ADSactly Tech News - Will Solar Power Become the Dominant Power Source on Planet Earth Someday?
ADSactly Tech News: Will Solar Power Become the Dominant Power Source on Planet Earth Someday?
Image Source: Pixabay
Solar power is becoming more cost effective and energy efficient.
There are a lot of cool new solar power generating devices coming out offering increased power generation or the ability to grow crops below panels. These innovations hold a lot of promise for the future!
It is funny to think about how 'oil-dependent' humanity truly has become when we can just look up and see an abundant source of energy that we have hardly even begun to tap into.
I'm talking about the sun. Everyday it gives us rays of warmth and energy but to this day it makes up just a very small percentage of the overall energy conversion cycle on our planet.
With such a clean and amazing source of energy why hasn't humanity gone completely solar by now? Could it be that true freedom isn't what the powers that be have in mind for humanity?
The good news is that solar energy generation is becoming a lot more efficient and it is being used to generate more power than ever before in 2018.
In this article I will discuss a few interesting developments as it relates to solar power and talk about the potential this new trend could have in making our world a cleaner and more sustainable place to live.
In a recent article titled 'Energy-making gold specks may boost solar storage' the author makes some interesting points about a new material that has the potential to make solar power generation a lot more efficient.
According to the author, a brand new method which involves creating star-shaped gold nanoparticles which are coated with a semiconductor have the ability to produce hydrogen from water at a rate that is over four times more efficient than other methods.
You see, it isn't just about generating the energy, it is about finding an effective way to store the energy and this new method leads to a significantly better way to store solar energy, according to a new study.
Image Source: Futurity
This new development has the potential to boost renewable energy use and fight climate change, according to prominent researchers in the field.
“Instead of using ultraviolet light, which is the standard practice, we leveraged the energy of visible and infrared light to excite electrons in gold nanoparticles,” says Laura Fabris, associate professor in the materials science and engineering department at Rutgers University.
“Excited electrons in the metal can be transferred more efficiently into the semiconductor, which catalyzes the reaction.”
That is a lot of scientific talk which amounts to this new method being simply a better way to collect solar energy.
“Our outstanding results were ever so clear,” Fabris says. “We were also able to use very low temperature synthesis to coat these gold particles with crystalline titanium. I think both from the materials perspective and the catalysis perspective, this work was very exciting all along."
“This was our first foray,” she says, “but once we understand the material and how it operates, we can design materials for applications in different fields, such as semiconductors, the solar or chemical industries, or converting carbon dioxide into something we can use. In the future, we could greatly broaden the ways we take advantage of sunlight.”
This possibility really excites me. If you look at this new technology as simply a building block in creating something even greater then the opportunities for expanding on this new found method are incredible!
Think about the problem of global warming which is so frequently brought up as a topic of conversation. Can you imagine if we were able to conver carbon dioxide into something which was of use to us greatly reducing what is believed to be the biggest factor in global warming (excessive carbon dioxide in the atmostphere).
Image Source: LaserFocusWorld
Now let me turn your attention to another solar power generation method which may become incredibly popular amongst farmers.
There is a new type of concentrating solar panel that harvests solar energy while also letting red and blue light go through to illuminate crops growing underneath, without sacrificing growth performance.
This is an incredible new method in my opinion as it means that farmers could find a way to generate increased revenues while also contributing to a more sustainable environment!
A recent report published by Laser Focus World outlines and clearly explains the potential this new technology may have for transforming the entire industry.
"If you look at the solar panels that are typically installed on farmland areas, you can't do much beneath them so farmers have basically had to give up part of their land for this solar panel insulation," Ingenhoff, in an interview with R&D Magazine, said. "Some farmers are OK with it because they have very large land areas, but in countries like Israel or China, where you have a shortage of land, it is not good to sacrifice that land for regular solar panels."
According to the article the team currently has four working prototypes installed in China. If you are unfamiliar with China's problems regarding recent urban development, it is a country with an urgent need to maintain and recover any agricultural land it can because of the insane over-urbanization the country has undergone in the past few decades.
Image Source: Science Daily
In another recent article published by Science Daily, it highlights how researchers have found a cheap, sustainable way to build a solar cell using bacteria that convert light to energy.
Apparently, their cell generated a current stronger than any previously recorded from such a device. Beyond that it also produced some very strange but promising results as it worked as efficiently in dim light as in bright light.
Researchers also proposed that this innovation could be a step toward wider adoption of solar power in places like British Columbia and parts of northern Europe where overcast skies are common.
The fact of the matter is that there are some incredible new technologies being developed related to solar power generation. If we can really get humanity behind moving over to a more sustainable way of life there may be hope for us yet!
I would really like to know how my fellow @ADSactly society members feel about these new technologies.
Do you see solar power being used a lot more in our lifetimes? What do you think is the biggest factor keeping us from completely moving over to sustainable energy as a species?
Here's a chance for the @ADSactly community to leave their thoughts and opinions on this topic!
Thanks for reading.
Authored by: @techblogger
In-text citations sources:
Energy-making gold specks may boost solar storage - Futurity
New solar panels harvest energy and also allow crops to grow underneath - LaserFocusWorld
Bacteria-powered solar cell converts light to energy, even under overcast skies - ScienceDaily
Image Source:
Futurity
LaserFocusWorld
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The problem has always got to do with how to effectively store the energy efficiently. The battery technology we have today is limited. No matter how much energy us harvested, we have to deal with the technology of battery which is not advancing that much compared to the world's need for more energy. The world is becoming more power-hungry with each passing day. There is only a limited amount of energy the current battery tech could handle. Out of the 3.86 x 1026 of watts of energy produced daily from the sun, about 1.74 x 1017 watts gets to the earth. The Sun's energy is massive, the world's solar energy installed capacity is currently somewhere within the neighbourhood of 305GW, that is much less than 1% of Sun's daily energy output!
We have to learn how to use electricity more wisely, when it is produced by the sun.
I am always of the opinion that it is always cheaper to reduce power consumption by running a much energy efficient system than upscaling a renewable system such as a solar power setup.
I agree with you that the biggest problem is finding a way to store this abundant energy as batteries simply arent up to the task at this point in time. Through my research I've found that converting elements to methane is one possibility or creating other hydrogen based fuels through the electricity generated from the sun are possibilities.
I'd read up on the methane conversion angle. Thank you.
Nowadays, more and more devices are using solar energy: sunlight chargeable torch, phone whose batteries can be powered by light, and even some cars today use the electricity produced by the sun to work.
Anywhere in the world, we see the birth of power plant projects, based on the idea that solar power alone is able to provide electricity to the entire planet.
However the future of this energy resource depends on the control of other energy including electricity (that is to say, its transport and storage).
Transport and storage are much more difficult problems then the actual generation of energy but with as much thought going into these problems as there is today, it won't be long until they crack the code!
The solar system has evolved from the early stage. Its satellite may have been formed from a gas and dust disconnected around a planet, and some satellites can be produced in different places and later can be formed in the planet's gravitational bond. Some satellites may again be the result of a huge conflict, as many people think that Earth's satellite moon was born as a result of conflict. Clashes between the objects of the solar system are a normal phenomenon which is still happening at different places and times, these clashes are believed to have played an important role in the evolution of the solar system. Many times the planets have changed, one planet may have to move to another planet. [2] This planetary motive is now blamed as one of the main reasons for the origin of the Solar System...
This is not about the solar system. This comment isn't relevant to the article. Please consider more closely how you go about creating your comments.
This has been a topic of discussion in the family, my mom has a theory which I support 100%, not only because it comes from my mom, but because her arguments are strong, we have focused our eyes on stronger, more palpable strengths, I'm sounding strange coming from me, I come 15 years working in the oil industry, but anyway, the sun is the source of inexhaustible energy, of which we do not take advantage of the necessary, this energy is growing, because very slowly the sun is approaching us (that is my mother's theory) and we can see some of its consequences in climatic changes, in changes in the seasons in short, we know that the damage to the ozone layer are relentless, but sometimes we stop to think about other possibilities?
Today we only need to focus studies to promote the use of solar energy to move our world, is healthier than oil exploitation, is more attractive to researchers and can be more powerful than oil.
excuse my errors in english use translator
Your mom sounds like a wise lady! If we can move away from oil finally there may be a much brighter future ahead for ourselves and future generations to come. Lets keep pushing this agenda.
If we think as broadly as possible, attempts to "tame" the great star that warms our planet began in ancient times in the time of paganism, when each element was embodied in a separate deity. However, of course, then about the use of solar energy, even speech could not be - in the world magic reigned.
The topic of using the energy of the Sun on Earth began to rise actively only at the end of the 14th - early 20th century. Alexander Edmond Becquerel, who managed to become the pioneer of the photovoltaic effect, made a real breakthrough in science in 1839. The study of this topic has increased significantly, and already 44 years later, Charles Fritz was able to design the first ever module, based on gold-plated selenium. Such use of the energy of the Sun on Earth gave a small amount of electricity released - the total output was then not more than 1%.
Nevertheless, for the whole of humanity, this was a real breakthrough, opening up new horizons of science, which we had never even dreamed of before. A significant contribution to the development of solar energy was made in due time by Albert Einstein himself. In today's world, the name of the scientist is more often associated with his famous theory of relativity, but in fact, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for studying the external photoelectric effect.
To this day, the technology of using the energy of the Sun on the Earth is experiencing rapid ups and downs, but the rapid decline, but this branch of knowledge is constantly replenished with new facts, and we can hope that in the foreseeable future we will open the door to a completely new world.
I think we all know the reason. It’s all about business. Oil production is and will be for the near future the main source of energy. However, I do believe as time passes alternative energy such as solar, wind ...will eventually take over. It all comes to what people choose. I’m glad there are new developments/studies (and all these new methods helping farmers) for alternative energy especially when it helps fighting the climate change at the same time. With that said, since you mentioned a lot “gold” in your article and as I believe silver being used as well, it all makes perfect sense to invest long therm in precious metals. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the last few years.
Yes, I was waiting for someone to chime in on that. I don't like to spill all the beans everytime because i like to give readers like yourself the opportunity to grasp these concepts. Most of the readers that come to the @ADSactly blog are sharp and critical thinkers and you've stumbled upon the answer... Humanity's biggest problem, greedy control freaks... Thanks for your comment!
GREAT POST..
Enlightening post.
As we knew solar energy is a renewable energy and a very abundant supply makes it a friendly alternative energy for all of us.
The amount of solar energy as a result of fusion reactions that convert hydrogen atoms into helium atoms is much larger than conventional nuclear reactions. the energy that partially converts the mass of hydrogen atoms is capable of meeting human needs. Even if the earth receives only a little of its energies the sun will be maximized for human life.
Consideration of solar enengi as energy in the future will be more dominant is:
During the solar fusion reaction there will always be energy produced.
Compared to other alternative energy sunlight is much cheaper because as long as there is sunlight it will always be able to produce enenrgi. As a comparison of alternative energy generated from biogas, biodiesel, hydropower, and geothermal they still need exploration and exploitation that require the cost of getting raw materials. The result of that smaller energy is compared with the result of solar energy
What's more when compared to the energy from fossil materials that have limited availability, the effort to get a big cost, and the bad impact of the rest of the combustion of carbon dioxide as a major contributor to global warming ..
the sun provides greater than normal nuclear reactor inventory, but does not cause adverse effects. even if we can optimize solar energies will be able to reduce the use of fossil energy that causes pollution and global warming.
However, all that there is a challenge to be able to enjoy this cheap, abundant and friendly energy.
thank you @techblogger
thank you @adsactly
Thank you Steemit
Warm regard from Indonesia
Very interesting! Happy to upvote!
The really obvious problem is storage with solar power.
Solar is easy to set up and the efficiency goes up on the same sort of scale as the power of computer chips. Double every two years or something like that.
Realistically, right now, we depend on Lithium whose mining and processing isn't all that clean. We are effectively trading one problem for another.
The hydrogen cracking technology excites me. There are multiple problems to overcome with using Hydrogen as a fuel, but if it can be cracked out of water with sufficient ease that would allow local ambient temperature storage it would be amazing.
Thanks for a great article!
The darn storage problem continues to plague us and slow the adoption of solar power generation but we are making progress! Liquid hydrogen and methane can both be produced through harnessing the power of the sun's rays so there's hope yet! We will get there buddy, we're on our way! Thanks for dropping by and interacting as always.
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