• Question: How do we get more energy from the sun?

    Asked by anon-193397 to Morwenna, Jamal, iainstaniland, Heidi, Carl on 12 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Heidi Gardner

      Heidi Gardner answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      Interesting question! At the moment it’s estimated that we are using about 1/10,000 of the energy that comes from the sun for the world’s total energy consumption. It’s not that we need to get more energy from the sun, but that we need to use the energy that we are getting in a more efficient way.

      Right now, the efficiency of solar panels isn’t actually very good – around 20%, and they can be very expensive. There is a lot of scientific research being done at the moment that looks at how we can make solar panels more efficient and also cheaper. Once that happens it will be easier for people to get solar panels for themselves, and we can therefore generate more energy from this renewable energy source 🙂

    • Photo: Iain Staniland

      Iain Staniland answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      Almost all of the earth’s energy comes from the sun,even fossil fuels come from plant life that stored the sun’s energy millions of years ago. So it seems incredible that with all our technological advances that we have not managed to use this almost endless clean and readily available source more. It is brilliant that last year in the UK that solar power exceeded nuclear power.
      But as you hinted this needs to improve further, Solar panels are improving all the time but one of the issues is also our ability to store this energy. Battery technology needs to improve as well. Then we will be able to collect energy in the daylight and in sunny areas to be used when needed! Without suitable storage a solar panel can’t help you in the dark!
      If we can solve the storage issue then solar power will soon become our biggest source of energy.

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