All the developed nations of the world including the United States have a huge demand for electricity which is necessary for domestic, commercial and industrial purposes alike. This demand needs to be met from various sources and currently a lot of efforts are going on to focus on the development of renewable sources of energy. A lot has been written about renewable energy and I will not make a repetition here, yet just for a basic introduction in case anybody is not aware of it, renewable energy refers to those sources of energy which are do not need replenishment and these include the energy from the naturally available sources such as the sun, wind, tides and so forth. For a nation to achieve its energy goals as well as to ensure that these goals are continuously met over the coming years and decades, it is important for any nation to concentrate on the development of renewable energy sources. In this article we will see how the US fairs in the use and harnessing of solar energy for use in power generation.
Since sun is a source of energy upon which we have no direct control, first we must find out the average available solar power in a region before deciding to setup solar power plants. The map below shows the solar power available across different states of the North American continent in terms of kWh/m2/day. The image is fairly self descriptive and shows the various ranges of power in the form of different color coding which is available in that particular region.
An expert can observe from this diagram that the potential for solar energy generation is not bad overall, yet you may be surprised to know that the total percentage contribution of solar energy to the overall energy production in the US is merely 1% which is very insignificant and nearly next to none.
There are several reasons for this and one most important reason is the cost factor. Companies which generate electricity have to supply it to their consumers at the lowest possible cost and this is only possible if the production costs are minimal. Solar energy may seem free, but true to the axiom that nothing comes free in this world, it takes lot of resources to build a solar plant since the cost is quite high compared to conventions sources of power.
Another disadvantage is the non-availability of solar power round the clock. Even if the whether is fairly bright and there is no rain or clouds, the sun will certainly set during night time and rise only the next morning. Moreover the manufacture of solar collectors is also a process which has substantial environmental concerns so extensive use of such materials could deteriorate environment in the long run.
Given all the above factors the solar energy contribution in the US is not as great as it could be, but most probably the utility will increase in future due to several factors such as decreasing cost of solar equipment, shortage of conventional non-renewable power sources and so forth.
Image of Solar Power Availability in North America - The National Atlas: United States of America