined rapidly, and is estimated to drop even more! For instance, the average price of a solar panel has gone down more than 50 percent since 2011. However, renewable energy systems require some good upfront investments, but once they are properly set up, they can operate at very low costs as the fuel is free. Therefore, in the long term, renewable energy prices remain relatively stable.
Reliable Energy Backup For The Economy
Wind and solar energies, due to their distributed and modular nature, are less prone to large-scale failure. By virtue of being spread out over a large geographical area, a severe weather crisis or man-made disaster in one location is not likely to cut off power in the entire region and put the economy in danger! On the other hand, Modular solar systems comprise various solar arrays and individual wind turbines that can withstand damage to some of their equipment and continue to operate peacefully.
Multiple Uses
Solar energy is very beneficial for world economies because of the number of methods in which the sun’s radiation is put to use in a vast array of solar products ranging from solar panels, and solar street lights, to solar inverters, solar UPSs, solar fans, solar cables, solar mobile chargers, solar home systems, and even solar CCTV cameras! Just think about the number of people who would be employed in the manufacturing, sales or installation of so many products!
It is without a speck of doubt that solar energy is going to be the next big thing in the industrial sector worldwide.
