Mankind, if we all disappeared tomorrow, would leave many great legacies on this planet. Most of them would be negative, with examples such as CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons) that destroy the ozone layer, as well as being some of the most potent greenhouse gases ever created (hundreds of times as effective as Carbon Dioxide), nuclear waste buried all over the globe, a few irradiated pacific atolls, and of course Global Warming.
We are now making efforts to stop and even reverse some of the damages we have caused in our time on this planet. For example, CFCs are now banned across the globe, and the ozone layer is slowly beginning to replenish itself. The radiation is dissipating from the sites used for nuclear tests, although they may still remain hazardous for centuries to come. However, one great environmental challenge still confronts humanity global warming.
Since the industrial revolution, we have been pumping thousands of tonnes of Carbon Dioxide gas into the atmosphere. Carbon Dioxide acts as a blanket across the earth, trapping in heat that would otherwise be allowed to escape back into space. That means that the earth is slowly warming up, in a process that promises drastic consequences to the entire planet if allowed to continue unchecked.
Scientists are still divided upon how far global warming has advanced, and whether we have any real power to stop it anymore. However, the consensus seems to be that at the very least we need to concentrate on reducing Carbon Dioxide emissions, to try and prevent the problem getting any worse, and perhaps buying time to come up with a working solution, whatever that may be.
Some of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases such as Carbon Dioxide are power plants. More specifically, fossil fuel power plants; the type that burn coal, natural gas or more rarely oil to generate electricity. In the process of burning their fuel, these power plants emit massive quantities of Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
It is obvious, therefore, that better ways of generating electricity are needed: methods that are much more environmentally friendly, producing less Carbon Dioxide. Though there are many solutions offering renewable, greenhouse-free electricity, one method that holds promise is Solar Power.
Solar Power plants come in a variety of forms: some use massive arrays of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a central column, heating it massively and allowing that heat to be used to generate electricity. Others take a more conventional approach, using photo-voltaic cells to generate electricity directly. However they work, they all share one common theme: they all use the energy of the sun to generate electricity, and they all emit zero Carbon Dioxide.
These plants reduce emissions by reducing the demand for fossil fuel powered power plants. If more electricity can be produced by renewable means, we do not have to burn as much of our already dwindling supplies of fossil fuels in power plants. As well as reducing Carbon Dioxide emissions, these plants also reduce air pollution caused by fossil fuel powered power plants, such as soot from coal, and sulphur dioxide, which mixes with rainwater to form acid rain.
Though solar power-plants could never be a total solution to our energy needs, and they do have their own problems, they are a renewable, efficient solution that may prove useful as we search for alternatives to fossil fuels.
