Places That Use Solar Energy - Which Countries Use It?

Image by Jeff Kubina via FlickrBy Andy Jerald

Recently, due to the active efforts by many environmental agencies and other organizations, there are now many places that use solar energy. People say that this is because of the fact that the 21st century world is advancing super fast and places a lot of pressure on the natural resources of the earth because they are all getting used up really quickly due to man's greediness. Therefore there is a need for humans to start considering alternative sources of energy to ensure their survival in the future because otherwise the whole species may die out.

This is why many countries and places that use solar energy are so important and play such an important role in the world. In particular, countries like India and other countries in Africa are located favourably so that the intensity of sunshine received is very good compared to other parts of the world. This is very good since this heat can be made use of very efficiently thus contributing towards a good clean environment. Especially since India is a developing country and has a big gap between demand and supply, it is even more important to make sure that it does not emit a lot of greenhouse gases or other harmful residue by burning coal and petroleum. This is why India has set up a lot of solar devices and constantly launches missions from the government to support the use of solar energy as a major source of energy. Even other renewable sources of energy such as wind energy and geothermal energy are being given the nod by the respective governments and have been made use of by companies and individuals to satisfy their energy and power needs.

Let us take a look at some more places that use solar energy and how they are benefiting from it. Brazil has been another pioneer in the solar energy field. Brazil has been making use of solar energy on a large scale from a long time and has even been setting up large scale solar power plants that have the capacity to satisfy the electricity needs of more thousands of people. Brazil hopes to have the world's largest solar plant with it's upcoming project that should have the capacity to meet the needs of a lot of people.

Now let us move on to some of the other places that use solar energy. The world's largest economy, the United States has made a lot of progress in the field of renewable energy. It has also ensured that there is a lot of research and development that is taking place in the photovoltaic cells field and in other related fields. Let's take a look at what progress they have made in the field of solar energy.

There are several large solar power plants in different states of the USA. Currently, California leads in having the highest grid connected PV capacity by a huge margin than other states. Second comes New Jersey and third comes Colorado. Colorado is expected because of its large deserts. These are some of the places that use solar energy to a large extent. Currently, the largest solar power plant in the whole world that generates enough electricity for more than half a million people is located in California. The Mojave Desert is a place that receives an optimum intensity of sunlight to be efficiently converted into electricity and this is why the US government set it up. It alone produces enough electricity to supply electricity to more than half a million homes in the US and is something of a remarkable thing.

Even the US army wants to help out a lot in setting up a huge solar power station in the Mojave Desert so that it can generate most of its electricity with the help of solar energy. However, in the United States, solar energy consists of just 0.1% of the total electricity produced. All renewable sources of energy including geothermal, hydro etc. constitute a whopping 12%. This is definitely good news especially for the world's largest economy and should serve as an example to all other developing nations. The US aims to increase that percentage to about 20% by 2030. Now let us move on to some other places that use solar energy.

Countries in Africa constantly make headlines for making use of simple solar devices such as solar cookers and solar water heaters despite the extremely poor living conditions. There are many places there where thanks to constant efforts by various agencies and organizations, the people have been taught how to use simple tools and devices to make their lives easier and thankfully, they really do use them. One such tool which has caught on like wildfire over there is probably the solar cooker. This is because of the fact that they are not only simple to use but also easy to learn and construct as well. In fact, it is reported that many villagers in Africa, who are provided with these solar cookers and other simple such solar devices make use of them a lot.

There are some other places that use solar energy as well. In countries like China, for example, there has been an entire mission launched specifically for this purpose and the Chinese government is trying its best to try and encourage the use of solar energy among its citizens. This is definitely good news for the planet and people who are constantly working day in and day out trying to keep it green and nice looking as it was many centuries back.

This is how there are plenty of countries that are actively making efforts to try and encourage the use of renewable sources of energy such as solar energy and wind energy among its citizens. So, I hope that you liked this article on the different places that use solar energy and how it is important to make sure that every individual and every country plays a role, however small in trying to make sure that our planet stays green.

Andy Jerald is devoted to helping to save the environment and control pollution by using the renewable sources of energy. He generates his own electricity with the help of solar energy at his house. He blogs about his projects. Check it out at Places that Use Solar Energy. Also check out a related article at Places that Use Solarenergy.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andy_Jerald
http://EzineArticles.com/?Places-That-Use-Solar-Energy---Which-Countries-Use-It?&id=4976203