The onset of technological advancement and globalization demands more energy supplies than ever before. Before, animal fats; wood and coal were sufficient for everyday living but not anymore. The ever increasing use of coal as energy source and petroleum derived fuels such as petrol, diesel and kerosene and natural gas managed to satisfy our crave for energy for now but for how long?
These fossil fuels are an ever depleting source of energy. They are non-renewable or much accurately take a longer time to replenish. With our current energy consumption it is estimated that our fossil fuels i.e. oil, coal and natural gas, will deplete in about 40, 200 and 70 years respectively (S. Shafiee and E. Topal, 2009). This means that in less than half a decade we have to find an alternative source of energy to replace oil as our main source of energy.
Numerous amounts of resources have been placed into alternative source of energy research. With growing concern of depletion coupled with harmful by products from the burning of fossil fuels, a cleaner and renewable energy source is what everybody sought for. Although nuclear power appears to be the next best thing, safety concern overshadows its benefits especially after 2 nuclear disasters that occurred within a 3 decades: Fukushima Daiichi 2011 and Chernobyl 1986. With its looming uncertainty, solar energy is our next best option.
Solar energy refers to the radiant light and heat from the sun. This energy can be harness by directing the sunlight to a surface, heating up surfaces or converting the energy to another form of energy such as chemical or electrical. The history of harvesting this energy dated as far back as 7th century B.C. but modern solar energy development begins when Edmond Becquerel discovered photovoltaic effect in 1839 (US Department of Energy, 2002).
Solar energy is the most viable source for energy production. Clean and readily available it can produce up to 3000MW of electricity at its peak in Singapore alone (SERIS, 2011). With up to 4000 hours of sunlight per year in place such as Sahara Desert, it is certainly the next frontier to solve the world’s energy crisis. Other than the fact that it is clean and has low to no release of greenhouse gases, solar energy is one of most promising source of renewable energy as it is constantly available and has the potential to be harnessed commercially. With readily available technology and ever decreasing price of solar panels, the potential of solar energy is limitless. It can be use either by energy producers, industrial building, government institutions and even private residents.
Although it is still being developed and not as efficient as other source of renewable energy such as wind, it is more economical to be use as a major energy source as sunlight is constant and can be predicted unlike wind and waves. With constant sunlight especially in desert area such as Sahara, solar farms, large scale solar energy collector, can produce enough energy to supply to neighboring countries surrounding it. Furthermore with development of Natural Gas-Solar Hybrid plants, electricity can be generated throughout the year even when there is insufficient sunlight.
PV technology, one of the technology of harnessing this energy, also is space saving as it does not require as much space as other renewable energy. With the possibility to install PV cells on top of every building in urban areas, the amount of energy that can actually be generated can actually lessen the dependency of buildings on external power grids. This independency coupled with initiatives such as NEM it is not only good for the environment it can even save money as the capital payback is very high.
The high scalar factor of PV cells also makes it possible to supply energy to the remotest area of the world. Currently energy production is only possible for countries that have the means and technology to generate it. As it is mostly generated from fossil fuels the possibility of supplying energy to rural areas is low as the cost to build power grids and the incurred lost of energy makes it not feasible to do so. But solar energy provides the possibility for villages to set up their own solar farms and generate their own energy. This opens up the possibility for these villages to improve their own standard of living.
Initiative to encourage the installation of solar panels is already in place. In California Net Energy Metering system or NEM allow solar panel users to get back the amount of energy they produced and pay only the net amount of energy consumed. This allows customers to actually zero-out their bills and in cases where they produce more energy than they consumed in 12-month period, they are entitled to receive payment for this energy under special utility tariff. This initiative certainly increases the interest of households to actually create their own solar farm. It is no wonder that California is US largest producer of solar energy.
Harnessing solar technology, while initially expensive, can definitely be a a long-term investment as prices for the manufacturing of solar panels and mirrors are expected to go down with the advancement of technology. Companies such as Google invested themselves into this industry solar panel technology makes it possible to progress faster. Additionally, due to its almost pollution-free nature and the ease in which it can be set up, solar power should be the way of the future in order to further sustain our planet for future generations. Instead of focusing on mass power production through harnessing nuclear energy or fossil fuels, we should look at the prospects of every household, every building and every available space in the world; the possibility of installing highly efficient solar panels capable not only to satisfy individual needs, but enough to supply the surplus to every industry out there is highly attainable.
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