Even though the world has just recently started taking Observations on Solar Energy seriously, it is not a new technology. We’ve known about the photovoltaic effect (PV) since 1839. In fact, there is a whole discipline called solar observation. Which works on studying the sun and its behavior in relation to our planet.<\/p>\n

The PV effect is just one aspect of these observations. For people who still don’t know, the PV effect is the process that generates electricity in a solar panel. When we expose it to direct sunlight.<\/p>\n

It is both a physical and chemical process. Which starts when the light is first absorbed by the solar panel. Which contains semi-conducting materials that can hold this energy. This causes electrons within to get excited and break away. These electrons are then harnessed to create usable DC electricity.<\/p>\n

However, this process isn’t as efficient as we would hope. Since we don’t always get all of the available light energy our sun produces. A big reason for this is that our atmosphere is chock full of things that are very good at deflecting solar energy. This includes small things like dust and molecules, to larger formations like clouds.<\/p>\n

On one hand, this is vital for helping regulate the temperature on the surface of the earth. On the other hand, this same safety net prevents us from realizing the true potential of solar energy. To make it clearer, on average, deflection costs us about 40% of all available solar energy. And even the amount that we receive is not constant, owing to the Earth’s day\/night cycle.<\/p>\n

In simple math, even if the solar constant is around 1367 W\/m2, we only get an average of 170 W\/m2 on the Earth’s surface. While this might seem like a huge loss, it’s not all bad news. Since even with this lessened amount of available energy. We still get around 3.4 million EJ of energy each year.<\/p>\n

That is around 7000-8000 times the annual global energy consumption. Even if we could capture just 0.1% of this energy, and convert it with just 10% efficiency. We can still easily double the global energy production.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for us though, there are still factors that hinder even these goals. These include economic, political, and social issues that affect people in different ways. We are here to talk about a few such observations about solar energy production.<\/p>\n

Rich Vs Poor Countries<\/h3>\n

Even if we’re only targeting the existing global energy production capacity. It will still take trillions of dollars in investments to reach this goal. Poor countries don’t have this kind of money to invest in solar energy production. Especially when we haven’t perfected the technology to the point that it can be a reliable source 24\/7.<\/p>\n

Moreover, rich countries don’t have any incentive to support a global energy shift. When they themselves still rely heavily on oil, gas, coal, and nuclear energy. So, we can’t even expect them to pay more than their share, even if it is ‘mis-labeled’ as aid. This remains one of the big hurdles to making solar energy acceptable in poorer nations.<\/p>\n

Developed Vs Developed Countries<\/h3>\n

Another fact that hinders this change is that most rich countries are also developed. They had enough time and resources to devote to their existing energy infrastructure. Which is generally more than adequate to handle their own energy needs.<\/p>\n

So, it wouldn’t make a lot of economic sense for them to convert everything to solar. Since that would mean a lot more investment, not only to create new infrastructure. But also phase out the existing fossil-fuel-based systems. As well as retrain the millions of people already working in these industries.<\/p>\n

Developing countries actually have an advantage in this regard. Since in most such places energy production still hasn’t met 100% demand. In fact, in a lot of places, people still don’t have even standard electricity connections. Let alone highly-reliable ones that come with 24\/7 power backup.<\/p>\n

So, they can build up capacity by picking places that don’t have said infrastructure. Without actually spending any money on retrofitting any brownfield projects. This is why countries like India and Mexico are doing so great when it comes to installing solar systems.<\/p>\n

India aims to achieve 100GW of\u00a0solar power production\u00a0by 2022.<\/a><\/p>\n

Solar Price Comparisons<\/h3>\n

These observations on solar energy have been mostly related to commercial and utility-scale systems. But these aren’t the only types of solar energy systems that are available today. We also have the entire single-home industry to talk about.<\/p>\n

Which features a host of products, from home solar panel setups, to solar lanterns and torches. As well as larger installations like street lamps and water heaters. All of these systems can contribute a lot to cutting down on our carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, these systems are heavily affected by the cost barrier to entry. As most such systems are still too expensive for people living in poverty.<\/p>\n

To give you an example, the average 375W solar panel costs around 15,000 rupees or $200. You need around 10 of these to maintain a basic 3Kw setup. Which is the minimum power output you would need to handle the needs of a 2-person household. Even if you don’t count the air-conditioning and\/or heating system with this.<\/p>\n

This means you need to do an average initial investment of around 1,50,000 rupees or $2000. This is without even counting the inverter, batteries, mounts, and other equipment needed. The entire setup can cost twice that amount.<\/p>\n

5 Key factors to consider while designing solar rooftop PV system<\/a><\/p>\n

This amount might be a month and a half worth’s salary for the average American or European. But for most people in countries like India, this is easily more than their annual salary. So, immediately cost becomes a big observation in solar energy.<\/p>\n

At the same time, all these observations don’t change the facts that we explored in the beginning. That solar energy is abundant enough to where we can sustain the whole world with it. It might take a lot of time and money. But these investments are worth it if we want to live in a better world. We just hope that all parties involved will see the benefits in doing so, and make it happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even though the world has just recently started taking Observations on Solar Energy seriously, it is not a new technology. We’ve known about the photovoltaic effect (PV) since 1839. In fact, there is a whole discipline called solar observation. Which works on studying the sun and its behavior in relation to our planet. The PV […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[13,11,56],"class_list":["post-738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solar-energy","category-polular-articles","tag-solar-energy","tag-solar-panels","tag-solar-power-plant"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.renewable-india.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.renewable-india.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.renewable-india.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.renewable-india.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.renewable-india.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.renewable-india.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3336,"href":"https:\/\/www.renewable-india.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions\/3336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.renewable-india.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.renewable-india.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.renewable-india.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.renewable-india.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}