Pay Attention Athens Solar Tech Is The Answer

Due to the increasingly harmful changes to our climate in recent years, environmental sustainability has become a key goal of many nations around the world. To practice environmental sustainability is to act under the idea that current generations can effectively meet their own needs without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. There are a variety of sectors in which sustainable approaches can be utilized including: renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, widespread reduction and remediation of single-use plastic and associated waste, economical methods for sustainable business evolvement and success, environmentally conscious industrial growth opportunities, individual lifestyle changes, and many others. In order to make meaningful advances toward sustainable growth and development at a global scale, nations must consider and strike a balance between the three pillars of sustainability which are comprised of economic, environmental, and societal factors.

Environmental sustainability allows us to explore new innovative approaches that can be critical in conserving our natural environment and reducing the impact of climate change on future generations. Without direct intervention, our environment will grow increasingly unstable to the detriment of living organisms around the globe. The Nature Conservancy (2023) notes the most abundant ways in which climate change is affecting the planet, which include shifting rainfall patterns, increasing air and oceanic temperatures, more frequent and severe weather events, rising sea levels, and others that have a direct correlation to human activity, mainly as a result of greenhouse gas emissions. Facilitating change that is both sustainable and productive requires global collaboration, knowledge, and scientific research that supports environmental conservation initiatives and promotes options for action (Meng, 2023).

Solar energy is one of the most prominent growing energy forms utilized all over the world. From small towns in the United States like Athens, Ohio, to entire countries like China, proactive steps have been and are currently being taken to utilize solar and other renewable energy sources to their full potential to reduce our overall dependence on fossil fuels.

China is continuously one of the front-running global contributors of greenhouse gas emissions due to its excessive use of nonrenewable resources, and as such, the country’s economic growth, energy, and consumer needs have relied directly on the use of fossil fuels. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N20), and others which result from human activity have proven to be correlated to the increasing global temperature (Meng, 2023). Countries must begin adopting new renewable technologies to provide resources and energy to citizens in a way that reduces dependence on the fossil fuel industry. With that being said, China has taken large strides in creating innovative approaches to clean energy and reducing fossil fuel usage to combat the increasingly unstable climate and has successfully positioned itself as the largest producer and consumer of solar energy in the world (Hou, 2023). Meng writes, “The shift to clean and green technology is regarded as being among the most effective ways to combat global warming and excessive energy consumption making it an important factor in determining energy efficiency” (2023). Because China is notorious for its excessive greenhouse gas emissions, such a shift toward renewable energy sources can greatly improve environmental conditions and provide sustainable opportunities for growth at a national scale.

The solar energy industry in China has grown tremendously in recent years, as they have become the primary contributors to solar manufacturing around the world and have set an ambitious national goal to achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2060 (Meng, 2023). The use of solar energy in China has taken many different forms, from rooftop solar panels, large-scale solar farms, and newer projects like the Huaneng Power International floating solar panel farm in Dezhou, Shandong province, which is said to provide 550 million kilowatt hours of electricity every year (Bellini, 2022). The Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Scientific Journal highlights the immense solar power growth in China from less than 1 gigawatt in 2010 to over 130 gigawatts in 2017 (Li, 2020). An increase in solar technology advancements of this caliber could have only occurred with widespread policy support and the use of feed-in tariffs within the country (Li, 2020).