The Sun is going to keep shining for a long time, and it's energy is renewable (I think), unlike gasoline and other resources. It seems like the most sensible source of energy to use (or is it? If not, point it out in your answer)! However, it also seems that there are things preventing us from using the Sun. What are they? Is it just too expensive? Is our society too used to using gasoline and other fuels that nobody is willing to take a leap to create a product using the Sun's energy because they fear losing money? Is it just the lack of technology? and if so, why aren't we developing the technology to use the sunlight? Do we get a small amount of energy from the sun that isn't worth harvesting?
What is preventing us from turning to the Sun for our main source of energy?
2006-07-17
14:26:58
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11 answers
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asked by
Cap'n Eridani
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in
Environment
Regarding the answers that point out something about the Sun not shining 24/7, or that the weather (clouds, haze, fog, etc.) would cause the energy source to be unreliable, why can't we create something that collects and stores the sunlight into some sort of battery to be used when sunlight is not available?
2006-07-18
05:31:36 ·
update #1
The sun is really our only renewable source of energy and every form of energy we use now, with the exception of nuclear and geothermal energy is derived from sunlight.
Fossil fuels like gasoline are a sort of fossilized sunlight in that plants that lived millions of years ago captured the energy of sunlight to grow. They died and were buried and over time converted to fossil fuels. So in a way when we are burning gasoline we are using sunlight from millions of years ago.
Using sunlight more directly is a much better option because we do not need to dig up a burn a bunch of very old plants. There are several renewable energy sources that are all sun powered. The include solar electric, solar thermal, wind power, tidal power, wave power, and hydroelectric power. In all these cases the energy comes from sunlight that is either shining right now or within a very short time ago, perhaps as much as a year ago in the case of hydroelectric.
The most important of these sources are the two that most people think of as solar power, solar electric and solar thermal. Wind power is also an extremely important and efficient way to generate power.
There are a lot of people and companies working very hard on all of these technologies. Wind power is growing so fast that it is now limited by how fast General Electric Co. can make wind generators. They are expanding their factories as fast as they can. Solar electric power has been growing as an industry at 40% per year for over ten years now. The solar electric industry has grown so large that it is now using more refined silicon than the entire electronics industry. The solar electric industry is now limited by how much refined silicon is being made. People are building new silicon refineries in several parts of the world to alleviate the shortage.
It is difficult to understand how really enormous the energy industry is. The electricity industry alone is extremely large. To give you a sense of exactly how large, consider the state of California where I live. Today because there is a heat wave (global warming related by the way) they announced that the state set a new record for energy consumption of 53 GW (billion watts). To make that much energy from solar panels you would need approximately 11 times the entire world's production of solar panels from the year 2005, and that is just California.
The primary barrier right now is that the requirement is so huge that it will take probably 30 years or so just to build all the factories to build the solar panels. It will be the largest industry the world has ever known and it takes time for it to grow.
Solar thermal power is very important for providing home heating and home hot water. New homes will fairly soon start being built to get most of their heating and cooling needs from smart engineering design and the sun. That will greatly reduce the need for fuel to heat and cool homes.
Wind energy is capable of supplying all of the nation's electrical energy needs and wind is a direct result of the sun heating things. Wind is currently competitive on a cost basis with conventional power plants.
Biofuels are also ways of getting energy from the sun. Biofuels are harvested from plants, which in turn get their energy from the sun. They will replace fossil fuels within a few decades for most transportation energy needs.
Solar power is currently more expensive but is coming down in price quickly. Currently if you were to build your house out in the country and could not hook up to grid power, solar power is the cheapest way to generate electricity.
I have installed solar power panels on my house. After rebates and tax deductions the net cost was about $6000. It saves me about $1000 per year and every year my savings climb as the price of electricity goes up.
In less than 100 years we will get virtually all of our electricity from the sun, today's sun, not the sun of a million years ago.
2006-07-17 16:21:25
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answer #1
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answered by Engineer 6
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There are lots of ways to make energy from the sun. As Engineer mentioned above, all of our energy sources (even oil) are forms of stored solar energy.
Photovoltaics are still fairly expensive due to the state of the technology and the shortage of silicon feed stocks. Several groups are working on non-PV solar energy systems that concentrate sunlight to run a heat engine. This will ultimately be cheaper than PV panels and has the potential to be cost competitive with fossil fuel-based electricity generation.
2006-07-19 19:33:18
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answer #2
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answered by Paul 3
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Cars don't run on sunshine, and sunshine cannot refrigerate food, air condition a home, or power a computer. To change the sun's Radiant energy into a usable form such as electrical energy requires the use of large and expensive panels crammed with millions of little "photovoltaic" cells all over them. To generate the large amounts needed to light a home requires large, very expensive solar panels. (Imagine the giant panels carried on ther Space Station attached to our houses...)
Cars are even more problematic because the huge panels also require huge electrical storage capacity. Do you want your milk to spoil every time the day is cloudy or rainy? Do you stop driving whenever (and wherever) your collected energy runs down?
A more practical use of solar energy might be achieved by using mirrors to focus a lot of solar energy on a tower full of water. The heat boils the water, powering turbines that generate the electricity we are already familiar with.
Where I am, they are developing wind farms with hundreds of windmills to power electrical generation.
All of these approaches help, but alone none is reliable for the quantities we all need.
2006-07-17 21:45:10
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answer #3
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answered by chocolahoma 7
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Suns makes its sloar energy by the fusion reaction of hydrogen..its the energy released if 2 atoms combine..kinda opposite of a fission reaction..the one taking place in the nuclear bomb..neway the fusion reaction is probable on earth as well but there are limitations such as we still havent developed any technology that controlls the reaction..u knoe...if we tried it without being able to stop it then the whole earth would be destroyed..but i think in the near future it may be possible to control it..
2006-07-17 21:44:25
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answer #4
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answered by DON 2
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there are already many alternative forms of energy
such as the energy created by the earth it self
as well as hydrogen engines (there was already a car that could run on water ,in the beginning of the 19th century ,its inventor was assasinated),sea movement power and the sun
what prevents these alternative energies from being in to operation ,is politics .
those who control us do not want independent populations that run on practically free energy
this would undermine global control,
energy is carefully rationed ,so that the masses remain enslaved
2006-07-18 00:22:15
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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People all over the world are working on ways to develop efficient solar energy. Right now, unfortunately, the technology just isn't cost effective.
2006-07-17 21:32:28
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answer #6
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answered by Anonymous
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The efficient conversion of the energy of photons into electrical energy. Darkness. Clouds. Rain. A decent energy density in batteries. That stuff.
2006-07-17 21:32:48
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answer #7
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answered by rb42redsuns 6
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we receive solar energy in a very diffused form. that is one drawback. another is that for making solar panels semi- metals like selenium and germanium are required which are not so abundant and cost much.
till now we lack the technology to concentrate solar energy (a little can be done as in solar cookers by using spherical reflectors) although work is in progress.
also , NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION so by the time we run out of fuel we should be using it efficiently.
2006-07-18 03:14:57
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answer #8
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answered by zzzz.. 2
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The fact that building even just one solar panel is WWWAAAYYY expensive and because the sun isn't around 24/7, but we need energy 24/7.
2006-07-17 21:30:34
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answer #9
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answered by Mujareh 4
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Because the Sun is ubiquitous, anyone can access it. Where's the profit in something that everyone already has. Only a few places have oil and gas. Limited supply ensures high demand, ensuring high profits.
2006-07-17 21:31:33
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answer #10
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answered by TheAdviceGuy 4
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