Not many people know that solar power has been around — in one way or another — for a very long time. Back in the late 19th century, scientists first demonstrated the potential that the sun could offer for delivering our power needs. Although their experiments yielded a mere 1% efficiency, making it absolutely irrelevant for use in the dawn of the fossil fuel driven industrial age, over the following century further developments saw that figure slowly grow. The most recent lab prototypes can deliver panels capable of 46% efficiency, a figure that is now expected to increase fairly rapidly. While this is not yet feasible for mass market implementation, there is no reason why it cannot be so within a decade or two.
So what are the reasons to be optimistic about the future of solar? Well, as we shall see, whether is its improved residential solar systems, increased use of commercial solar panels or enhanced agricultural solar system, the future is very bright indeed.
Solar Power Does Not Involve Turbines
While there is no doubt that fossil fuels aren’t going to vanish anytime in most of our lifetimes, the insurmountable fact is that solar power is going to be the simplest form of mass energy production in the future. As solar energy connects directly to the electrical system, it does not need to convert water into steam as we see in all other forms of energy production. Consequently, there is no need for high maintenance power plants, building extremely expensive dams, or relying on unpredictable windflow. To put it simply, the sun isn’t going anywhere and provides the most direct form of producing effective clean power.
Harnessing Solar Energy Is Increasingly Efficient
We have touched upon this during the introduction — and it is always dangerous to make speculation — but solar power is becoming ever more efficient. Laboratory-based research lept from 22.5% to 45% efficiency between just 2015 and 2017. Such a staggering leap forward must, of course, not be expected so frequently but it is representative of two key factors. The first is that solar energy has become big business, with major electronics companies such as Panasonic applying huge amounts of resources towards it. Unless they believed solar was the future, they wouldn’t be doing so! Secondly, energy research in universities and research centers is veering away from fossil fuels towards renewables.
With solar representing the best potential source for eco-friendly mass energy production, these two sources will keep pushing that figure up. How quickly is anyone’s guess, but prototypes hitting 65%+ before 2030 is regarded as being realistic.
A Booming Market For Solar Energy
Be it house owners installing residential solar panels or businesses using enormous numbers of commercial solar panels, the commercial end of this market is growing at incredible speeds. While at the moment it is a comparative drop in the ocean for overall energy needs, the application of new high-efficiency solar panels in the coming future could very feasibly revolutionize the energy market. Critics are quick to point the finger that solar will not be able to keep up with energy needs, but much of that comes down to simple lack of application. Small, highly efficient panels could quite feasibly be attached to any surface that sees sunlight. It is reasonable to expect the mass use of solar panels to provide a constant feed into the electricity network. All that is required is the political will and pressure to make it happen.
Final Thoughts On The Future Of Solar Energy
Whichever way we look at it the future is going to look radically different from today. There are huge logistical hurdles to be overcome, especially in regard to how harvested energy is distributed and stored. But there is no reason that solar could not come into prominence within the next couple of generations, rather than being applied as it is currently as providing a minor addition to the needs of an energy-hungry planet.
Perhaps the first steps — which we are already seeing — will be the ever-growing number of people who make use of residential solar. As a growing part of the population experience first hand the potential that solar can offer in a practical (and financial) aspect of their lives, the faster progressive changes may occur.
