Energy Sources of the Future Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Energy Sources of the Future - Essay Example Three of these include solar power, wind power and biomass. Solar Power Solar power, or solar energy, is a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Solar power comes from the sun through the use of solar panels that contain solar or photovoltaic cells. In fact, one square meter of solar panel can generate as much as 100 watts of electricity (â€Å"Solar Power†). Once used only to power satellites, the solar panel is now used to generate power for houses and companies. Aside from the use of solar panels, solar power can also be used to heat water using glass panels on the roof. This powers up the home’s central heating system (â€Å"Solar Power†). Moreover, a third type of machine that utilizes solar power is a solar furnace. The huge array of mirrors in a solar furnace is used to concentrate all the sunlight into a small space in order to produce an extremely high temperature of heat. Solar furnaces may be used for scientific experiments. There are also solar-powered electric boats and solar towers. (â€Å"Solar Power†) On the subject of availability and renewability, solar power may be advantageous as it basically â€Å"needs no fuel† and is renewable as long as the sun shines (â€Å"Solar Power†). ... Even if only 2.5% of this radiation is converted into electricity, it would be enough for the total energy consumption of the whole nation in a year (Zweibel et al., University of Colorado). Another related development in the utilization of solar energy is the very recent invention of the nanocone-based solar cell. This particular type of solar cell, which boosts the light conversion efficiency of traditional solar cells by a whopping 80%, is in fact a result of the â€Å"minimization of defects and voids in semiconductors† (â€Å"New Solar Cell,† ScienceDaily). This property alone enhances electric and optical properties of the solar cell in order to convert sunlight to electric power more efficiently, thus increasing its availability while maximizing its utilization. Perhaps the only disadvantage of solar power is that, unless stored, it does not work at night and may be very expensive to build. (â€Å"Solar Power†) When it comes to environmental impact, solar power does not produce any pollution or waste (â€Å"Solar Power†). According to the Union of Concerned Scientists in the United States, primary environmental issues associated with solar power concerns only â€Å"how [solar power systems] are manufactured, installed, and ultimately disposed of† (â€Å"Environmental Impacts,† UCSUSA.org). Arsenic, silicon and cadmium are the major elements used in the manufacture of photovoltaic cells and are therefore hazardous to workers and anyone else who comes in contact with the solar panels. Safety regulations should therefore be strictly kept. Moreover, solar-thermal plants require cooling water, which may be costly or scarce in the southwest United States where the area is more

Managing Employee Appraisals Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Managing Employee Appraisals - Research Paper Example These risks include but are not limited to high rate of employee turnover, and low quality of products or services that the organization offers to the clients. Management of performance appraisals is a fairly demanding task. The management in organizations is often too busy to consider such issues, and the amount of effort required to maintain a healthy, practicable, and fully functional performance management system makes it seem more of a hassle than a good practice, but the reality is otherwise. According to DeNisi and Pritchard (2006), the research surrounding the topic of performance appraisal has attracted a lot of criticism because of the overemphasis placed on the psychometric issues. It is equally important for the appraisal research to place emphasis on and explore the effective systems of performance appraisal that can inculcate the motivation in the employees to improve their performance. Some of the most important components of the effectiveness of employee appraisal inc lude the perceived level of accuracy, fairness, and satisfaction on the part of the employees because these perceived reactions of the employees can serve as the motivational factors to help them improve their performance. ... It is linked with a range of outcomes of employee appraisal like motivation of the employees and their satisfaction with the appraisal. Achievement of their satisfaction is extremely important for the management because employees can only be motivated to improve their performance once they have the confidence that their past performance has been judged fairly. In all cases, the more transparent the system of employee appraisal, the better it can be understood by the employees and their perceived reactions to it are likely to be more positive. Considering the importance of a well-developed, organized, and transparent system of employee appraisal, use of software for performance management is fairly common in a lot of industries ranging from healthcare to construction and schools. One such software that is suitable for use in the healthcare industry is HealthcareSource Performance Manager. This software makes the process of healthcare performance management quite simplified with the au tomation of the content and workflow for competencies, performance reporting, training, and performance appraisals. The software provides the management with a structure and an efficient reminder system that places emphasis on the achievement of goals and makes the documentation, chasing, and communication quite convenient for the management. Improvements made to the employee appraisal with the use of the HealthcareSource Performance Manager include improved on-time completion ratio of employee appraisal, improved communication in the organization, consistence between the goals of the organization and those of the employees, and minimized time