Task 3: Summary of "Make Solar Energy Economical"

Amount all the sources of energy, sun is the best. Energy provides by the sun is in abundance, free of charge and pollution free; but, some obstacles are faced in using this energy from the sun. These are the main obstacles faced: the amount of useful energy obtainable is much lesser than those provided, the energy conversion method is costly and the energy collected can only be stored in small quantity. Currently, some solutions have been suggested but engineers are still in the process of making the solutions workable. Present solar cells, generally made of silicon, only have an efficiency of energy conversion up to twenty percent and the high manufacturing cost causes the converted electric energy to be costly. As to ensure a more economical usage of solar cell, an improvement in efficiency and reduction in cost of material are required. A new material, nanocrystals, has been found to be able to provide a higher efficiency but it has yet being scaled up. Another factor causing electric energy to be costly is because the material used for the manufacturing of solar cell needs to be very pure as not to obstruct the flow of electric charges. One of the suggestions made is to use thinner material and thus enabling material with lower purity to be used. The other suggestion is to incorporate dye molecules and titanium dioxide molecules in the material for better absorption of sunlight and collection of electric charges. As for the problem of storage, suggestions have been made to study the process of photosynthesis and to combine the technology of fuel cell and solar energy utilizing the energy from solar energy to convert water into hydrogen that is used to power fuel cell. If all the obstacles are solved, it will be possible for the sun to be the main energy provider. (“Make Solar Energy Economical,” n.d.)

References

Make solar energy economical. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2008, from http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9082.aspx