World’s total energy is mainly contributed by fossil fuels, which are non-renewable sources, producing greenhouse gases during generation of electricity. Hence, solar energy, which is known for an environmentally friendly and a free source, has the potential to grow. However, there are challenges to be overcome in order to capture, convert and store sunlight for use. There are some technologies such as using dishes to concentrate sun ray’s to heat fluids that can drive engine and produce power and direct production of electric current from captured sunlight with solar photovoltaic cells. Besides that, approach like using new materials which is arranged in novel way and the aid of nanotechnology increase the efficiency of solar power. In order to make solar energy more economical, approaches like using new material to cuts fabrication cost. Since current solar cell requires a material to absorbed the sunlight so that there will be flow of electric charge, enhancing the material purity is needed because it will reduce impurities. Due to its high cost, nanorods can be used to absorb the sunlight and enable the charges to be flowed. Electric charges also can be collected by using a combination of dye molecules to absorb sunlight. On the other hand, solar energy is not widely used is because the sunlight is not constant which depends on time, locations and weather conditions. Thus, it is a necessity to capture and store the sunlight. These can be done by pumping water for energy storage. In addition, it is possible to store the sunlight in the chemical bonds of molecules and then duplicate to produce fuel. Basically, solar energy is not so efficiency yet very costly. Thus, scientists still have to acquire method that can improve the efficiency and reduce the cost of manufacturing as well.
The original passage “Make Solar Energy economical” is from http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9082.aspx
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