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A Solar City
A city in China has taken big steps in changing its
energy sources.
Practically everything
around your home that was made in a factory
owes its existence
to fossil fuels.
Unfortunately, cheap, nonrenewable
fossil fuels like oil and natural gas are becoming more
difficult to find. Much of the
remaining supply
is found in countries that may or may not want to
trade their
dwindling resources. These fuels heat many of our
homes, fuel cars, and provide energy
for the industries that produce computers, shoes,
clothing, and coffee cups. Therefore, the
prospect of a shortage of
these fuels is a very worrying one.
So what does a population that
depends on the burning of
increasing
rare fossil fuels do to break
this fuel addiction ?
Alternative energy sources
do
exist.
Some cities have worked towards
being primarily
dependent on solar power. But is this just a
fantastic idea, or is it a possible alternative ?
Rizhao, a city in Shandong
Province of
northern mainland China, actually
lives up to the idea of a
solar city. Rizhao has
approximately 3 million
residents, and 98 percent of inner city houses
and 30 percent of outlying homes
rely on the sun's energy for
their hot water.
Rizhao, whose name means "sunshine," receives an
average
of 270 days of sunlight every year. It's no
wonder that Rizhao's mayor decided to make his city dependent on
solar energy. By using the simple, cheap solar
devices that sit
atop almost
all of Rizhao's buildings, the city has cut its yearly
carbon dioxide emissions
by about
53,000 tons. Although this solution is really only
the tip of the iceberg in terms of energy
production, Rizhao seems to be on the way to becoming
the world's first solar city.
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