Trump trumps Solar Panels

By: Makayla Schilling

Background  

There has been a huge rush to win over the hearts of Americans in the 2016 Presidential Debate between candidates in the race for Presidency. One type of question that has really been on hold lately is the question that has anything to do with our environment – mostly regarding global warming. However, in the debate that was held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, a small fragment of that topic was touched by Hillary Clinton when she was asked about bringing back jobs to America through American manufacturers. In response to that question, Clinton says, “...here’s what we can do - we can deploy a half a billion more solar panels. We can have enough clean energy to power every home. We can build a new modern electric grid. That’s a lot of jobs. That’s a lot of new economic activity.” However, what this paper is about is how Donald Trump reacted to Clinton’s comment to which he said, “We invested in a solar company, our country. That was a disaster... Now look, I’m a great believer in all forms of energy. But we’re putting a lot of people out of work. Our energy policies are disaster.”

Purpose

            The purpose of these blog post is to share the information about how cost effective solar panels are in the long run as well as how energy efficient it is. This blog post is to go against the comment that Donald Trump made saying that it puts people out of work as well as it is a disaster.

Employment

            When Trump said that the solar panel industry puts people out of work - that was a false statement. According to ThinkProgress, Solar Foundation created more than 31,000 jobs in a year when 85% of those jobs were created, not pre-existing. When you create a new environmentally friendly job source that our country will depend on, it will require a lot of maintenance which requires workers. Solar panels are not designated to a specific region, which means it will provide jobs all over the country. Currently there are over 170,000 jobs that are related to solar panels and it hasn’t hit its big boom just yet. Patrick Gillespie of CNN Money states that “the solar industry workforce is bigger than that of oil and gas construction, and nearly three times the size of the entire coal mining workforce.” The point of this being that solar panels haven’t hit their biggest production time frame just yet, and already are employing a lot of Americans. When the government decides to install “half a billion solar panels”, it’ll bring more jobs to Americans across the country. The picture below is a report from the Solar Foundation.

Solar Energy Effectiveness

            Every year there are new advances being made towards solar panels which gives scientists more understanding on how to make it more efficient, much like someone would do to their car. To give a quick rundown of what a solar panel does for the planet - it’s that by absorbing solar energy from the sun, scientists are able to convert it into thermal energy, which then can used for to heat things such as water for homes, buildings, and to create heat within spaces as well as create generate electricity. Recently, there has been new science in order to improve solar panels such as the sun tracker which lets the solar panel follow the sun so it is allowed to absorb maximum energy. The reason why solar panels have been under such frenzy lately is because it has been shown that global warming is a real concern for our planet. Global warming, is found through CO₂ produced by the burning of chemical fuels which leads to detrimental effects such as dangerous weather patterns, and ruin some ecosystems. That alone can push towards the extinction of certain animal species such as polar bears whose homes are melting away. Below is a picture that gives an explanation on how global warming works. This shows that “the earth traps solar radiation caused by the presences of gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor and methane from pollution in the atmosphere which allows incoming sunlight to pass through it but won’t allow the heat to escape back out” Ergo, the greenhouse effect.

Conclusion

            The information that was given through this blog and through the sources should be proof enough that more solar panels, along with any other type of energy saving methods need to happen. However, Trump is right in the fact that coming out with solar panels will costs jobs of those who are in the coal industry, but when it is compared to how many jobs will be gained through the solar panel industry as well as any other energy saving source, it is heavily outnumbered. The biggest thing that is coming from this article is there is a presidential candidate who isn’t concerned enough about how our planets health is and how it effects its living things and ecosystems.