Solar Power in the next decade

[john5746]

Solar Leaf

 

Cheaper Fuel Cell

 

I came across these two articles recently and it has left me with the impression that we might see some big strides in the solar energy front in the next decade. The first is a solar leaf that can provide hydrogen and oxygen from water economically, the second is a fuel cell manufactured from reasonable materials.

 

What do you think? If a President set a goal similar to Kennedy's man on the moon, could we make serious strides toward energy independence in a decade?

[Horza2002]

 

What do you think? If a President set a goal similar to Kennedy's man on the moon, could we make serious strides toward energy independence in a decade?

 

I have no doubt at all that if somebody high up (president, PM...emperor) said "I want X, Y, Z to happen, heres the money" then X Y and Z will happen reasonably quickly. If you give enough people enough time, then they will be able to do almost anything. I think the major problem is that there are so many potential areas and ideas that could be developed, people up top don't really know what to pick. If you take the idea of solar technology, then you have those two ideas along with "solar road surfaces", "orbital solar power stations", "solar windows" and more to pick from...which ones do you pick to say make them happen?

 

With respect to those two you outlined, I quiet like the idea of the "leaf". It could potentially prove to be an efficient method in which to produce hydrogen ever replaces oil as a fuel.

[Zarnaxus]

IMO, I think that fuel cells in cars would be hard, based on the massive amount of hydrogen fuel we would need to generate.

 

I would prefer solar energy powering generators for electricity. We could then invest in electric cars, a much more practical idea IMO.

Edited May 3, 2011 by Zarnaxus

[CaptainPanic]

I get the idea that battery research has a LOT more money than fuel cell research and hydrogen storage, because batteries have so many existing applications.

Therefore I would put my money on ordinary solar cells / wind power and electric cars with batteries. I think this technology will be ready for the real world much sooner than the clean hydrogen + fuel cells.

 

That doesn't say that these new developments will not find a market somewhere. There is in fact a rather huge market for hydrogen already: the chemical industry uses lots of hydrogen.

[Danijel Gorupec]

I also think that batteries will be used in cars. Batteries seem more likely to become individual energy-storage devices than fuel cells with hydrogen tanks.

 

But, to store energy on large scale, it might happen that power companies will use large hydrogen tanks and fuel cells. Today we mostly use pumped-storage hydroelctricity for that purpose. However, in future we will produce more and more energy from 'unreliable' sources (wind, solar) and our need to temporary store energy will much increase - hydrogen could be one solution. After that, the whole new hydrogen-based industry and technology may follow.

[lemur]

I have no doubt at all that if somebody high up (president, PM...emperor) said "I want X, Y, Z to happen, heres the money" then X Y and Z will happen reasonably quickly. If you give enough people enough time, then they will be able to do almost anything.

I don't think this is the case at all. What happens is that the president/government sets an agenda for development and then people start coming up with ways to maximize the amount of money they can milk from funding initiatives. No one wants to produce/sell themselves out of business. Also, you get a lot of initiatives that promise the stars (specifically the sun in the case of solar) but they conveniently leave out practical concerns (like the fact that their particular solar technology is only going to generate a few watts at first and only hopefully one day grow to higher levels of efficiency). Then, the media/public gets excited about the buzz concept of each new technological lead, which is of course intended to stimulate more investment in the technology, which means more money to spend and more jobs doing the things that people spend money on. Since there's not yet extensive availability of renewable energy, this amounts to more fossil-fuel usage.

 

The only thing the president/emperor/government could do that would really make a difference would be to convince people to conserve energy and be happy with the lifestyle activities they are limited to as a consequence of conservation. However, since people are 1) in control of their own desires, tastes, and happiness and 2) have freedom to continue using energy at their own discretion - no top-down authority has power to stop them from doing whatever they do. There is lots of effort put into influencing their thinking and decision-making, but many if not most are simply obstinate when it comes to complying with authority when what's asked of them simply doesn't appeal to them.

 

 

[SMF]

Lemur. Could you elaborate on all of the practical concerns regarding current solar technology. When you can buy a set of PV (photovoltaic) panels that pay off their cost, which of course includes the embodied energy, in a few years and then run on the sun for free for a guaranteed 20 years (many of the original panels used by consumers are still running after almost 50 years), where is the downside. SM