solar edges closer to fulfilling its potential - battery power storage

Over-
The development of exposure to power generation may make you think that the world energy crisis has almost been resolved.
The progress made in wind, ocean, fuel cells and solar energy seems to indicate that there will not be much loss in removing fossil fuels from the power supply.
But for all the exciting breakthroughs, it is inevitable that there is still a long way to go for new technologies from the lab to the real world.
So it seems entirely reasonable to open the champagne cordon when they arrive.
On this basis, as soon as this column is typed, I will open a bottle to celebrate my taking the phone off the state grid.
I can now fill it with juice extracted from the sun light from a portable PV system, instead of plugging it into a wall socket for charging.
Pulling out my phone doesn't mean the end of fossil fuel.
But that suggests that solar energy is out of the lab.
In fact, it did a much better job than that, flying into the sky this month as a solar powered power source, a clunky plane that flew in Switzerland for 87 minutes.
The next goal of the developers of the solar pulse is to show that it will fly in the dark of the battery power supply, and then they finally try a round-the-world flight.
It will be a real champagne achievement.
Solar energy has been generating a lot of enthusiasm for years, without much power, and has found some ways to convert solar energy into electricity.
Photovoltaics -
Generate current from the light hitting the semiconductor
It was first completed in the laboratory more than 50 years ago.
Over the decades since then, people have been working to improve efficiency, from less than ten percent initially to more than ten percent today.
Another way to get solar energy is to use a mirror to concentrate the sun's light and generate electricity from the heat, known as a concentrated solar thermal energy or CSP.
Some CSP projects have been completed and others are planned to be implemented in sunny areas such as the Sahara and mohawai deserts, but the usual environmental and financial barriers have hindered the implementation of these projects.
When these businesses typically include covering thousands of hectares of land with mirrors, heating liquids in troughs or towers, producing steam, and then driving turbines, the protection issue is understandable.
Some programs in the United States have clashed with operations to protect the public desert.
The International Energy Agency said it was not surprising that energy investment fell sharply last year.
But in the Sahara, Morocco is set to spend $9 billion, according to The Economist. $13 billion)
Building five solar energy-
In a decade, power plants will produce about the country's energy.
According to IEA, CSP is currently generating about 1GW of electricity, and the number of ongoing or ongoing projects will increase by another 15GW.
If the United States can set aside 2.
56 million hectares, it can generate all the electricity needed from CSP, and the Middle East and North Africa can generate 100 times the total demand in the region and Europe.
The problem is cost.
The cost of CSP is at least twice that of wind power or coal-fired power generation, and the cost of photovoltaic power generation is still higher.
However, there is good reason for optimism.
The New Scientist magazine reported two weeks ago on the development of solar cell manufacturing using a small fraction of the materials of traditional methods.
The resulting photovoltaic equipment is not a great improvement in efficiency, but it is much cheaper.
More importantly, they are flexible, transparent in some cases, have the potential to be incorporated into the building, and may even be attached to the windows.
Muriel WA, photovoltaic (PV)
Experts at the University of New South Wales say it's time to shift our eyes from oil and coal on the ground to solar energy above our heads as we want to meet future energy needs.
In last September, she introduced the Pickering Lecture of Professional Engineers in Wellington. She said that at the end of 2008, photovoltaic accounted for 15 GW of annual power generation worldwide, and last year, it is expected that there will be about half of the traffic, A few miles ahead of CSP.
Costs are steadily falling, she said.
However, according to the data on the website of the energy efficiency and energy conservation authority, they still have a way to go.
Four photovoltaic panels
Bedroom homes will get you back to $170,000 depending on the consumption.
Battery storage may increase to about $200,000 when the sun does not come out.
My phone charger is obviously just a small contribution to solar conversion, but anyway, I'll toast it.
Fossil fuels dominate the world's sources of electricity. 2007 figures)Coal 41.
20 cents for gas.
Hydropower 15%.
9% nuclear 13.
7% Oil 5.
6% biomass 0.
96 wind 0.
87% waste 0.
Geothermal 34% 0.
31 solar energy 0.
024% tide 0.