Will solar energy replace fossil fuel in the near

future?
Nassr Alden Mohamed Ismail

Abstract Fossil fuel is the most commonly used energy source

which produces our need of electricity. In this paper, the fossil
fuel is compared to green energy sources like solar systems
showing advantages and technical challenges facing this kind of
new technologies.
Index Terms Fossil Fuel, Green Energy, Solar.

harm the environment. Fossil fuel extraction and usage causes

air pollution, damage to land from coal mining, environmental
degradation caused by global warming, acid rain, and water
pollution [1].
III. GREEN ENERGY SOURCES

Nowadays, human beings is depending on many systems

that need energy. Imagine our life without cars, computers,
mobile phones and the internet. All of these products is
dependent on the existence of energy to operate. Our need for
energy is increasing and our classical energy sources are
limited which make us think of new energy sources that could
satisfy our increasing demands.
Green energy sources are clean and renewable which
means that we will not suffer from energy scarcity if we could
utilize these sources efficiently. In this article, green energy
systems, especially solar energy, will be discussed. In section
II, the motive for solar energy is discussed. In section III, green
energy sources are briefly described. In section IV, technical
challenges of solar energy is briefly explained. In section V,
the future of energy systems and forecasts are discussed.
Finally, section VI shows the conclusion.

When we dream about the future, we imagine the role of

technology in enhancing our life quality. We can imagine
technologies which enhances our health, education,
transportation, productivity and entertainment. To achieve such
technologies, we need more and more energy. We cant rely
only on fossil fuel to achieve desired future technologies. In
addition to this limitation, one could ask does it worth to
enhance people life style and at the same time cause
environmental degradation which affects our health?
To overcome this issue, scientists studied possible green
energy sources. The green sources have little and sometimes no
impact on the environment. Using this kind of energy sources
can guarantee both better life quality and better environment.
Some of these green energy sources are [2]:
Solar power,
Wind power,
Wave power and
Hydroelectric power,

II. THE MOTIVE FOR SOLAR ENERGY

IV. CHALLENGES OF SOLAR ENERGY

Detection and usage of fossil fuel played a key role in the

industrial revolution. It was considered as ideal energy source
needed to invent all great technologies that makes human life
easier. Fossil fuel was an attractive power source because it is
easy to locate, manageable to use, easy to process and extract
and abundant. On the other hand, there are many reasons that
makes us to think about finding alternative energy sources
rather than fossil fuel. These reasons include economic,
environmental and political reasons.
From day to day, our need of energy is significantly
increasing. Because the amount of fossil fuel is finite and
demand is increasing, the price has an increasing trend except
for last year when the prices dropped for political reasons. On
the long term, that implies price increasing for all products
because energy is a fundamental component in products
manufacturing and shipping. Finding a cheap energy source is
necessary for future. In addition to economic reasons, political
reasons are also a great motive to find alternative energy
sources. Few countries in the world contains most of fossil fuel
reservoirs. Other countries which dont have sufficient energy
sources will have continuous need to buy fuel from supplier
countries. Finally, environmental impacts of fossil fuel is one
of great motives to find new clean energy sources that doesnt

Like any new technology, there are many challenges that

face solar energy systems. Overcoming these challenges is a
must to be popular product. Some of these challenges are:

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Need of Energy Storing

In fossil fuel power planets, produced power could be
increased or decreased by controlling the amount of burned
fuel. On the contrary, we cant control sunlight that produce
solar energy. In some circumstances like night and cloudy
weather, solar energy cant be produced because sunlight
doesnt exist. In this case, energy should be provided by energy
saving system which is charged when sunlight exists. Building
good power saving systems is mandatory for successful solar
power systems.
B. System Efficiency
Current solar system can convert sunlight into electricity
with efficiency between 10-20%. The cost of the produced
energy is 3-6 times of electricity produced by fossil fuel.
Current technical research is producing efficient solar systems
using new technologies like the nanotechnology [3]. Building
cost and performance efficient solar system is an important
factor for large scale usage of solar energy systems.

C. Initial Installation Cost

Most of the high initial installation cost of solar systems
lies in the semi-conducting materials used in constructing a
solar energy system. Solving this issue by searching for lower
cost materials will directly affect the popularity if solar energy
systems.
D. Size
Currently, the solar cells need huge area, usually half of a
normal house's roof, to produce appropriate amount of energy
V. THE FUTURE OF SOLAR SYSTEMS
Solar impulse project is a great example that prove that
solar energy could be a reliable and commonly used energy
source. Solar Impulse is an airplane designed to fly around the
world without a drop of fuel. This airplane contains around
17,000 solar cells that provide energy to power banks which
store energy and enable the airplane to fly even in cloudy
weather or at night. The Solar Impulse 2 successfully crossed
the Arabian Sea to reach India during the second leg of its
round-the-world journey [5].
In my opinion, the importance of Solar Impulse airplane
journey is showing how the solar systems are becoming
reliable. Systems reliability is an important factor of success
but to be realistic, end users system cost will be the most
important factor. When the cost of electricity generated by
solar systems starts to become closer to the cost of electricity
generated by fossil fuel planets will decide to move to solar
solutions. Fortunately, many technological advances occurred
last years which played role in enhancing system efficiency
and production cost. In addition, many predictions in the
United States have underestimated the actual growth that wind
and solar power have experienced so far [7] as shown in
Figure 1. This gives a hope that the future could be better than
forecasts.
VI. CONCLUSION
Green energy has different economic and environmental
advantages. It faces many technical challenges related to
system efficiency and production cost advanced technologies
and
production cost
advanced
technologies
like
nanotechnology might help to overcome these challenges.
Reliable system like Solar Impulse airplane gives us a hope
that solar energy could replace the fossil fuel in the near future.

Fig 1. Cumulative Installed Solar Capacity

APPENDIX I
Planning Steps are mentioned in this appendix. After
reading many articles talking about solar planes, the paper
should follow the following outlines:

1- The motive for solar energy

a. World energy consumption trend is growing
b. Disadvantages of fossil are fuel economic,
environmental and political
c. Solar energy have economic, environmental
and political advantages
d. Economic reason, price increase
e. Political reason, few countries control energy
f. Environment, air pollution, global warming,
acid rain, water pollution.
2- Green Energy Sources
a. Future dream, role of energy
b. Enhance life style by harming environment?
c. Green energy sources (listing)
3- Challenges of solar energy
a. Energy storing problem
b. System efficiency
c. Size issue
4- Future of solar systems
a. Solar energy reliable systems
b. System reliability is important
c. Cost is the most important for users
d. Forecasts is below that actual
5- Conclusion
APPENDIX II
The paragraphs are developed as follows:
1- WTB: fact statement, WTD:
2- WTB: Historical , WTD: listing disadvantages
3- WTB: fact statement, WTD: Listing challenges
4- WTB: Point of view, WTD: specific details and
forecasts
5- WTB: fact statement, WTD: point of view
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