Benefits of Solar Conversion:
The world that we currently inhabit is one that, socially, depends on energy to productively advance itself, but this provides a problem: how can we create a source of energy that is easily produced and as efficient as the crude oils that are currently used. So far green energy alternatives such as solar, hydroelectric, and wind, have been the main focus in the energy industry. Currently the most popular are wind and solar ("Renewable energy sources," 2012).
Energy is an interesting thing; its industrial rise began in the mid- 1700s. This all began with the burning of wood for things as basic as heating, lighting, and so on. Up until the mid- to late 1800s wood was ideal for basic energy usage. But wood posed a problem in the now growing energy industry, society needed a more efficient material. Pre-Industrial societies were dependent on the energy and muscle power that was promised by the burning of wood and biomass ("History of energy," 2011). The problem was that a majority of the energy generated by wood went up in chimneys rather than into heating rooms or cooking pots. Energy was harnessed in many ways before the 19th century, several we still use today. The major energy sources that were used were windmills, water wheels, and even horse mills in which they use animals to produce power. Each energy source with their own purpose: wood and charcoal used mainly for cooking, heating, and other domestic uses, coal and oil used (rarely) as fuels but more so as protective coatings. The 19th century brought on the industrial age and with that came the production of energy in more powerful and efficient ways. The production of more efficient ways to harness energy resulted in the energy boom in the 1900s, increasing the population from 800 million in the 1750 to about 1.6 billion in the period of about 150 years. That was only the beginning. Over the next century society began to produce products that would later cause people to...