By Kavar Peter
The price of a barrel of oil has never been higher ($62.00+ insummer 2005 even before the chaos caused by Katrina). Some saythis is a temporary spike, but more and more analysts areagreeing that this kind of pricing is here to stay. Worldconsumption is at an all time high and given the new thirst foroil in China and India it is unlikely to diminish. According toInternational Energy Outlook, global demand is expected tocontinue to increase by as much as 59% in the next fifteenyears.
Already, consumer energy bills have been increasing on average6.5% per year for the last thirty years in the United States.Given the dramatic rise in the cost of producing energy usingtraditional non-renewable resources, this rate is bound to beovertaken by unheard of price increases in the very near future.And for consumers who are becoming more and more environmentallyconscious, the thought of the millions and millions of tons ofCO2 and other bi products being released into the atmosphereannually through the use of fossil fuels in creating energy isvery alarming.
It is a no brainer that our reliance on oil to create energyleaves us very vulnerable. There are renewable technologies thatproduce energy, but the problem has been one of costeffectiveness. It has always been cheaper to supply energy usingfossil fuels, and consequently, renewable sources such as solaror wind power have not taken off. But the situation now appearsto be changing. More and more, our consumption of energy isoutstripping supply. The grid can barely keep up with demand androlling blackouts are no longer just a concept. No wondergovernments are looking for alternatives. And no wonder everyoneis talking solar once again.
In 1985 annual worldwide solar power system installationaccounted for 21 megawatts of power. By 2004, this hadmultiplied to an incredible 927 megawatts in new installationpower production alone. The demand for solar produced energyover the last several years has increased annually about 25%,although in 2004 sales were up a whopping 67% from the previousyear.
There are several reasons for this increase in popularity forall things solar powered. Beyond the obvious environmentalconsiderations and the privilege of not having to rely on powerfrom a grid that is aging and stretched to capacity, solar isgetting cost effective. While traditional energy production getsmore expensive, technological advances are making solar powercheaper. In 1980 the cost of harvesting energy from the sunstood at about $100 per watt. Literally a hundred times moreexpensive than the going rate of electricity, these systems werenot economically viable. By 1999 however, technology had reducedthis to about $4 per watt and costs have continued to decline byabout 5% per year since. The Return on Investment is becomingvery attractive for many commercial organizations and consumers.
Efficiencies have been realized in several technologies. Theinverters that transform the collected DC energy into usable ACenergy used to deliver only about 65% efficiency. 35% of thecollected energy was lost in the transformation process. Today’stransformers are so efficient they deliver up to 96% ofcollected energy into usable AC current.
Photovoltaic technology has also made solar collection far moreefficient. Twenty years ago, only 5% of the sun’s energy hittinga solar charging panel was harvested. This figure is now inexcess of 15% and will continue to climb as more efficientcompounds are designed and introduced in the manufacture ofthese photovoltaic panels.
All levels of government are increasingly looking at solar toprovide stable, cost effective and environmentally friendlypower. 35 states now have some kind of rebate program forhomeowners that install solar power systems. And this is notjust the southern “sunny states”. While California is the clearleader in promoting solar powered energy solutions (a programintroduced in 2003 is promoting the introduction of solarpowered energy systems into a million homes over the nextseveral years) New Jersey and New York are next in line forsolar investment.
At the municipal level, many jurisdictions have introduced solarsolutions for traffic and streetlights. 50% of the energy usedto run the City of Sacremento’s water purification plant issolar. NASA uses solar powered energy systems in many of itsbuildings. And governments are not using solar just because itis good for the environment and sets an example for commercialentities and consumers (although these benefits cannot be loston them!). They’ve concluded that opting for solar systems willsave them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
With so many rebate programs today homeowners are coming to thesame conclusions. Once the initial return on investment isrecouped (as early as 4 to 6 years with the rebate programs inCalifornia for example), solar users don’t have any additionalenergy bills, almost no maintenance to worry about and are notslave to an electrical grid that is becoming more and morefragile as demand outstrips supply. No wonder solar power isgetting attention!
Solar power is still more expensive than traditional energyproduction methods, but the gap is narrowing every year. Solarpower applications are also multiplying at an amazing rate.House heating, solar pool lighting and heating, hot water tankheating, calculators, flashlights, solar garden lighting and onand on. Solar is clean, it’s efficient and it’s here to stay.
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