With an estimate of 384.6 Yotta Watts (3.846×1026) the sun generate a very high amount of energy which has lasted for billions of years and doesn’t seem to stop generating energy anytime soon. I believe that in the future, the Sun will be part of what will be used in powering devices, cars, and a lot more since the world is moving to renewable energy. The truth is that non-renewable energy will eventually run-out one day so we have to start making use of the sun’s energy sooner than later.
Let us do a very fast rewind to what the Sun is. The sun is a combination of gases which includes hydrogen about 70%, helium about 28%, nitrogen carbon and oxygen about 1.5% while other gases such as neon, iron, silicon, magnesium and sulfur, make up the remaining 0.5%. The sun is said to 300,000 times bigger than the earth and has temperature of 27 million degree Fahrenheit (do you know how hot that is, over 60,000 times the temperature of an oven used to bake).
In 1887, Heinrich Hertz first harness the energy of this sun through photoelectric effect. Photoelectric material convert solar rays to a current of electrons. It is true that the Sun has a lot of energy but why isn’t solar energy used to power everything around us? The answer is scientist have been trying to work out how to harness enough energy from a given sunlight as most of the energy shined down to solar panels often lost the energy as reflection or as heat.
In1883, Charles Fritts created the first solar cells from Selenium and gold coating. This cell was only able to convert about 1-2% of the Sun’s energy. This was used rarely because it was expensive. In the 1950s, Scientist discovered that Silicon was a better option compared to Selenium. With Silicon, solar cells were able to convert about 6% of the energy. This was also quite expensive and at such was used for space-crafts only. In the 1970s Exxon started making cheap solar converting cells. In Recent times, checking through your window to a solar panel, the solar cells used are of two types, monocrystalline and polycrystalline both made out of silicon with about 20% solar energy conversion efficiency. Currently, solar energy account for 1% of the world’s electricity generation but is expected to grow up to 65 times in the year 2050.
On a final note, one major problem with using solar energy is the intensity of the sun on regions. Some part of the world get more sun than others, Seattle get lower sunlight compared to Egypt so this means solar panels in Egypt will produce more energy than that in Seattle. Also, change in seasons and the circle of day and night can also affect the energy will get and this can be conquered by improving the storage and transmission of the energy being harnessed. The efficiency and price of solar cells and panels could be another problem. In other to keep our universe safe from pollution, it is good we move to solar energy as it is a renewable energy.
@tipu curate
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 6/9 - need recharge?)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I have always loved the idea of a solar system because it does not need regular spending like the generator where you constantly have to get petroleum to run it.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
It will be a good thing to stop using crude as energy source and face renewable energy fully. We need to prevent environmental problems which fossil fuel has been the major cause.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Could there be a better way to harness the energy from the sun? It is needed now because it will reduce cost a lot and countries will not need to bother about the price of oil.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Yeah! You are absolutely right about this fact and this is why the sun (solar) is actually considered as one of the best renewable source of energy with minimum pollution.
This is already happening in some part of the world but it has not really become ubiquitous. The use of fuel powered cars in the areas are not decreasing due to the global effect of burning of fuel in the environment. Some company now engage in producing electric cars and some are really delving in using solar energy to power their devices and cars.
I think another reason for this has to do with the capacity of the solar when it comes to storing energy. There are different types of solar panels depending on the amount of devices you may want to power. There are a some solar panel used in company or organization which can be used to power up the whole company and industry but this type is usually expensive.
This is also when your physics calculation comes into play after getting the total power required to power up your devices at home.
Basic formulas like p=iv, v=IR, P=v²/R, P=I²R will be used during the process just to get the required energy to power up the devices.
I stated this up there but I think what really makes the sun more expensive is the solar panel or cells used to store huge amount of solar energy.
Thanks for sharing this great post with love from @hardaeborla in courtesy of @crypto.piotr 💕❤️❤️💕❤️💕
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
The sun can do a lot for energy on earth we need to find ways of harnessing its ray and converting it for energy purposes.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I like the idea of using solar panel but they are a little expensive to set up here, but I plan to set up one for myself the moment I get the money, the constant sound of a generating set is becoming very annoying.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Solar energy is getting cheaper and cheaper, the real problem is the storage. No solution is cheap enough until today.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit