Solar Power In Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat

If all the energy from the sun that is absorbed on earth every year was stored, there would be enough energy to power the entire world eight thousand times over (Maehlum). Currently, to capture the sunlight and convert it to usable electricity, we use solar collectors. Solar power has incredible potential in terms of its energy providing properties. Energy is not the only reason why solar is such a positive alternative, using solar power will help to limit the use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil and it will also provide many new and untouchable jobs in a globalizing world. In his book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman explains that the world is becoming globally connected through technology and that current jobs will be replaced by technology and will go to the most intelligent and inexpensive areas. Friedman, however, argues that there are certain jobs that are “untouchable”; “...jobs [that] cannot be outsourced, digitized, or automated” (279). Although many would argue that solar power is not the right solution

Even though solar energy provides clean, sustainable energy from the sun, the process to make solar panels is not one hundred percent clean according to Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC), a nonprofit company that tracks the environmental impact of technologies. According to Christina Nunez, a journalist for National Geographic, “Fabricating the panels requires caustic chemicals such as sodium hydroxide and hydrofluoric acid, and the process uses water as well as electricity, the production of which emits greenhouse gases”. These chemicals used to make solar panels as described by