It was recently reported that supermodel Gisele Bundchen refused to be paid in U.S. dollars, because of uncertainty over its strength. She instead, asked to be paid in euros.
In his new music video for the movie "American Gangster," best selling rapper Jay-Z flaunts the euro, not the dollar, to showcase his wealth.
The examples above speak volumes about what many people with money, lots of money, think about the value of today's dollar. And many of them are beginning to hedge their bets with respect to the dollar. But what does all of this have to do with renewable energy resources?
If the dollar continues to be weak against other currencies, it will produce many unpredictable side effects. But one side effect that is almost certain to happen is a rise in the prices of traditional energy resources. All imports, but specifically oil and gasoline, will become more expensive. The days of $1.20 a gallon for gas are probably gone forever.
Grid Parity and Energy Prices
Grid parity is the point at which it becomes cheaper to produce your own electricity, from photovoltaic cells using solar power, than it is to buy it from power companies off of the electrical grid. As energy prices rise, more and more people will find themselves reaching grid parity.
Until very recently, the prospect of a community reaching grid parity any time soon seemed like a remote possibility. However, as energy prices have risen, some places in the U.S. have already reached that point. As of 2007, Hawaii has reached grid parity with the peak charging rates. Parts of California, particularly Northern California, have reached gird parity as well. As energy prices continue to rise, in large part due to the dollars devaluation, we'll see many more communities reaching grid parity.
But there is also an inverse price relationship happening with solar power and oil. As the price of oil slowly increases, the prices of photovoltaic cells are slowly decreasing. Companies are becoming more efficient at producing solar cells thus enabling them to be sold at lower price points. In addition, the solar cells themselves are becoming more efficient solar collectors, which let's the home or business owner save even more money.
And, of course, other factors pushing us towards greater uses of solar cell technology are the looming worries of global warming and the pressing need to decrease greenhouse gasses being released into the atmosphere.
Are corporations betting on solar power? One such company, SunPower, which makes photovoltaic panels for businesses, expects to pull in over one billion dollars in sales next year. Solar Power Inc. had revenues of over 8 million dollars in it's third quarter alone. Solar power companies in foreign countries such as Germany, Japan, and China have ramped up their solar power production facilities dramatically in the past few years.
For the past several years the U.S. has been borrowing money with reckless abandon. We have a national debt of over 9 trillion dollars. Now, the rest of the world is slowly deciding that they no longer want to bankroll us. For us, that means a continued low valued dollar and increased energy costs.
Essentially there are three fossil fuel sources available to the world but each of them are dwindling. The most abundant is coal; coal is widely used and inexpensively extracted. As such, we have come to rely exceptionally heavily on coal and while there is still quite a large amount of coal left it is estimated that America's remaining coal will sustain the country for the next 200 too 300 years but it is by no means a perfectly clean form of power.
The biggest problem is that coal is made up of carbon, like living beings, and the burning it needs to go through in the production of energy forms carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxides traps the earth's heat and is a major contributing factor that scientists believe to be causing global warming. On a more positive note, though, scientists have created a more effective method to burn coal that traps 99% of the impurities and harmful gases that are emitted.
Apart from coal we heavily rely on natural gas and oil that are also in limited supply, and this is where the problem lies. The human race is consuming more and more energy with every day that passes and our resources of fossil fuels are being seriously depleted thanks to the way we live. The answer to this problem seems to lie in alternative energy.
What is alternative energy?
Alternative energy are non fossil fuels and do not deplete the earth's resources of fossil fuels any further. Countries across the world are being pushed into investing money into the research and production of alternative energy and many countries already have natural energy sources producing usable energy.
Wind energy.
One of the first used forms of alternative was wind energy. Many countries have developed wind farms, both off shore and mainland wind farms. Turbines are turned by wind, creating a viable renewable energy source. The problem with wind energy is that turbines can't be located near housing districts because of the noise they create, although with further research and investment technologies associated with wind energy and wind turbines will undoubtedly keep improving.
Solar Energy.
In many countries grants are now available to help pay for photovoltaic tiles which collect the heat from the sun's rays and convert it into an exceptionally safe and renewable form of alternative energy. Whether used to create electricity or to simply heat water or a central heating system, solar energy is easily obtained and the technology is very affordable. With solar energy consumers are assist with the protection of the environment.
Biomass.
Biomass is still a relatively unused form of energy in many parts of the world but more and more money is being put into funding of biomass. Biomass is the creation of energy using plant materials, and is another source of clean, renewable energy. America is one country that uses Biomass to quite big effect, being the largest source of renewable energy every year since the year 2000.
These are only a few alternative energy sources that are available around the world, and more and more funding is becoming available for the production and research of these sources.
Both John Kuzniar Kuzniar & Peter Lenkefi are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
John Kuzniar Kuzniar has sinced written about articles on various topics from Government Grants, Environment. John Kuzniar is a freelance writer who writes articles relating to and other energy saving resources. John Kuzniar Kuzniar's top article generates over 880 views. to your Favourites.
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