Solar power is our planet’s primary energy source. All life on Earth, from the simplest of bacteria to photosynthesizing plants, to human beings is wholly dependent on the Sun’s immense energy emissions.
Only relatively recently, our form of life has been turning our star’s power into electricity for our needs. Our technological use of solar energy is half a century old. In 1954, Bell Labs created the first photovoltaic cell which could translate the rays of the sun into power to run conventional electric equipment.
Photo by Andreas Gücklhorn on Unsplash
The major problem solar power has faced is the cost-to-utility ratio of photovoltaic cells. The first cells only had an efficiency of 4-11% conversion of energy, and cost an arm and a leg to produce.
Technology has evolved as it tends to do, however, and starting in 1977, the price of photovoltaic cells began dropping rapidly while simultaneously rising in efficiency. Across the next decade, the price of solar electricity plummeted from $76 to $10 per watt. Extending this pattern to the current day, we see that the price per watt now sits less than 30 cents.
Naturally, this has lead to a much broader adoption of the green technology. Yet, the US government has routinely underestimated renewable energy capacity. Every two years since 1990, the US Energy Information Administration has released its biannual report of the expected growth and adoption of renewable energy sources, and each time it has been wrong.
Solar energy has been the most staggering difference in reality from the estimates. The 2006 estimation for 2016’s solar energy capacity was almost 5,000% less than how much the technology grew.
This raises an interesting question: what does the future look like? With the foremost experts coming so far short in their estimations, this suggests that the future is highly unpredictable. We are taking a step towards a vastly different tomorrow than we are used to today. Perhaps the world of tomorrow will overwhelmingly favor the sun over other energy sources, as life has repeatedly done throughout its existence.
ohhhh waooo great view of solar panel. it make a very attractive and amazing scenry . i like it much. thanks @earthnation. solar energy is much better for us as compare to other resources.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Why are you posts/account being attacked all of a sudden by downvoters?
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Some people hate love. Steem has proven to have some very hateful people.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Good job! Thanks to @awennuin you have planted 0.13 tree to save Abongphen Highland Forest in Cameroon. Help me to plant 1,000,000 trees and share my Steem Power to the others. Selfvoting is prohibited, but that should be the reason to spread the world to protect our precious environment. Check out profile of our conservation association @kedjom-keku and the founder/coordinator @martin.mikes to get more information about our conservation program. My current SP is 14307.27. Help me to plant more trees with your delegated SP.
Thanks a lot,
your @treeplanter
www.kedjom-keku.com
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
very powerful solar power in the sun
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Steemit Bank invested in your post.
Follow Steemit Bank
Support the project by upvoted the this comment.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
img credz: pixabay.com
Nice, you got a 97.0% @rocky1 upgoat, thanks to @earthnation
It consists of $11.06 vote and $3.69 curation
Want a boost? Minnowbooster's got your back!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @earthnation to be original material and upvoted(1.5%) it!
To call @OriginalWorks, simply reply to any post with @originalworks or !originalworks in your message!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Solar energy is an excellent source of energy and much better than petroleum.
The use of solar energy will benefit humanity much for two reasons.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
More the adoption of Solar, the better it is for our atmosphere and health of the planet!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
The main reason that most "experts" under estimate the rates of adoption for solar (and many other technologies) is they do not understand exponential growth as it applies to technology. Solar is following a fairly consistent pattern over the last 30 years. The problem with growth is that a doubling or tripling of placements when you have 5 isnt going to have much of an effect. Now that solar is over 1% of the energy production and most governments on the planet are implementing some kind of renewable regulations to phase out fossil fuels, we are going to see a radical jump in usage.
I read a headline today that some scientists believe they uncovered a material which could make solar conversation rates similar to that of plants...what a breakthrough that would be.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
That would be an incredible breakthrough. Thank you for sharing so much info with us!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
This post has been ranked within the top 80 most undervalued posts in the second half of Nov 17. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $8.39 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Nov 17 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
You have collected your daily Power Up! This post received an upvote worth of 0.85$.
Learn how to Power Up Smart here!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Solar power has definitely caught my attention. So much so that I recently took a solar system design course and we are working towards energy independence on our homestead.
I think in the next decade or two several disruptive technologies in the electric space will converge to allow off-grid living to become affordable to a much larger percentage of the population.
The first is the photovoltaic panels themselves becoming more affordable and more efficient.
Second, the miniaturization and increasing efficiency of many electrical gadgets means that less energy will be required. For example the laptop I use now uses about 50 watts which is less then an incandescent light bulb!
Third, battery improvements. This is the one that has been holding up off-grid solar. The batteries often are more expensive then everything else in a solar system combined.I think we are just starting to see the type of progress we need in this area. I have seen salt water batteries as well as lead ion batteries. Of course there is Tesla as well. Companies are really starting to get innovative in this space and it is just a matter of time before the price comes way down on batteries.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit