“I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.” --- (Thomas Alva Edison)
‘Save world and save energy’ is the new generation’s main agenda as global warming and alternative eco friendly energy resources are of great demand. Harvesting the solar energy is a key approach to gift a green and sustainable energy. Believe it or not, the solar energy striking the earth’s surface per year is examined 6700 times the annual world primary energy consumption in 2008. Thus, the solar power is the promising alternative energy resource for carbon-free energy production that we are looking for.
The earth is providing more than enough energy to meet our global energy expectation for an entire year. Solar energy is the technology basically used to harness the sun's energy as usable energy resource. Impressively, this technology produces near about one tenth of one percent of global energy demand. The whole world is developing themselves to replace maximum of their energy resource with these renewable energy.
The solar energy have started to play a major role from our day-to-day life to the scientific conjectures. People are acquainted with so-called photovoltaic cells, or solar panels, found on things like spacecraft, rooftops, and handheld calculators. Generally, the cells are made of semiconductor materials like those found in computer chips. Apart from, different ferroelectric perovskite materials are being used in photo voltaic solar cell applications whose efficiency is more than 20 %. The sunlight hits the cells and knocks electrons loose from their atoms. The electrons flow through the cell and generate electricity.
On a broader scale, solar thermal power plants employ different techniques to concentrate the sun's energy as a heat source which is then used to boil water to drive a steam turbine and generates electricity in much the same fashion as coal or nuclear power plants.
Roof top solar panels for house hold energy:
You can use your house roof top to install the solar panel. The solar panel has to be installed according to your required energy demand. Once you installed you need not to worry for next 20-30 years if it is maintained properly. The excess energy you can sell to the government also as per rule.
Solar cell mobile and laptop charger:
The solar cell mobile, laptop and/or electronic device chargers are of great use, particularly in the places where the energy crisis is a great problem. These solar cell chargers can be used greatly for the social connection with the natural devastated areas. The, recent natural calamity like flood in Chennai and earthquake in Nepal are the perfect examples, where the areas were out of electricity for several days.
Solar energy in space crafts and satellites:
The usage of the solar energy in the space crafts and satellites is well known. They use direct solar energy for their working purpose.
Solar energy controlled airport and industries:
Kochi is the first airport in India to have fully solar energy controlled airport. Hyderabad airport is also going to adopt solar power soon. Recently, Indian state, Madhya Pradesh (MP) is going to come up with world’s largest solar power station. Morocco is building a giant solar plant that will power to one million people.
Solar car:
The solar car also started to dominate in the world that will decrease the pollution level drastically. The mileage of the car also can be enhanced with the help of solar panel.
Solar street light:
Recent path breaking research on renewable energy:
Recently, a Dutch company claims that they can power gadgets and street lights with living plants.
According to the company “once the system is optimized, it could produce up to 3.2 W/m2 — or 2800 kWh/year for every 100 square meters of growing plants. For a typical energy-hogging household in the United States, at least 4,000 square feet of space would be required to generate 10,837 kWh/year. But a standard Dutch home only uses around 3500 kWh a year, so a Plant-e system could generate up to 80% of their household energy needs”.
Dr. Chiranjib Nayek
Post Doctoral Research Fellow, UAE University
He did his Ph.D in physics from Indian Institute of Technology Madras and joined United Arab Emirates University as post doctoral fellow. He is working in AlienSolar as the Chief Research and Development Officer (CRADO). His soul interest is on renewable energy and their maximum usability as energy resource both in day-to-life and scientific benefits.
Connect with author on:
ResearchGate, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+