When you think about it, the sun is probably the biggest reason we exist and the only reason we have fuel to supply our insatiable rate of development. For one, if it wasn't for the heat of the sun, fossil fuels wouldn't have been formed. And we have been using it to our advantage in some way or the other, like drying clothes or building houses according to the sunrise to optimize the amount of light that enters our home. We are now into an era where if we do not manage to harness this solar energy to the max, we will face severe setbacks. This leads us to three questions:
- Of the 5700ºC on the sun's surface, we get only 20ºC (the average temperature of the earth's surface). How do we intend to make the most of this?
- The sun shines only in the day. How do we make the energy last us through the night?
- With current methods, we cannot manage to harness the entire energy falling on a particular surface. How do we concentrate all this energy into one spot?
The answers to these questions lead us to think about the future of solar energy. Leaders in energy management predict that solar energy will soon be introduced as a fully competitive energy source along with all the ones currently used. Shell predicts that 50% of the total energy intake of the earth will be from solar energy by 2040. Learn more on how they intend to do that.
