Annotated Bibliography

Aaron Winn
Stacie Weatbrook
English 1010
April 22, 2016
Research Question: Is solar power really better?
I am researching the question: Is solar power really better? Solar power is
a green energy that is becoming extremely popular due to the government
incentives to help pay for the installation and cost of solar panels. Both
residential and commercial use is encouraged by the government. The
research gives evidence that the subsidies are propping up companies and
technology that is not currently efficient to use or to produce for mass
installation or use.
Blaeloch, J. (2015, November 3). Federal Lands are being Ruined by Inefficient Solar
Power. Retrieved

April 6, 2016, from

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/11/03/the-environmental-costsof-solar-energy/federal-lands-are-being-ruined-for-inefficient-solar-energy
Janine Blaeloch is a environmental studies scientist. She graduated from the
University of Washington in 1989. She is founder and director of the Western
Lands Project which is a project formed for the purpose of protecting public
land from private interests. This article identifies the EPA project which
identifies 15 million acres of public land to be used for solar and wind
powered projects which would then restrict other uses of the property. These
other uses restricted include wildlife protection and recreational activities.
The land would be turned over to private companies to develop power.
According to Blaeloch, doing this would require transmission lines to be built
at an exorbitant financial cost which would be passed on to the consumer.

She offers what she thinks is a better solution by bringing the solar units
closer to the actual consumer by putting the solar panels on rooftops, parking
lots, highway medians and brown fields where the cost to the consumer is
less as well as a reduced cost to the environment.
I thought she gave good points on keeping energy farms out of public lands
to reduce the costs and to have less environmental impact. She points out
that these systems only produce power for 15 to 30 years at a cost that
harms the wildlife and future use of the area. She is an advocate of
renewable energy but seemed to balance her view toward common sense use
of environmental damage and financial returns.
Contoski, E. (2012, January 24). Why Solar Power is Permanently Inefficient.
Retrieved April 5, 2016, from http://amlibpub.blogspot.com/2012/01/whysolar-power-is-permanently.html
A former director of an international environmental consulting firm, Contoski
has worked with real estate firms, authored three books on wealth and real
estate. He lectures on international monetary issues, economic issues and
world trade issues. This article addresses free market economic issues facing
the production of energy. He talks about the financial implications of the
government taxing the population to provide energy instead privatizing the
energy production. A good portion of his argument references Petr
Beckmann, a professor of electrical engineering at University of Colorado.
The amount of energy in sunlight is extremely diluted compared to other
forms of fossil fuel energy such as coal. The author addresses the
governments poor choice of backing the solar energy movement when
everyone in the solar energy business knew that the product cost is too high
and the performance too low to mass market at the current time.

He makes good points in his arguments and brings up a lot of examples of

solar companies that are still getting subsidies from the government while
going bankrupt at the same time. I agree with the author and can appreciate
his questions of why we are paying for something that is not cost effective
and actually costs more to buy than we ever will use.
Decker, K. (2015, May 11). How Sustainable is PV Solar Power? Retrieved April 4,
2016, from http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-05-11/how-sustainable-ispv-solar-power
The creator of Low-Tech Magazine, Decker is co-author of the book, Energy in
2030. He discusses that there is an assumption that solar power generate
more energy than it takes to create them and reduce greenhouse gasses. He
makes the point that using solar energy creates a negative balance in the
energy conservation. The price of the panels have gone down due to
government subsidies and moving manufacturing operations to China which
decreases the quality of the product. The decreased quality of the Chinese
manufactured panels doubles the rate of breakeven points of panel
installation and usage.
I liked his analyzation of the problems facing production of solar power units.
He exhibited a clear understanding of production costs-- financial, economic,
and lost opportunity costs.
Kukreja, R. (n.d.). Disadvantages of Solar Energy. Retrieved April 6, 2016, from
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/Disadvantages_SolarEnergy.php
A proponent of clean, green energy, he is an advocate of climate change and
global warming. He talks about solar energy being clean with a wide range of
uses for it. He makes the point that it is one of the most widely used
renewable resources. He also brings up the items that are roadblocks that
are the main issues in using solar energy. Initial costs, breakeven points of

10-15 years, panel location, weather, sun blocking issues such as trees and
buildings, and pollution blocking of sunlight as some of the serious issues.
Environmental pollution from the production of the panels, the panels
efficiency and reliability and installation area space requirements are also
drawbacks of the using the solar energy.
I agree with his points of disadvantages of using solar power but do not agree
with all of his positions, especially some of his points that it is a clean source
of energy since the production of the panels uses fossil fuels and causes
pollution by waste materials. Mr. Kukreja does not give any information as to
his professional expertise on the subject.
Mulvaney, Dustin. (2014, August 26). Solar Energy Isnt Always as Green as You
Think. Retrieved April 16, 2016, from http://spectrum.ieee.org/greentech/solar/solar-energy-isnt-always-as-green-as-you-think
This article talks about the production of solar panels in countries with poor
records of protecting the environment and the workers. The process of
making the solar panels can be dangerous, releasing toxic fumes, involving
hydrochloric acid. The waste tetrachloride can be recycled but is often
disposed of because of high costs of recycling equipment. The disposal of it
in water shed areas affects farming areas, crops, field contamination, and
population sickness. He discusses a new thin solar cell that has the potential
to bring the cost of manufacturing down. Stricter manufacturing
requirements for the panels are being discussed by the Solar Energy
Industries Association.
This is a provocative discussion about not only the monetary cost of a
particular productbut its human cost as well. I agree with his position that
there is a pretty big consequence right now to the manufacturing of solar
panels.

Nunez, Christina National Geographic. (2014, November 11). How Green Are Those
Solar Panels, Really? Retrieved April 3, 2016, from
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/11/141111-solarpanel-manufacturing-sustainability-ranking/
Nunez raises issues regarding the level of transparency from panel
manufacturing companies reporting their sustainability efforts. The third and
fourth top rated companies have participated in self-reporting surveys but
other companies have declined to participate regularly. The article focuses
on pollution and recycling issues. She does not address the issue of panel
efficiency but focuses mainly on the problems of recycling.
Potts, B. H. (2015, May 17). The Hole in the Rooftop Solar-Panel Craze. Retrieved
April 7, 2016, from http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-hole-in-the-rooftop-solarpanel-craze-1431899563
Brian Potts wrote this article discussing the solar panel craze and the reasons
residential consumers are buying into the program. The heavily subsidized
program may reduce the cost of purchase for residential consumers
individually, but without the subsidies, the cost is much higher and doesnt
reflect the actual cost to the country. Utility companies are required to
purchase electricity from small residential customers at a much higher rate
than they would have to pay from large scale solar farms. Potts addresses
the dollar amount spent on subsidies rather than focusing on the
environmental costs.
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. (2009, January 14). 2015 Solar Scorecard
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition regularly rates solar manufacturing companies
on sustainability, manufacturing processes and waste. Their reason for rating
companies is so that consumers can see who is a responsible company. The

rates on: worker health conditions, water usage, co2 emissions, chemical
usage, toxicity, and prison labor use. The coalition believes that there is still
time for companies to take responsibility for cleaner manufacturing and
reprocessing of waste as well as maintaining equitable environmental and
labor standards. It ranks companies from high to low regarding these
standards.