This is my dream: To live as my forefathers once did - in harmony with the land that sustains us. A project to investigate and innovate the creation of a low impact home with methods of living in a form of permaculture designed to sustain my family and improve biodiversity. To leave the land richer than before and in doing so enable others to do so.

Solar Energy - It is Popular. So Why is it Not Yet Widely Used?

Posted 17/05/09 by Matt B in the Urban category

The fact is, the 350,000,000 terawatts of power available from the sun is so huge that an exposure to a full sun in only 15 minutes will be enough to generate the world's energy requirement

Compare this gargantuan amount of free energy with energy that is generated by nuclear and fossil fuel. Presently, the available data for fossil and nuclear fuel offers us a mere 10,800,000 terawatts which we all know to be non renewable.

To produce electricity, utility companies burn fossil fuels at a rate that translate to 1.3 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce 1kw of electrical power. These unwanted CO2 emissions are pumped into the atmosphere where they cause all sorts of mayhem. This then translates into each typical home being accountable yearly for 22,000 pounds of CO2 emissions.

The harnessing of the sun's rays is clean and safe. It produces no emissions and it is practical and may, in the years ahead, prove very economical. In the USA, for eaxmple, only 0.1% (1kw in ever 1000kw) of power that is generated is solar energy.

So what are the obstacles that stand between clean safe and unlimited and us, the people?

1. Lobyists. According to the Wall Street Journal (August 2008 issue), there are groups in America, backed by political groups that are lobbying against the putting up of transmission lines for solar power. In some parts of the world (America, for example) the construction of distribution lines for solar energy is also being blocked by "environmental activists" that restrict the delivering of solar energy to those who want it in their homes.

2. Non-scalable architecture for delivery. In short the power grid is not up to the task. The power grid in the United States which was designed more than 100 years ago is now so congested in many regions. To deliver the solar power to consumers, scientists and engineers will have to come out with another cost efficient plan to transfer huge amounts of energy from one location to another. Similar issues impact parts of the EU and the rest of the world.

3. Initial cost. Solar panels are considered expensive. Although a home increases its value (sometimes considerably) when solar powered, the costs still could be prohibitive to most. So until such time as the non silicon flexible solar panels that are now being developed are released for market consumption, powering homes through solar energy will still be fairly limited.

That's not to say that Governments could not incentivise uptake of renewable energy. By creating tax breaks and/or pollution taxes to push the industry innovation and development are hurried along.
These don't have to be extreme measures (yet) just significant a hint to get the industry on it's feet.

However, effective solar energy transmission to homes will remain to be very hard unless these obstacles are breached. Assuming that these obstacles are solved today, it will still take some 10 years to convert 20% of American homes into solar energy users and more in other parts of the world. Meanwhile, solar panels on individual homes remain to be the most viable alternative.

The good news with solar energy is that technology is advancing very rapidly. Nano technology in creating solar power generators is being developed and may be available in as little as five years time. Other breakthroughs in cell designs are also being developed that could, in the next few years, be a cost-effective way of generating energy without having to rely any more on fossil and nuclear power.

It's not insumountable just challenging. But isn't that why we climb mountains.
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