Important Facts You Need To Know About National Solar Power
This is almost embarrassing to say out loud...the United States
, a great proponent of finding and using renewable energy sources, shows statistically as getting less than 1% of the energy needs met through the use of solar power.
The United States has good solar potential, or radiation nearly everywhere. But coal, gas and oil are more fully developed as an energy source, and viewed as more cost-efficient and reliable, therefore more widely used. Looking at cost-efficiency and reliability, however, what fails to get taken into account is the environmental pollution and the alarming disappearance of all our non-renewable resources.
With global warming has come many more demands for the reduction of greenhouse gases. At the same time, production and distribution of fossil fuels, like coal, gas, and oil, have been escalating. This particularly explosive combination is heating up the demand for more alternative energy sources like solar energy, at every level of the marketplace.
The United States government, along with others, are attempting to drive the cost of renewable energy sources down in order to make them more affordable. Solar energy installation is getting a boost from specific federal and state laws that allow homeowners and private companies to claim a tax credit to help defray the cost. In addition, there are rebates against energy bills that are assessed by public utilities. Right now, businesses can claim a 30% tax credit against their purchase and installation of a renewable energy system...in addition to anything that might be available as a utility rebate.
Industrial applications for solar energy have increased slowly in urban areas across the United States. However, solar energy has been the only available power source for many TV, radio and microwave stations in remote areas for some time. What is also increasing in the industrial area is the number of solar powered traffic signals and road signs.
California, along with some cities and other states, has been moving much more rapidly to take full advantage of solar power. Using various methods of collecting solar energy, central power applications, or utility companies, are distributing power through the same grid system as they've always used, only on a smaller scale.
Helping to move the United States into the solar age, one exciting and very promising effort stands out. It is the U. S. Department of Energy's alliance with Solar American Cities. This movement kicked off in 2007 with only 12 cities, but now exists in 25 current metropolitan areas. The alliance works with private companies and government agencies, looking for municipal power possibilities from solar energy. According to an article in Solar Panels Power, "[The] Cities . . . are taking action to make solar energy a more viable option for their communities. These Solar America Cities are using innovative approaches to remove market barriers to solar and to encourage adoption of solar energy technologies at the local level." Focusing their efforts on making photovoltaic (PV) cells more competitive with other current energy sources through cost reduction and volume purchases, their real gain has been in streamlining the requirements for solar energy building permits. This combination, along with the removal of various other market barriers is really making a difference in the adoption of solar energy for municipal power in all of the Alliance.
Two of the primary complaints pushing back photovoltaic (PV) development have been their cost and space requirements. With some new developments recently announced at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, however, that may all soon be changing. They announced in the latter part of 2009, that they have created a "glitter-sized solar photovoltaic." This means a whole new field will open up for solar energy expansion as the benefits of scale, and mass production reduce the cost and space requirements, making active solar energy systems that much more desirable.
With reduced costs and higher efficiencies of the smaller PV cells, there are some very innovative possibilities arising for the use of solar energy. One such example suggests that the PV cells could be incorporated into clothing items used by the military, or hikers and hunters in remote areas. The cells would capture the solar energy, and could then be used to charge or power items like cell phone, flashlights, iPods or similar electronics.
The commercial application for glitter-sized photovoltaics is hard even to imagine. Sandia field engineer Vipin Gupta says, "Photovoltaic modules made from these microsized cells for the rooftops of homes and warehouses could have intelligent controls, inverters and even storage built in at the chip level. Such an integrated module could greatly simplify the cumbersome design, bid, permit and grid integration process that our solar technical assistance teams see in the field all the time."
The microcells, compared to their much, much larger counterparts, will take much less material to form "well controlled and highly efficient devices. This will make them much cheaper not only to make, but to install.
While the United States may still be behind many other countries, including those in Europe, Asia and China, there is clearly an unprecedented incentive and desire as a nation to not only catch up, but surpass other countries in our development and use of solar power.
by: Timothy Peters
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