Renewable energy: Solar Panels overview

THE NEED FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY

Global life expectancy is expected to rise by 8 years between 2010 – 2050 [1]. This in conjunction with the fact that the world is becoming increasingly urbanised – Africa & Asia are expected to experience 16% growth in urban populations between 2014 and 2050 [2] - means that energy demands will increase dramatically. Demand for electricity in 2050 will increase between 8 terra watts (TW) and 26TW [3].

WHAT ARE SOLAR PANELS AND WHEN SHOULD THEY BE USED?

How do they work?

Solar panels are essentially an array of photovoltaic cells. The photovoltaic cells convert sunlight into electrical energy.

Why should they be used?

Countries can utilise this technology to diversify it energy sources. It will be less reliant on importing traditional fuel sources (which leads to a more independent foreign policy) as well has being more carbon friendly.

Where and When should solar panels be used?

Ideally the solar panels would be located in an area with long uninterrupted durations of sunshine over the course of the year. Solar panels (at the utility scale) should be used to help connect off grid communities and to diversify national energy sources.

DOWNFALL OF SOLAR PANELS

Solar panels aren't the magic solution. They suffer from various drawbacks, the largest one being their inefficiency. In addition to that, they do not generate electricity during the night and perform poorly in cloudy conditions. This increases the need to use batteries in the industrial scale however current battery technology have low energy densities meaning that many batteries have to be used to power a nation or a region.

The production of batteries at a scale not seen before will require the mining of many metals and elements likely in a non-environmentally friendly way. However, using more energy dense batteries like the aluminium battery would lead to a lower demand on resources [6]. Technology like this is still in development however [4].

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REFERENCES:

[1] United Nations / Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2009) ‘World Population Prospects : The 2008 Revision’, Population Newsletter, 87, pp. 1–20.

[2] United Nations (2014) World Urbanization Prospects 2014, Demographic Research. doi: (ST/ESA/SER.A/366).

[3] Zaihidee, F. M., Mekhilef, S., Seyedmahmoudian, M. and Horan, B. (2016) ‘Dust as an unalterable deteriorative factor affecting PV panel’s efficiency: Why and how’, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, pp. 1267–1278. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2016.06.068.

[4] Bitenc J, Lindahl N, Vizintin A, Abdelhamid M, Dominko R, Johansson P. Concept and electrochemical mechanism of an Al metal anode ‒ organic cathode battery. Energy Storage Materials. 2019;24:379-383.

[5] Elsehrawy, F., Niemi, T. and Cappelluti, F., 2018. Guided-mode resonance gratings for enhanced mid-infrared absorption in quantum dot intermediate-band solar cells. Optics Express, 26(6), p.A352.

[6] A new concept could make more environmentally friendly batteries possible [Internet]. ScienceDaily. 2019. Available from: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190930082249.htm