Caitlin Harrison 1

Annotated Bibliography

Could Solar Energy Be a Reliable Independent Energy Source?

M. Caitlin Harrison
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
March 12, 2105

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Annotated Bibliography
SEIA.org. Solar Energy Industries Association, n. d. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
The Solar Energy Industries Association is a website that focuses on researching,
manufacturing, distributing, financing, and building solar projects. The website provides
information on solar technologies, answers frequently asked questions, provides help for
finding solar jobs, and offers suggestions on how a home or business can go solar. The
articles featured on the website include information on solar benefits for the economy, an
insight report on solar energy for 2014, and a national solar database. This website is
published by the national trade association in the U.S., the SEIA, and it provides very
reliable and expansive information and tools related to solar energy. The purpose of the
website is to further the growth of solar energy in the U.S. and internationally. This being
the aim of the website, it provides accurate and positive information and feedback about
current solar energy. I find this source to be very beneficial because it is a vast
compilation of many articles and reports that provide information on my topic. I can use
this website to find specific examples of where solar energy is today and where it is
heading, and it will also provide valuable insight into how difficult or easy it may be for a
home or business to go solar, considering issues like cost and availability. This will
provide valuable insight into whether or not solar energy is a realistic independent energy
source. Compared to my other sources, this is the broadest and most informative of all of
them; and it will probably be the most used and cited source in my research paper.

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Teresko, John. The Future Is Bring for Solar Energy. Industry Week 258.1 (2009): n. pag.
Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
This article is a sort of compilation of interviews with experts on solar energy. Bill
Colavecchio, the Vice President and general manager of the industrial products sector of
Underwriters Laboratories, gives many evidences of recent growth in photovoltaics and
solar energy in his field, saying that there is a lot of backup for certification of products
using photovoltaics because the industry is growing so rapidly. He gives some advice on
how to most efficiently go about getting a new solar product certified. Bob Cleereman,
the senior technical director of building integrated photovoltaic technology at Dow
Chemical Co., tells about growth in something called the solar shingling, a technology
where solar cells also serve as outer protection for a building. The Vice President of
renewable energy with Johnson Controls Inc., Don Albinger, gives advice on how to
formulate an alternative energy strategy, focusing on economic, environmental and social
success. Finally, the article gives information on the recent success in wind powered
energy. This article is written to provide insight into the current and expected growth in
solar energy, specifically in the context of manufacturing. The author of this article, John
Teresko, is an author for Industry Week, a web site and publication that provides research
and information for manufacturing companies. This source is reliable and very helpful
because it provides information on solar energy from the specific point of view of
manufacturing companies. While it provides very specific information and some
information I cannot use, I can use this source to cite some specific examples of areas
that solar technology is advancing.

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Ugolini, Dave, Zachary, Justin, and Park, Hyung Joon. Fossil Fuels + Solar Energy = The
Future of Electricity Generation. Power 153.4 (2009): n. pag. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
This scholarly article, published by Power, argues that combining renewable energy, for
example, solar energy, with fossil fuels will reduce energy costs. Solar energy faces
problems due to both cost and dispatchability, meaning it is more expensive and less
reliable than other energy sources. This article presents the concept of taking the
reliability of fossil fuels and the renewability of solar energy and putting them together
for a hybrid source. The long and detailed article goes into very technical detail about
how solar energy and fossil fuels could be efficiently combined. According to the article,
there already are many ideas for combined cycle plants that use both solar energy and
fossil fuels, and many of these ideas are currently in development. While these basic
concepts are presented initially in the article, the bulk of this article is a scientific analysis
of possible ways to combine solar energy and fossil fuels. This article, written and peerreviewed for the publisher Power, is a very reliable scholarly article. Along with being
reliable, it is very scientific, and was clearly written for a scientific audience, seeing as it
goes into extreme scientific detail. I find the concept of this article helpful, but the article
itself does not necessarily fit my needs. The article is very technical and specific,
providing information that is too focused for my research. I like the information it
presents and I may cite it once or twice in my final paper, but overall this article is too
narrow for me.

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Woody, Todd. Solar Industry Anxious Over Defective Panels. The New York Times. The New
York Times, 28 May 2013. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
This is an article written for the online journal, The New York Times. Recently, there have
been many concerns for the solar energy as a number of panels have been failing shortly
into their life spans. The article provides no specific data on how many solar panels are
failing, saying that confidentiality agreements make it difficult to gather accurate
numbers. These concerns in quality have unluckily occurred just after a recent surge in
solar construction and are focused mostly on China, where most solar panels are
manufactured. The recent surge has made it difficult to keep up with demand, and even
the most reputable of companies have begun to cut corners and use cheaper, untested
materials. The article even gives some specific information on how solar panels are made
and what manufacturing mistakes are causing the failures. Although there are concerns, it
is not certain yet if the failure of solar panels will be a big issue in the coming years.
Some even say that they have not experienced any problems with their solar products.
This article was written for the popular online news source, The New York Times, making
it a very reliable source. It was recently written, dating back less than a year, which
makes it current and relevant. I like that this source presents a different side of solar
energy than many sources show. It discusses concerns in defects instead of just
discussing the bright future for solar energy. This source provides nice contrast against
my other pro-solar sources. I will definitely be able to use this in my paper to highlight
the dangers and uncertainties of solar energy which make it a questionable independent
energy source.