SOLAR ARTICLES
Shedding Light on Cheaper Solar Energy
by Brenda Townsend Hall
Renewable sources of energy are the key to solving two of the worlds most pressing yet seemingly irreconcilable problems. On the one hand the developing world needs vastly to increase access to affordable energy because, at present, 1.6 billion people in the world's poorest countries do not have a power supply. However, on the other, we cannot go on depleting the world's finite resources of fossil fuels and contributing to the emission of harmful greenhouse gases by burning them. Thus sustainable development is threatened by a 'double whammy': the difficulty of meeting increasing demands for energy, without which development aims, cannot be met, and the by environmentally harmful systems most often used to provide it.
Affordable, renewable energy sources would contribute greatly to breaking this impasse. However, the field is a complex one and nobody believes a single solution will be found that can answer all the world's energy needs. Even renewable sources have their drawbacks - wind and solar systems, for example, may never be able to stand alone as energy providers because they are, by their very nature, intermittent. However, they can be used very effectively in conjunction with other systems. A judicious mix of energy-producing systems can contribute to sustainable development by increasing the availability of energy to the poor, while reducing harmful impacts on the environment. But an intransigent limiting factor is the cost, particularly of the conversion of sunlight for energy. If systems are not affordable they will be beyond the reach of the poorer countries whose needs are most pressing.
PV can help the environment by offsetting the need to rely on electricity generated from the burning of fossil fuels. Two distinct systems now entering the PV market are based on the use of cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium di-selenide (CIGS) materials in solar cells.
With affordable energy provision remaining one of the world's most urgent needs, the advances being made in this area offer real hope for a future in which energy supplies are more widely available without the drawback of environmental damage.
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The opinions expressed in these articles are the views of the author of the articles and not necessarily the views of Green Energy LLC or any of its affiliates. The copyright remains with the authors.
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