Nivi Thomas11/21/13

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“A Staff of Robots Can Clean and Install Solar Panels”New York Times, October 2013

Companies like Alion Energy and QBotix are manufacturing robots to decrease the costs of installments and maintenance of solar panels. In past few years, the solar industry has reduced enormous costs from developing solar farms, largely through reducing the price of solar panels more than 70 percent since 2008. But with prices about as low as manufacturers say they can go, the industry is turning its attention to finding savings in other areas. Arno Harris, chief executive of Recurrent Energy and chairman of the board of the Solar Energy Industries Association says, "Eliminating the physical plant costs is a major area of focus through eliminating materials and eliminating labor." If the number of days, laborers, and inefficiencies that arise from the installment of panels is reduced, the price of the solar panel would be more accessible to the public.

The process of installing and managing solar panels have been constant the past couple years, but have also been inefficient and not cost effective in its strategies. In an expensive, time-consuming process that can demand hundreds of hands and millions of screws, workers clear and level the ground, drive in metal posts and attach and wire heavy, glass-encased modules. After the panels are installed, it is difficult and expensive to it clean and free from dirt and growing vegetation that blocks sunlight intended for the panels. That task of maintenance often falls to crews of workers to clean or trim around the vegetation. That is where the robots from Alion and QBotix come in. Alion robots move along a row of panels, washing and drying them, also available with a standard hedge trimmer attachment that can cut vegetation from the ground. QBotix robots tilt the panels to follow the sun and maximize the amount of sun received - getting as much as 40 percent more electricity out of each panel than in a stationary panel system. This tilting robot adjuster allows developers to build smaller, and cheaper systems. The goal of these technologies is not only to be more available to the consumer, but to beat the price of natural gas so it can be replaced by clean, renewable, and safe solar energy.

I believe solar energy is the solution of the future, a form of energy that allows technology and nature to co-exist in harmonium. Fossil fuels, gas, and oil, are not renewable sources of energy, they cannot be replaced. Not only can they not be replenished, but fossil fuels create massive pollution in the environment. This pollution affects the health of living organisms, climate, and the air we breathe. These non- renewable fuels are expensive to manufacture and also expensive to use. Other, more eco-friendly energy sources like wind, water, and solar energies are relatively easier to produce. The use of renewable energy sources like solar power are the only solutions to a cleaner, greener, and healthier world.