Solar Energy and its Role in the Future

Huge bulk of elephant with pointed tusk all armed, when tiger threatens shrinks away alarmed!

Although the elephant has a large body, and a sharp tusk, yet it fears the attack of the tigers. [Thirukkural 599].

Solar Energy, the average energy from the sun falling on top of our atmosphere is approximately 1360 Watts per square meter of area as per NASA. Sun is the most resplendent source of energy which would last many a human lifetimes and is solely responsible for all life form to exist on earth directly or indirectly.

 

Going by the definition of energy as we discussed earlier, how does sun helps in creating the unbalance which in turn helps us generate or convert the solar energy into electrical form ? It ain't that simple, sun emits radiation across the spectrum from infra red used for heating to ultra-violet, x-rays to gamma radiation which are some of the most potent forms of radiation in terms of energy. Here its noteworthy to mention that higher the frequency of radiation higher the energy and lower the bandwidth and its this energy which is used to convert into energy with usable form. 

So how do we capitalize on these radiations coming from sun ? We have two ways to consuming the energy from sun, one is to capitalize upon the high energy radiation of the sun to make the electrons in photovoltaic materials jump the equilibrium barrier to create a potential difference or an imbalance which when provided a path tries to achieve the equilibrium by movement of electrons[electric current] to balance out the potential difference. The other way is to capitalize on the infrared or the heat energy coming to us in form of radiation. With current set of concentrating solar panels technology it is possible to focus this solar radiation at a common point to achieve very high temperature which can then be used to convert this thermal energy into usable electric energy, this mode of energy transformation is also called solar thermal electricity. 

Efficiency in both these cases i.e. photovoltaic and solar thermal energy conversion is less than 40% today i.e. if we assume that sun is directly overhead at any given instant of time even then less that 40% of the area exposed will yield us the actual conversion of solar energy to electrical energy.

Two basic types of Solar PhotoVoltaic Panels available in General as per Quora.

How Solar Thermal works as per solarquotes.com.au.

There are many other aspects today that need to be sorted out from electrical power perspective i.e. energy transmission, storage and consumption. There are special tubular batteries used for storage of electrical power from photovoltaic solar panels however the solar thermal energy is connected directly to the grid. Also the power output from the photovoltaic is in DC mode or Direct Current mode which needs an inverter set to be consumed in AC or Alternating Current format.

Solar Energy has already become one of the main stays of renewable energy transformation scenario and mostly its based out of photovoltaic mode as Solar Thermal conversion is only feasible in limited areas. The existing conundrum of carbon footprint and associated use of fossil fuels causing pollution are the main targets which might eventually help the environment but we are far off from having a complete replacement. As of today, the developed and developing economies are relying more heavily on electricity which is making a per capita energy requirement going higher by the day which is currently being met by the non-renewable sources of energy with contribution from renewable sources to the extent plausible however not all economies are completely into it as of today.

As more and more electrical based appliances are coming into being wherein transportation sector has taken a giant leap in EV or electric vehicles it might be possible to cater to the growing pollution issue if and only if we build upon solar or renewable sources of energy. Having said that it doesn't mean having solar in such quantities is coming without any pollution, getting high efficiency solar panels needs a lot of treatment and equivalent energy spent on it however given the options today it is definitely a safe bet. So also the CSP or concentrating solar panels wherever applicable can be implemented to complement the base loads of consumption the only issue is, they can work at maximum efficacy for only a few hours in a day so challenge for the same is still working towards increasing the efficiency.

Energy ... the What ?

Firmness of soul in man is real excellence; Others are trees, their human form a mere pretence.

Energy is mental wealth; those men who are destitute of it are only trees in form of men.[Thirukkural 600]

We are all acquainted with the word "Energy" but believe me nobody knows it all ... Do you ? How about the words from great physicist engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla 

“If you wish to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”  

There has been many attempts made over the years and a lot of work has gone into explaining it but let me take a stab on it and present my point of view here.

Let's travel back in time, right to the origin of time which has been postulated for humanity as the Big Bang ... The point in time wherein the space, energy, time and everything we know came into being. If you google it a bit, it will tell you that this point came from something called initial singularity or at least the theory of General Relativity suggests as such. So you see, what we have is the best possible theory to suggest what could have happened without a definitive proof but here is another food for thought - suppose we knew everything about energy could we tie to space and time and thereby the origin of universe ? Perhaps.

So coming back to the topic at hand ... what's energy ? Energy is simply the state of imbalance of equilibrium; the greater the imbalance realized the greater the energy. Ain't that simple ? Take a pair of tongs they are in equilibrium from our perspective as we pick it up. Hold it by the handle and flick it with your finger [imbalance] and try to relate the above statement. The vibrations that can be visible at the end is the direct resultant of energy you transferred to the tongs via the flick to achieve a direct frequency of the vibrations you can see, hear and feel even on the handle which is trying to keep it steady.

We can ponder over energy and try to understand what is the equilibrium that this universe is trying to arrive to i.e. will there be a point in time wherein we achieve that singularity again ? what is the state of this singularity where the energy exists while being compensated for corresponding mass ? Can we call that singularity the equilibrium state of all energy that exists as we know it ? Can there be a single equation which can define all types of energy that we know in this universe ? I believe before we start learning about energy we should learn about equilibrium and how it relates to the work as we know it.

Coming back to the real work applications and making use of the energy we will be walking through a few blogs on utilizing this naturally existing imbalance to good effects without hurting nature so that would be Renewable Energy, by definition, since most of it can be assumed to be available forever in human years but not on universal scale definitely. Even our sun, the source of solar energy is also aging.