Most of the researcher's believe that depending on solar energy to meet up the crucial/extra demand is emergency. But is this possible to get rid of energy crisis by this in near future completely?
Solar energy started to take the advantages from fossil fuels cost fluctuations. However, till today from my reading no any country designed to use solar energy to cover more than 10% of its energy demand. The future of solar energy depends mainly on oil and natural gas availability which will extends for at least the next 100 years. If the manufactured find methods to reduce the PV panels cost more than its cost today and to increase its efficiency then a better future for solar energy will begin as I think.
The energy market is still dominated by the fossil fuel. Most of human activity also depends on combustion. So a transition toward photovoltaics (PV), not only involves that PV becomes the most used source of energy. It is also necessary that most of human activities are converted to a different paradigm.
The speed of these choices is heavy controlled by politics and economy situation.
At the moment PV is cheaper than most Fossil Fuels, but it takes times and efforts to reduce the impact of fossil fuels.
As Federico states, the rate of introduction of direct solar energy conversion technology (Solar PV and solar thermal) is now more driven by political considerations than technological ones. But I think the question demands a deeper answer. Can solar energy supply all mankind's energy needs for the foreseeable future? The answer to that depends on whom you are talking to. Personally I think it very unlikely that countries outside latitudes of about + - 40 deg will get enough sun in winter to maintain their energy consumption levels, so they need an additional source; storing solar energy from summer to winter in say, Siberia or even northern Europe is going to be challenging, to say the least. So I think that other sources of energy will be needed and sadly, solar can't be the entire answer. Can someone show I'm wrong?
Solar sector needs better power storage, grid infrastructure and government support to meet optimistic growth predictions.
I would return your question this way: what would be the future of humanity without solar energy? The future of solar enrgy depends on many parameters: Policies, Markets, Banks, ......Climate change. Can you imagine using solar power plants with 365 cloudy days because of ocean evaporation....or a dark winter because of a nuclear war or disaster?
Solar energy started to take the advantages from fossil fuels cost fluctuations. However, till today from my reading no any country designed to use solar energy to cover more than 10% of its energy demand. The future of solar energy depends mainly on oil and natural gas availability which will extends for at least the next 100 years. If the manufactured find methods to reduce the PV panels cost more than its cost today and to increase its efficiency then a better future for solar energy will begin as I think.
In my opinion, solar energy will continue to be part of the energy mix in several countries, but will not alone solve the energy problems that many countries are now facing and will be faced in the future. The reduction in the cost of solar panels will increase their use in many countries, but it is difficult to believe that one country will produce electricity only using this type of energy source at least during the coming decades. The lack of storage of the electricity produced using solar panels is one of the main limitations that need to be overcome in the future to allow a significant increase in the use of this energy source for electricity generation in a group of countries.
solar energy will grow but cannot compete with nuclear energy
I assume we're talking about long term solutions, not over the next few years. Over short timescales not much is going to change because there's zero political will to actually change, only to talk about changing and passing toothless resolutions whipped up at expensive meetings in pleasant (so far) parts of the world.
Fission reactors leave too much radioactive debris behind to be long term solutions, though we are stuck with them for the moment. That leaves thermonuclear.
Solar energy is thermonuclear energy produced at a safe distance and behind several layers of shielding all provided free by nature. It will not be so straightforward to build a system of artificial structures that can compete with that. Fusion energy has been fifty years away ever since it was first seriously considered, and progress on the ITER and other reactors hasn't reduced this estimate by much.
Now the world harvesting majority amount of power from fossil fuel like coal, gas etc. and the amount of this will sustain about 100 of years. Then what will happen in next? Are renewable sources dominate the world or something new or any modification form of fossil fuel will support to meet the demand?
There is great future in the Solar Energy. In the field of Solar Solar PV & Thermal are the great opportunities in Manufacturing, Residential Sector. Without Solar Energy the World cannot grow and in future there will great Market value of Solar Energy.
Solar energy is a renewable free source of energy and most important thing is that it is non polluting source of energy. In upcoming future it can be the most preferable source of energy for the sustainable development.
All manners of solar energy can be used in parallel and also in series. Solar energy is not only PV, but there are CSP, FPC, solar ponds. All of these manners can make the solar energy the first energy source in the future.
I agree with Dr Abdel-Hadi that solar energy applications are not only PV. However, the most successful application till now which can be used as power stations or in individual houses is PV arrays. After all, the wide spread of solar energy application in any country needs wise political decision.
There are various type of solar energy technologies such as PV, active solar energy and passive solar energy. So, in my opinion the future of solar is good.
SUN is main source of all energy & recent technologies shows the maximum possible energy can be extracted from SOLAR system
You can see the more information about solar energy future in my following research link
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285597974_Solar_Electricity_Is_the_Future_of_Indian_Energy_Requirement_and_Environment_Protection_A_Case_Study_Gujarat
Conference Paper Solar Electricity Is the Future of Indian Energy Requirement...
Solar energy is not only sustainable, it is renewable and this means that we will never run out of it. It is about as natural a source of power as it is possible to generate electricity. The creation of solar energy requires little maintenance.
I believe with the current technological development in renewable energy systems and its utilization, in the future the world may experience a good energy mix structure. In this situation you may hardly have a particular energy source having too much domineering utilization than other rather they will compliment each other.
Amit,
You have posed a very general question, and one whose answer has been changing from time to time worldwide !!
I will try to offer my two-penny bit, though some of this may be a bit difficult to digest! The future of solar energy seems to be rather ambivalent unless:
I know that some of the replies to your question have been much more optimistic than that, but frankly I find them to be somewhat unrealistic.
My apologies all around if I was too blunt !!
-Sanjay
Amit, over 99% of life on earth is powered directly or indirectly by solar energy, so there must be something to it. Fossil fuels are solar energy too, with a time delay of 50 million years (or so) built into them. If fossil fuels, which, not being replaced over any realistic timescale, were costed at replacement value they would be - rather expensive, to say the least. It is easy to liquidate capital and call it income - but it isn't very good practice if you have any long term view of things.
Fossil fuel use is the equivalent of using carbon and hydrogen as intermediate products (catalysts, if you like) to turn solar energy into useful power, over a timescale of 50 million years, and the by product is the return of vast amounts of carbon to the atmosphere in the form of CO2. The excess of production of CO2 over its return to biomass by photosynthesis is a measure of how well the biosphere is coping with the flood of the gas from hydrocarbon combustion. It isn't.
I would encourage all potential users of solar to take such a view wherever possible and regard fossil fuels as backups to be phased out at the earliest possible opportunity.
Solar energy is the alternative to fossil fuels...It's a question of time and of course it depends on the costs of electricity generation and environmental constraints related to carbone pricing and emissions. In 2030 RE sources (PV, Wind, Solar thermal, Geothermal, Hydro,...) will share more than 30% of total energy consumption in the world...
see link:
https://deepresource.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/additions-to-power-generation-capacity-2013-to-20301.jpg
while in 2016 more than 8 millions jobs in RE were created...see link:
https://www.google.dz/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwifmKrTyvHSAhWMVRQKHXseCBkQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ren21.net%2Fstatus-of-renewables%2Fglobal-status-report%2F&psig=AFQjCNFfsriBrGXU1Es3lQ3TPUsLSuH85w&ust=1490528139253371
Dear Amit Roy
I Think that ( Solar energy) or renewable energy is the future , so it will determine the future of the global economy Because its depends on the costs of electricity generation and environmental constraints related to carbon pricing and emissions Gases.
Regards
Ali
100 years back if i say somebody that i have a sheet which can give electricity then people assume that either i am fool or making others. But at present major population knows about solar cell and continuously efficiency of solar cell is increasing with discovery of different materials. Now cost of electricity from solar cell is nearly same as thermal power plant.
Who knows after 50 years we have material and storage device which can able to fulfill all our requirements of electricity. Also energy efficient appliances playing very important role to encourage and and meets their requirement through solar energy like 20 years back i was using 100 w bulb for my room then started 40 w tube light, later 20 w cfl and now 12w led. So we can say that solar energy have good future.
You can see a lot of information about this subject in the attached file
in my opinion, solar energy is one of the most important renewable energy sources these days but, also it can not be alone there are many future sources like geothermal and water etc. I think hybrid renewable system could be able to give opportunities in future. download this file to look at it please.
Dear / Amit Roy
The participation of solar energy in the load depends on the region where in the the environment plays a great role where in the Middle East the dusty air deceases the efficiency of this PV as well as the higher surface temperature on PV cells degrade the performance of these applications.
so, the future of solar energy accompanied with area of application.
The diversity of Renewable energy sources makes them available in nearly every place of our planet...even if the Sun is the main source....We need Energy ...clean energy...so the future of solar energy is bright
regards
The future of solar?
Let's start with the future of the world.
To properly frame any discussion about the future of any kind of energy, we need to keep a few facts in mind:
(1) Climate change is a real and present threat to the future of human life and all other life on Earth. Suppose we want to minimize our (children’s) risk of encountering the very worst impacts of climate change. That translates to reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ~80% by 2050. Since ~60% of global emissions stem from energy use, we need to deploy low-carbon energy technologies at massive scale, starting yesterday.
***Details: Below is a plot of typical ranges of lifecycle ("cradle to grave") emissions (or carbon intensity) of different energy technologies (units: grams of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electric output). The green dashed line is a projection of the average U.S. carbon intensity required to cut emissions by 80% (from 1990 levels) by 2050 and keep global warming below 2ºC. [1]. Wind and concentrating solar power (CSP) are by far the lowest [2]. Geothermal and solar photovoltaics (PV) are comparable. Hydro and nuclear are higher but in some cases still within range of the 2050 target [2]. Natural gas [3], coal [3], and even coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS) [2] are far above the acceptable limit.
📷 📷 (2) Solar is by far the largest energy resource available on Earth—renewable or otherwise. All other energy sources—aside from nuclear, geothermal, and tidal—come from sunlight. Fossil fuels are just solar power integrated over millions of years using dinosaurs (and other carbon-based life forms) as batteries. Wind and wave power is merely solar power absorbed unevenly across the Earth’s surface, leading to thermal gradients and mass flow. Among low-carbon energy sources, only solar, wind, and possibly nuclear can reach the terawatt (TW)-scale deployment needed to satisfy ever-growing global energy demand (currently ~17 TW average).
📷 (3) Solar photovoltaics is growing fast—faster than any other energy technology. Cumulative installed PV capacity worldwide has doubled every two years (43% CAGR) since the year 2000, reaching ~200 gigawatts-peak (GWp) in 2014. This Moore’s Law-like growth shows no sign of slowing, though slow it must, as naive extrapolation leads us to some untenable conclusions: If PV capacity were to keep growing at the current rate, solar panels would satisfy all world electricity demand within a decade, cover the Earth by 2050, and form a Dyson sphere around the sun just after 2100.
Just for fun, here's the naive extrapolation:
📷 That said, solar PV accounted for only ~1% of our total electricity consumption last year, so there's clearly a lot of headroom left.
OK. So now we know a few things: Climate change is happening, we need lots of low-carbon energy to stop it, solar is one of our only practical options, and solar PV is growing faster than anyone ever imagined.
But how do we turn sunlight into useful energy? What’s the future of PV? And are there other non-PV solar technologies in the R&D pipeline?
Let’s talk about the technology.
Solar Photovoltaics (PV) Solar photovoltaics (aka "solar cells") are by far the leading solar technology in terms of total deployment*. PV is quite nice: It's truly modular (a single PV module is no less efficient than a huge array), it operates silently and at low temperatures, and it doesn't require much maintenance over its 25+ year lifetime.
*Aside from solar heaters, which are used widely in China for heating domestic water and in the U.S. for keeping swimming pools warm. Solar heating can’t be compared directly with PV since its output is heat [GW-thermal] rather than electricity [GW-electric].
📷[Solar-Powered Camel Clinics Carry Medicine Across the Desert]
We typically name PV technologies by the material (or material class) used to absorb light: crystalline silicon (c-Si), gallium arsenide (GaAs), hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS), organics, perovskites, or colloidal quantum dots (QDs), to name a few.
It's convenient to think about these technologies in terms of material complexity, which corresponds roughly to the number of atoms in a unit cell, molecule, or other repeating unit of a material [4,5]. Material complexity is related to the degree of disorder at the nanoscale. For current PV technologies, higher material complexity often translates to lower technological maturity, materials use, processing temperatures, and processing complexity. These traits often open up new applications by enabling novel technical attributes, such as visible transparency, flexibility, and new form factors. 📷 With PV technologies, it's really hard to predict what will be the long-term winner.
Crystalline silicon (c-Si) is king today, with ~90% of the global PV market, and I believe it will continue to dominate for at least the next decade. Silicon PV is abundant, efficient, reliable, and proven, but it absorbs light poorly. That drawback results in thick, heavy, inflexible solar cells and modules with relatively high manufacturing costs. For silicon, there's not much room to grow in terms of cell efficiency (25% current lab record), although production modules continue to improve: Typical modules are 16-21% efficient, with multicrystalline (mc-Si) technologies at the low end and single-crystalline (sc-Si) technologies at the high end.
Today's commercial thin-film (TF) PV technologies, including CdTe, a-Si:H, and CIGS, overcome some of the challenges of c-Si—they use much less material and can be made at relatively low cost with high efficiency. CdTe dominates the thin-film market with simple manufacturing and high efficiency (21% cell record, production modules up to ~15%) but has major intrinsic scaling issues: Tellurium is about 4x less abundant than gold in the Earth's crust, and it's hard to extract from copper ores. Amorphous silicon is abundant, cheap, and flexible, but its maximum efficiency (13.4% current cell record) is likely too low to compete with crystalline silicon. CIGS is efficient (21.7% cell record, modules up to ~15%) but tough to make reliably, and it also runs into materials scaling issues with indium, gallium, and selenium.
In the PV R&D community, we pursue emerging thin-film PV technologies, such as perovskites and quantum dots, for 2 primary reasons: (1) They may someday be able to reach a lower cost per watt than silicon and current thin films due to simpler manufacturing and reduced materials use, and (2) They offer new functionality, including transparency, flexibility, and extremely light weight, and may open up new applications for PV.
📷 Examples of emerging thin films include CZTS, organic PV, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), perovskites—which have largely swallowed the organic and dye-sensitized PV R&D communities—and colloidal quantum dot PV (QDPV). Perovskites are extremely promising, with impressive material characteristics and cell efficiencies improving at an unprecedented rate (up to over 20% in ~3 years). But we shouldn't get too excited yet—there's still a lot of work to be done, in particular on lifetime, air and water stability, and new cell designs. Although still relatively inefficient (~9% cell record), QD solar cells are also improving fast and can be processed entirely at room temperature from solution, which may someday lead the way to the fabled "solar paint" (which, contrary to popular belief, does not yet exist in any practical form).
See the bottom of this post for several FAQs about solar PV.
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), aka Solar Thermal CSP uses mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight onto a tank of molten salt or other working fluid, which is then used to boil water and drive a steam turbine. CSP systems have been used for decades, but they only work effectively in places with high direct radiation*—such as the southwestern U.S., southern Europe, northern Africa, and other locations near the equator.
*The MIT Future of Solar study recently analyzed the cost of CSP in Worcester, Massachusetts, and... nope, not a chance.
CSP is not modular like PV—high temperatures require many mirrors over large areas, and turbines are much more efficient at large scale—so unfortunately you won't have a solar thermal generator on your roof anytime soon. Here's a picture of the new Ivanpah CSP plant in the Mojave desert (opened Feb. 2014), with over 340,000 mirrors:
📷[brightsourceenergy.com]
Global CSP deployment today is lower than PV deployment by about 2 orders of magnitude. As for the future, CSP will become more and more important as penetration of solar and wind increases, because it can potentially overcome the natural intermittency of those resources (discussed further below) using built-in thermal energy storage (on the time scale of 4-8 hours).
Solar Fuels Sunlight can catalyze chemical reactions that use water and CO2 to produce liquid or gaseous fuels (e.g., hydrogen, methane, various alcohols and hydrocarbons). These "solar fuels" have a unique role in a future low-carbon energy economy, since they could help decarbonize transportation—especially by air and sea, where electric-powered transport may be impractical. Solar fuels could also become a key energy storage technology for counteracting solar intermittency.
All that said, solar-to-fuels technology is far from proven—my MIT colleague Bob Jaffe would say that there are many "tooth fairies'" worth of fanciful technological advances that still need to be made to get solar fuels to market at competitive cost.
Technologically, the future of solar energy looks bright.
So what's stopping solar from taking off? And what might limit it in the future?
Well, there are a few things that might be worth thinking about: cost, intermittency, and scaling issues (i.e., materials and land use). Let's focus on PV for now.
Cost Solar PV is getting cheaper by the month. Average system costs in the U.S. are now below $2/W for utility scale (>1 MW) systems and just over $3/W for residential (usu.
Solar is by far the largest energy resource available on Earth—renewable or otherwise. All other energy sources—aside from nuclear, geothermal, and tidal—come from sunlight
In the solar energy sphere, scientists and economists alike will note that coming up with cheaper, most efficient solar cells is key to the industry's growth. And now, many experts are arguing that an emerging type of technology, known as the “perovskite” solar cell, is the face of the future
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