Solar Energy as an Alternative to Nuclear Energy

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Solar Energy as an Alternative to Nuclear Energy
Energy is one of the fundamental items that make things work. The plants and animals use energy so that they can power their bodies and the human beings also use their power in different ways. Therefore, it is important to come up with new sources of energy that do not present a health risk to the people who use the energy source. The recent accident that happened at Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan has caused most of the observers to question the use of uranium as a way of creating nuclear energy and the other clean energy alternatives in general (Eric). The cost of the nuclear power stations is also increasing rapidly. On the other hand, the cost of most of the renewable technologies such as the use of solar and the use of onshore wind keeps decreasing (The Environment 2). There is need to emphasize on the use of alternative sources of energy such as the solar to replace the nuclear energy.
Solar power is the most abundant, inexhaustible and the best known alternative source of energy. The popular method through which the solar energy can be harnessed is by the use of solar panels that can convert the sunlight into electricity that is later distributed to the end user. Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology can convert sunlight into electricity by the use of the solar cells that made from polysilicon. The technology was first developed in the year 1954CITATION Ste17 \p 10 \l 1033 (Stephen 10). Solar energy appears to remain the one that is cost-uncompetitive since it has a generation cost that is greater than all the other sources of alternative and conventional energy. A report called "Renewable Global Status Report-2006 Update" showed that the production had increased from 1150 megawatts in the year 2004 to two gigawatts in 2006. In each of the doubling of the installed capacity, the production costs have dropped by approximately 20% (Johnston 10).
The cost of the solar energy is driven by the module costs and the balance of system costs. The costs that are incurred on the module are driven by the cost of the raw material polysilicon. Polysilicon is in high demand due to technological advances such as high demand for the usage of personal computers and the other chip-based technologies. If there are new supplies of polysilicon in addition to the substitutes such as metallurgic silicon, then there would be a surplus which would, in turn, lower the cost of the raw material and make the solar modules to be available to the users at an affordable cost.
The cost of the balance systems includes the cost that is incurred in getting a piece of land, the cables and the other substructures where the modules will reside. The technological advances that create more efficient solar cells will result in fewer cells that are required to produce the same power output and a less balance of the systems. When the cost of the components appears to trend down, then the grid parity will become easy to attain.
One of the greatest risks in the solar energy is that if it happens that the price of the natural gas falls below say $8MMBtu level then reaching the grid parity will require a reduction on...