Solar Energy is now getting recognition a renewable source of energy that is clean and green. But it always was and will be. Sun is the only star in our solar system and its suppose to meet energy needs of the planets. The challenge is how to get it in the most direct form, while avoiding environmental damage. As life goes on 24x7, energy is also required when the sun is not shining.
If from the beginning, systems would have been designed to use the Sun's energy in the day time and other forms of energy in the night, we would be living in a different world today. Most environmental problems we see today, may not have evolved. But mankind got obsessed with fossil fuels and made them the cheapest source of power over the years. The problem is that fossil fuels do not burn clean and contribute to CO2 (Carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere, which leads to global warming and hence the climate change for worse. Also fossil fuel reserves are depleting, although many companies are spending millions to extract every last drop from the earth.So now, everyone is looking at 'renewable' and 'clean' sources of power: sun and wind, which have always been in existence all the while.
For our quest of cheap power, we have not only caused permanent environment damage but also made the renewable forms of energy look like an 'retrofit' into the existing energy equation. Today solar and other renewable forms have to 'justify' their place in the market with this retrofit model. As no costs can be put on permanent environment damage, this justification fails the test of conventional economics. So thats the struggle for Solar energy technologies today, which are otherwise a fantastic use of the Sun's energy in a clean and sustainable way.
- Nilesh Jadhav
Watch the below commercial of a Solar energy company. Quite an eye-opener.
The sun is also the main source of non-renewable fossil fuels (coal, gas and petroleum), which began life as plants or animals whose energy came from the sun millions of year ago.
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