Where’d the enthusiasm go?
November 16, 2008
When I came home from school today, I cought the end of The Man with the Golden Gun, the 1974 James Bond movie. The references to solar power were astounding. How could something described in such an iconic movie not inspire further innovation? Thirty-four years have passed since the release of this movie and in that time solar technology has improved greatly, but global interest has not grown past the solar powered pocket calculator which most people either own or have heard from. So, what exactly is solar power? and how would it affect or lives?
Solar power, is electricity formed through the harnessing of the sun’s energy. The harnessing occurs in photovoltaic cells which, according to www.howstuffworks.com work as follows:
“Photovoltaic (PV) cells are made of special materials called semiconductors such as silicon, which is currently the most commonly used. Basically, when light strikes the cell, a certain portion of it is absorbed within the semiconductor material. This means that the energy of the absorbed light is transferred to the semiconductor. The energy knocks electrons loose, allowing them to flow freely. PV cells also all have one or more electric fields that act to force electrons freed by light absorption to flow in a certain direction. This flow of electrons is a current, and by placing metal contacts on the top and bottom of the PV cell, we can draw that current off to use externally. For example, the current can power a calculator. This current, together with the cell’s voltage (which is a result of its built-in electric field or fields), defines the power (or wattage) that the solar cell can produce. “
If one would like to use solar cells to power one’s house in Canada, or anywhere in the northern hemisphere, the cells should be placed, unobstructed on the south side of the roof at an angle equal to the latitude. This is the general method for stationary panels to maximize the sun’s energy on any given day. In order to have electricity when the sun is not shining, one has two options:
1. Collect as much energy as possible during the day, and trade what isn’t used during the day for energy at night. The benefits to this is that the homeowner does not need to purchase and maintain batteries for storage. The drawbacks are that you sell electricity for less than electrical companies charge.
2. Collect energy during the day and store the electricity for future use in batteries. The benefit to this is that ones house can live “off the grid”. The drawbacks are that the batteries require maintenance.
According to www.solarpowerathome.com, the average American home uses 25kWh/day and 1kWh of solar energy costs $4.86. If one car reduce their consumption to 15kWh/day, a solar system would ONLY cost $72,900. This shocked me, so I continued to search in order to find data to either dispute or confirm.
http://256.com is a site describing one family’s experience with switching to solar power. According to the Watsons, without government grants their system would have taken 20 years to pay for itself. Thankfully their system was subsidized by the American government and they only ended up paying apprx. half the amount.
The idea of solar power has been around for decades already, but the demand is not enough to make the technology affordable for everyone. According to Francisco Scaramanga, the main antagonist in The Man with the Golden Gun, solar power will never be a commonly used technology due to its suppression by the current electricity providers.
