Capturing Solar Energy

Solar energy is nothing more than "the light and heat provided by the sun" (Dunn). However, solar energy has some pretty amazing advantages. For one thing, it's a totally free all-natural energy source. For another, the entire earth is like a giant solar collector, because the earth "receives and collects solar energy in the atmosphere, oceans, and plant life" ("How Solar Energy Works" 1). After the earth absorbs half of the sun's energy and makes heat from it, the other half bounces back out into space ("How Solar Energy Works" 1). The half that is absorbed is responsible for the process of photosynthesis that converts the chlorophyll in plants into fuel that the plants can use. Through the use of photovoltaic cells and panels, solar energy can be used to generate electricity ("How Solar Energy Works" 2). Another major advantage of solar energy is that "there is so much of it...way more solar energy available than the world will ever need"-a total solar energy load available worldwide of 3,850 zettajoules per year, compared with only 0.471 zettajoules used each year ("How Solar Energy Works" 3). Solar energy is useful for heating homes, but it can also be used to light them, sterilize water, remove the salt from water, and do a variety of other helpful things ("How Solar Energy Works" 3). Solar energy is a virtually pollution-free energy source, as well; solar panels give off no pollution when generating electricity, and the only pollution involved is any giv

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advantages will be overcome, making solar energy within reach for most of the world's people. Already, IBM has made a technological breakthrough that increases the power generated by a single cell from 20 watts to 70 watts in a cell only 1 cm by 1 cm (Humphries). IBM found that it is possible to use a thin layer of liquid metal that contains gallium and indium, and this "acts as a heatsink, transferring the heat generated away from the cells to the copper cooling plate used in solar panels" (Humphries). IBM used something called "concentrator photovoltaics," which "focuses more light on to a single cell therefore increasing the potential energy generation by as much as a factor of 10" (Humphries). Another breakthrough was achieved by the Nanosolar company, a company that is working to build California's largest solar cell factory and the world's largest factory for assembling solar panels, to be built in Germany (Hunt). Nanosolar has created "the most cost-efficient solar energy source ever"-a special solar coating (Hunt). Their PowerSheet cells reduce the cost of solar energy production from $3 per watt to only 30 cents per watt, making solar power "cheaper than burning coal" for the first time in history (Hunt

Category: Science - C