As the demand for fossil fuel grows while reserves start to taper off, the idea of alternative energy sources are offered up like fatted cows. The problem is the discussion is so heated and yet somehow dry that the truth tends to be masked. In this article, we take a look at a classic example of the power in solar energy.
The sun is the key to life on Earth. No sun. No humans. It is as simple as that. What about water? Well, you can survive for a bit without water, but the sun is a non-starter as the temperature drop alone would kill anyone on the surface whether they were in a building or not.
Given the fact the sun warms our planet continually, you would think we would find some way to harness it. Yes, we have solar panels, but they are woefully inefficient. They convert 10 to 15 percent of the energy from the sun that hits them. If you were a baseball player that hit 10 to 15 percent of the time, you wouldn't be one much longer. These numbers are abysmal and, frankly laughable.
Much or current solar energy research is tailored to finding better ways to convert sunlight into usable energy. The big news is we might see a new platform that will produce a 40 percent efficiency rate. That would be good in baseball, but is still very pitiful. Imagine if your car started only 40 percent of the time! You would go mad!
With all the thrashing around with solar it is easy to dismiss the sun as a potential power source. The problem, however, is not the sun. It is us. There is one form of solar we all use. It is called passive solar. This method captures a much bigger percentage of the sun's energy, but we can barely manipulate it. Still, it gives us an example of how much energy there is to harvest. Consider this example.
You head down to the grocery store one afternoon on a glorious summer day. You are inside for 20 minutes. Upon returning to your car, what do you find? A microwave! Open the doors and what comes out? Huge amounts of heat. This is because the sun beats through the windows and heats up the surfaces in the interior. The sun is so strong that many people have to buy windshield panels to keep their dashboard from cooking. All this heat is produced in a manner of minutes.
The effort to turn solar energy into electricity is a noble one, but not a viable one until efficiency rates are improved dramatically through research. For now, the power of the sun should be used to produce electricity and heat through farming the element of heat it produces readily. Water can be turned into vapor to turn turbines and a host of other measures.
At the end of the day, solar energy is the answer to all our energy needs. The IEA recently published a report indicating oil production will peak and begin dropping in 2020. That's only a little more than 10 years away, which means it is time to start getting serious about solar research before it is too late.
Thomas Ajava writes for SolarCompanies.com - learn more about solar energy as an energy solution and application.
