In the year 2011 we find ourselves faced with rapidly expanding technology and endless alternatives as consumers. We now know that we reached peak oil and we will be running out of (cheap) oil in the next 20-40 years. This, however, will not mean the end of oil, but rather an age when gasoline wasn’t $10+ per gallon. Luckily, we have many expanding alternative energy sources, among them being solar energy. Solar energy is most efficient and useful because it comes from a resource we’ve always had and will have for the next billions and billions of years – the sun.
The prospect of wide use solar energy panels is a great one and we are coming closer to it as a reality each and every year. Currently, countries like Spain and Germany, along with the rest of Europe, have the highest concentrations of solar energy panel fields, with the US struggling to catch up. The United States, however, has a large number of facilities currently being built, a number of which will top the lists by MW output. Solar energy panels can be large or small, and are made up of arrayed connections of solar cells (photovoltaic cells). Photovoltaic cell technology is currently being researched heavily and it is estimated that the efficiency of using solar energy panels will rise greatly in the year of 2015 and beyond. As of now, oil is still the most efficient resource we use, but that won’t be for long considering how much is being invested into solar energy technology. Many photovoltaic setups use multiple, large panels to produce as much electricity as possible and subsidize their total electric bill. Solar energy panels are becoming cheaper to buy for consumers as well, and the price will only continue to drop as more research is performed and discoveries are made in the photovoltaic field.
I tried a do it yourself solar panel set & to my surprise the kit actually worked quite well and was not rocket-science either. It was not as amazing as they had portrayed it, yet it’s well worth the amount I paid. Have you guys done that?