It seems to me that alot of the smart money in energy these days is in solar. And it’s no wonder. I was listening to a really interesting Science Friday podcast on solar energy and Ira Flatow mentioned a really amazing fact - that if you built a solar energy plant that captured the solar energy that hits a 100 x 100 mile square in the desert, you could generate enough electricity to supply the entire U.S. Amazing.
I did just a bit of digging, and found a few other amazing tidbits:
- Capturing 0.02% of the solar energy that hits the earth could supply ALL of our energy needs. (Wikipedia)
- There is 10,000 times more sunlight than we need to meet 100 percent of our energy needs (scientist Ray Kurtzweil)
Of course, there are major problems that need to be resolved, including how to capture that energy, the fact that solar is mostly available during the day, and transport issues, but they really seem solvable.
We’re going to be posting more about this topic in the coming months, but in the meantime, take a look at the Science Friday page, or listen to their podcast. It’s really encouraging!
It seems to me that the big issue is storage of the solar energy that is collected. It also seems to me that the conjunction of solar for collection of energy and hydrogen for storage will be THE solution. Use solar to split hydrogen from water and you have the perfect clean collection/storage solution. Of course there is still the problem of transporting hydrogen but I seem to remember some recent developments in that area.