Sometimes the most powerful ideas are the simplest.
Solar power is the world's most abundant form source of energy. Everyday, thousands of times more solar energy hits our planet than we need to fulfil all our energy requirements. It is also able to be harvested in usable quantities from almost any part of the world where people live. Finally, it can be converted into useful energy using environmentally clean and reversible processes.
Given all these massive benefits you may wonder why there is not much more research into this space. There are many answers to that question but I am of the view that the short term benefits of developing simple, efficient, decentralised and easily maintainable solar power generation do not make sense commercially for the existing players in the energy space. Worse still, it would likely cannibalise their vested energy interests. As the saying goes, "Turkeys don't vote for Christmas".
So it is left to the passionate individual to spearhead research in this space. Pioneering individuals like Dan Nocera and his Artificial Leaf or Marjolein Helder and the team working on the Plant-E Microbial Fuel Cell are making progress where multi-billion dollar energy companies are seemingly failing to.
One recent example is the Rawlemon Betaray, an extremely simple and beautiful solar energy device that works by using a transparent ball lens to super efficiently concentrate the rays of the sun on to a small solar panel, stirling engine or some combination of the two. The advantage of this is extremely efficient, low cost and low complexity energy generation. Also, as it is nearly 100% transparent it is aesthetically much more pleasing than normal solar panels.
Solar power is the world's most abundant form source of energy. Everyday, thousands of times more solar energy hits our planet than we need to fulfil all our energy requirements. It is also able to be harvested in usable quantities from almost any part of the world where people live. Finally, it can be converted into useful energy using environmentally clean and reversible processes.
Given all these massive benefits you may wonder why there is not much more research into this space. There are many answers to that question but I am of the view that the short term benefits of developing simple, efficient, decentralised and easily maintainable solar power generation do not make sense commercially for the existing players in the energy space. Worse still, it would likely cannibalise their vested energy interests. As the saying goes, "Turkeys don't vote for Christmas".
So it is left to the passionate individual to spearhead research in this space. Pioneering individuals like Dan Nocera and his Artificial Leaf or Marjolein Helder and the team working on the Plant-E Microbial Fuel Cell are making progress where multi-billion dollar energy companies are seemingly failing to.
One recent example is the Rawlemon Betaray, an extremely simple and beautiful solar energy device that works by using a transparent ball lens to super efficiently concentrate the rays of the sun on to a small solar panel, stirling engine or some combination of the two. The advantage of this is extremely efficient, low cost and low complexity energy generation. Also, as it is nearly 100% transparent it is aesthetically much more pleasing than normal solar panels.
-O
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