Solar photovoltaic cells based on semiconductor transistor junctions are becoming cheaper, more efficient and more widely relied upon. Mankind can thrive, drinking in the sunshine.
Yet, the solar power technology of today could still become a minor footnote if there is a revolution in Physics or Chemistry :-
https://socialbarrel.com/solar-power-discovery-dims-future-of-photovoltaic-cells/6382/
“Solar Power Discovery Dims Future of Photovoltaic Cells : Posted by Francis Rey on April 18, 2011 : University of Michigan researchers made a breakthrough discovery on the behavior of light, which could alter solar technology from now on. Professor Stephen Rand, Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics, and William Fisher, an Applied Physics doctoral student, found out that light, when traveling [sic] through a nonconductive material, such as glass, at the right intensity can produce magnetic fields 100 million times stronger than previously deemed possible. During these conditions, the magnetic field has enough strength to equal a strong electric effect, producing an “optical battery” that leads to “a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation”, Rand said…”
https://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/04/13/um-says-solar-power-without-solar-cells-is-possible/
https://solar.calfinder.com/blog/solar-research/harnessing-solar-power-without-cells/
Mmm, love that solar radiation !
One reply on “Sunshine power”
So if PV cells are no so cheap to produce, why do their champions still require subsidies and feed in tariffs to break even?
Indeed why is a change in government policy on feed in tariff leading to compensation claims from the speculative investment vultures who invested the farm on solar farms which are now pre-emptively claimed to be unviable?
(about the last thing UK PLC in receivership needs is the green jobs boom to not only fail to deliver but to knock on the door with it’s hat in it’s hands and some parasitic lawyers in tow).
Witness where PV endulgence has gotten Spain and more spectacularly Portugal of late.
And how are crops to grow if you’ve endulgently erected PV parasols above your arable land (don’t daydream about roof top PV as an energy answer, it falls woefully short)
Still convinced?