Home > News > Bright outlook for solar cells
July 14th, 2007
Bright outlook for solar cells
Abstract:
Nanotechnology could transform solar cells from niche products to devices that provide a significant fraction of the world's energy, as Edwin Cartlidge discusses.
The burning of skin on a hot summer's day, the awesome power of a tornado or the existence of a simple blade of grass all testify to one thing: the huge amount of energy transmitted to us from the Sun. In a single hour the Sun delivers the same amount of energy as consumed by all of humanity in a year - about 5 × 1020 J - and in 36 hours releases as much energy as exists in the Earth's estimated oil reserves. When you combine this with the fact that solar energy is essentially inexhaustible, available to everyone the world over and generates no greenhouse gases or other harmful pollutants, it seems hard to imagine why we do not make greater use of it.
Source:
physicsweb.org
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