What do people think about solar energy?

(1) The first and basic scientific fact to note about solar energy is that, over the last few billion years, all life on earth has been made possible by energy provided by the sun. We have to acknowledge very humbly that — quite literally, without any reservation or qualification — we owe everything to the sun.

(2) Secondly, the so-called ‘modern lifestyle’ is founded on relatively cheap but plentiful ‘fossil fuels’. In fact these fossil fuels are fossilized remains of plant and animal biomass which existed on the the planet hundreds of millions of years ago.

(3) Mankind is poised to use up, within a few hundred years, the fossilized biomass which took tens of millions of years to form. In the process, mankind is also poised to cause irreversible damage to the earth’s biosphere. That will make a continuation of the ‘modern lifestyle’ quite problematic in the future.

(4) Solar energy can be harnessed directly through PV panels, in the form of heat, or of course in the form of plant growth. Wind energy, hydro-power and tidal energy of the oceans are forms of renewable energy, ultimately derived from the sun through natural processes occurring on the planet.

(5) In the coming decades, mankind has no choice but to make a huge switch from ‘fossil fuels’ towards clean and renewable sources of energy — even if that requires some adaptations in lifestyles.

Source: http://www.quora.com/What-do-people-think-about-solar-energy