S OLAR : THE N EW F RONTIER
Story and photograph by Rani Birchfield
A
merica’s history is carried on
the backs of its energy procure-
ment, its future formed by the
choices therein. Up until now, earth-
bound carbon forms provided our
energy: food for humans followed by
fodder for animals; then the abundant
forests of the New World provided
fuel. As coal dropped in price, it grew
exponentially and took over as king.
Although dangerous and dirty, it
became a defining fuel for the
Industrial Revolution. Coal powered
the railroad industry and connected
the territories, creating cohesion for a
18
budding America. Coal was given a
run for its money by oil, then overtak-
en by natural gas. Now, as carbon
energy production fuels climate con-
cerns, cleaner sources that aren’t car-
bon-based are catching up. One of the
most powerful of these is solar.
Solar power is the conversion of
energy from the sun into electricity. It
sounds almost magical, but there are
two ways to do this: directly using pho-
tovoltaics or indirectly using concen-
trated solar power. In simple terms, a
photovoltaic cell (PV cell) is a special-
ized semiconductor diode that con-
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2017
verts visible light into direct current
(DC).
Although the cost in the past of pho-
tovoltaic cells has been high, with the
development of new technology, solar
is growing rapidly. Its contribution to
the power grid is silent, in the back-
ground, in deserts and areas with
abundant sunshine. The US
Department of Energy reports that
solar employment accounts for the
largest share of workers in the Electric
Power Generation sector, which
includes oil and natural gas, coal,
wind, bioenergy, nuclear, hydroelec-
tric and solar. According to the report,
solar has more than double the jobs of
the coal industry now and almost as
many as natural gas, although much of
that is due to new solar site construc-
tion. Last year, a half-million solar
panels were installed every day (world-
wide), according to an article in the
Business section of the Telegraph last
October. While many of these were in
China, some of these were done right
here in the Big Bend region, a few
miles outside of Alpine.
The Alpine plant is 50 megawatts,
which is approximately enough power