The Potent of Impact of Solar Energy in UK (Essay Sample)

The Potent of the Impact of Solar Energy in United Kingdom (UK) Energy
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The Potent of the impact of solar energy in UK energy mix
UK is among the countries that has utilized its sources of energy for both domestic and industrial consumption. One of the sources of energy used in the United Kingdom is the solar energy which is harvested from the sun rays. The harvesting of solar energy is done using various devices such as the solar panel, solar heater among other transducers depending on the of the power energy (Dougal, Edward & Gareth, 2014).
In doing so, this solar energy has led to the various effects to the people of the United Kingdom both at the domestic level to industrial level for their consumption. In addition, the widespread impacts of the solar energy has created a shift in transition of human life in the UK society.
The impacts caused by solar energy in the United Kingdom can be termed basing on various aspects. These depends on how the air, soil, water, land among others such as ecology and socioeconomic status of people has been affected. These effects are also based on the available technology which plays a major role in ensuring sustenance of human life and activities.
Literature Review on Solar Energy in UK
The sun is one of the largest sources of energy that has been scientifically proven to produce energy. The energy from this source of is non-polluting and clean to the environment hence giving it an upper hand to be tapped all over the world including the United Kingdom. In UK, the energy from solar has been trapped and hence used as a reliable and sustainable electricity in many sectors like domestic use, industrial among others (Jordan, 2014).
The entire globe is using solar energy hence making it more important due to fact that it’s clean and sustainable hence able to support the wide human activities and its development. In UK, solar energy has been largely put in place hence supports the myriad development of human activities which has led to advancement in systems of solar energy in the country.
The advancement in solar systems in the United Kingdom has been enhanced by the effect the solar energy has impacted to UK as a country. This has been put in place so as to ensure that solar power dominates the UK in many sectors of the economy such business and domestic use. As seen from the previous experience of the solar energy, these systems has a great environmental importance when compared to other sources of energy such as coal. The result is a great contribution in the sustainability of life and the general human development by making life easier for the UK people.
According to statistics, the growth of photovoltaic solar cells in UK that have been installed moved from 2.8 GW to around 5 GW in 2014. This is an indication of the figures almost doubling from the previous data of solar power as given by the department of energy in the UK. As supported by the solar industry in the UK, it stated that the supplied panels for installation was enough to create a supply of around 1.5m homes.
This statistics is inclusive of offices, schools, police stations, train stations, churches among others such as bridges so as to offer a wide range of taste of solar energy. According to the solar industry, the solar energy will cost competitively come the year 2020 when compared to gas (Jordan, 2014). This is because, solar energy has become a popular energy generation thus it needs enough support so that it can achieve a more target come 2030. As said by Barwell, supporting the solar energy sector of the UK will yield it to provide over 50000 employment opportunities come the year 2030.
However, when solar systems are deployed in large numbers in a country, negative environmental impacts can be felt. They may thus pose a great hindrance for future development in the solar energy sector. The negative impacts can then be categorically be identified basing on the nature, intensity, frequency and the type of impact they cause in the UK. The common classifying main categories includes the Concentrating solar thermal plants (CSP) and the Photovoltaic (PV) solar cells.
Positive Impacts of Solar Energy in UK Energy
The use of solar energy in the UK has greatly boosted the living standards of the people of Britain. Solar energy is harnessed free of charge so long as one has installed the solar panels. People are able to enjoy the cheap natural energy in the myriad of ways hence spending less compared to if they used other sources which are relatively expensive. In so doing, the UK people are able to make great savings in their lives in terms of money and resources hence able to invest in other forms human activities. The living standards are then uplifted for many individual. A good example is the expected save of £425m into customers pockets as a result of savings due to the use of solar energy by 2030.
In addition, solar energy has largely helped the UK as a nation to cut off in unnecessary expenses of lighting streets, bridges among other area of the nation. Through this, the country has been able to use the excess saved funds to do other activities that are aimed at improving the living standards of the UK citizens such as in education sector. For instance, it is prospected that the solar energy will contribute to £25.5bn in GVA to the UK economy 2030. This is a great save to the economy hence a great forward step in economic development.
Nevertheless, the solar company has greatly expanded in various ways through manufacture and supply of solar panels and cells to individuals and institutions. Through this, the solar company has employed many of the UK citizens who work in different departments of the company. In this case, the company has served as job creator hence being in a position to increase the employment rate both at private and government level. This has hence reduced over reliance on government jobs hence improving the living standards of people. Employment creation has hence forth reduced the poverty level in the UK. For instance, UK solar industry is targeting to offer over 50000 employment opportunities if it gets full support it requires by 2030.
Again, solar energy is a bit safer to handle and clean to the environment compared to other sources such as the nuclear sources. Through this, the UK people have been able to enjoy the use of safer energy with very little problems in the environment that results from solar energy compared to other methods such as coal (Wikram, 2015). Its nature of being environmental friendly has then given it an upper chance with the users feeling comfortable in the environments.
On the other side, solar energy has less to be associated with climate change. This is due to the fact that climate change is highly influenced by the carbon dioxide emissions which majorly originate from burning of fossils. Solar energy has thus led to a reduced rate of use of such sources hence reducing the rate of climate change in the nation.
Without forgetting the solar energy on land use, solar energy unlike other sources do not require a large farm for production. This is especially possible in cases where the solar panels and cells are placed on tip of roof tops and other buildings so as to trap sun light. It is thus an efficient method of energy generation which minimizes the use of land with a magnitude output to individuals (David, 2014).
Finally, solar energy prevents strain on natural resources such as water. As opposed to other sources of energy such as water, the use of such a resource requires enough of the resource to ensure a constant supply of energy. These may become hard to establish especially of the energy has to be trapped in another environmental settings. For instance, generation of energy from water in an arid environment may lead to strain in water as a resource. Solar energy beats such sources as it only requires installation and its resources can be recycled. For instance, water can be recycled in a solar cell used to heat water.
Negative Impacts of Solar Energy in UK Energy
Although solar energy has impacted the UK in many ways, it has also led to some diverse troubles to the UK citizens. The solar panels are made up of materials such as silicon among others. When the materials are damaged or sometimes improperly disposed,...