News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

One of the largest arrays of solar installation is found in Former East Germany. There are 33, 500 panels that head towards the sun. It produces approximately 5 MW and is providing energy to more than 1,800 households.

In the past coal mine was used to generate sufficient electricity to fuel factories. At that time, the sky was fogged with smoke. The bleak past is now being transcended as mines with coal energy are being left out and lakes and green-fields are again flourishing.

Solar energy is a dramatically clean source of energy, harnessed directly from the sun. There is no greenhouse gas emission, fire or side-pollution. Science is trying to perfection solar technology and produce special type of magnifying glass that would be able to drive a generator through extremely concentrated sun rays. However, for the moment sun power is most solar cells and some concentrated solar fields.

The setback of sun energy is that the system is expensive. To place a small-scale solar system at the roof of a house can cost as much as $ 15, 000. The technology is gradually becoming affordable. According to Daniel Shugar who is the president of PowerLight Corporation, solar energy is now making sense for business in terms of cost-efficiency and it will in the future make sense to everyone.

“Nanosolar” has already developed sophisticated technology which is relatively cheap and effective. The use of nanotechnology is not only making the system more effective but also cost-effective in terms of capacity. The use of more flexible systems can prove to be more than 50 times thinner than the actual systems “portrays a finer technology”.

Disruptive Technology

This could make it possible to generate a watt of energy for only half a dollar, yet now this can be seen as the quest for the Holy Grail. The fear of having too effective solar system could be that people would prefer to generate energy all by themselves. The utility companies would be unable to compete with such rates. There have been in history many disruptive technologies. The invention of the personal computer was disruptive to the typewriter industry and now solar technology might prove to become troublesome to the energy industry.

As technology has not yet brought effectiveness of solar energy to a low cost, price is still a concern. It is nonetheless not the only obstacles; darkness and clouds do also weaken solar reliability. Conservation of energy through batteries is slacking behind business and it isn’t certain that batteries system will improve dramatically in the few years to come.

Establishing solar energy to fuel a major part of world energy across Europe or America fields would daunt the landscape. Despite that, energy would be generated without pollution while the cost would be the beauty of the land fields.

Solar energy is gradually taking grandeur as a source of world energy. There are even projects of building gigantic concentration solar system in the MENA region. This would supply around 15 percent of energy required by Europe in 2050.

Source: National Geographic