THE ISSUE AT HAND

The Full Story

In the United States, we rely heavily on the consumption of fossil fuels to fuel our society.  In 2019, 80 percent of our energy production came from fossil fuels with petroleum being responsible for 37 percent of energy production, natural gas being responsible for 32 percent, and, lastly, coal being responsible for 11 percent. Without a doubt, for the past couple of centuries, fossil fuels have played a significant role in fueling and powering both our nation and the world as a whole. However, as a result, air pollution and the effects of climate change have skyrocketed, and our oil, coal, and natural gas reserves have taken a beating. In fact, at our current rate of consumption, we will have depleted the majority of our fossil fuel resources by the end of 2073. One solution to this problem would be to switch to clean, renewable energy. Currently, 19 percent of our energy production relies on renewable sources such as wind, biofuel, hydroelectric, and solar. By switching to renewable energy sources, we can slow down the effects of climate change and preserve our natural resources. 

For our project, we decided to highlight the importance of one form of renewable energy in particular: solar energy. At optimal efficiency, the amount of solar energy striking the earth's surface in one hour is enough to support the world's energy consumption needs for an entire year. However, at the moment, solar cells are only 20-25 percent efficient, resulting in billions of joules of energy going unused. Researchers across the world have been trying to boost the efficiency of solar cells, and, in our project, we highlighted various research projects currently revolutionizing the solar cell industry. However, due to the complexity of the research,  the majority of individuals are unable to understand what is actually happening and why it’s important. So, for this project, we made it our goal to help simplify this research and spread awareness of the issue at hand.