Sustainable Energy Gets A Face Lift All Thanks To Solar Renewal Energy!

Since we are at the brink of losing all the natural non-renewable resources, the world is suddenly abuzz with a keyword – solar renewal energy. The benefits of trapping the sun’s energy and converting into various forms of energy are humongous. Hence, researches are continuously working for the advancement in solar technology.

Let us try to understand through examples, how countries and communities are gearing up to make better use of solar energy.

Andasol plant 1 and Solnova plant in Spain have parabolic trough systems, which concentrate Sun’s rays on pipes containing synthetic oil, which can be heated up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit. This heated oil is used to directly drive steam turbines or heat salts to a molten state. These salts can store the heat for many hours which implies that even after the Sun goes down, the solar renewal energy can be still used for various purposes. This technology is the latest in the solar renewal energy harnessing field and is called molten salt technology. These plants provide 50 megawatts of power. Similarly Solúcar solar farm in Spain employs mirrors called heliostats to harness solar renewal energy. It focuses the solar radiation to drive steam turbines and generate electricity.

Hence, Spain produces 3.65 gigawatts of power from solar renewal energy, second to Germany. United States is now replicating their parabolic technology in California, Nevada, Phoenix, Colorado, Texas and Florida.

The deserts have been pivotal in generation of electricity because more and more solar plants are being set up in arid and semi arid regions. Researchers at German Aerospace Center have found out that a few thousand square kilometers of solar thermal power plants teamed with the latest infrastructure of high voltage direct transmission lines can provide electricity to the whole of Europe.

However, concerns are being raised about the water requirement by these plants, uncertain costs, long construction time, corrosive and abrasive nature of the salt used etc.

Another breakthrough in utilization of solar renewal energy has been the invention of spray on solar cells, which harness the sun’s infrared rays even on a cloudy day. Researchers at MIT have used solar renewal energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. When these gases are recombined in a fuel cell, it gives carbon-free electricity.
With these advancements our dependence on non renewable resources will become minimal thus promoting sustainable development. Our Planet will become cleaner, greener and better by efficient usage of its resources and meeting our consumption needs by solar renewal energy and its various alternative resources counterparts.