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Why Is Solar Energy Important?



Solar energy is extremely important for us to survive. Besides helping us to stay warm, and enabling other organisms to survive, it is used in the commercial power production as well.

solar energ

Solar energy is also essential for plant life as it is necessary for photosynthesis, the process through which plants generate energy and process nutrients for their growth by converting solar light for their own use by utilizing chloroplasts within their leaves and bodies.

Through this process, food is produced for other herbivores together with oxygen for us to breath and removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, allowing creatures such as ourselves to survive while maintaining a balanced world temperature.

Hybrid solar lighting used for interior lighting is also a type of solar energy. This is most commonly used to give off light inside buildings. You will find that individual solar lights will marinate in the sun all day and stay lit at night to light up walkways and gardens.

A lot of people do not realize that solar energy is used for cooking. Solar power ovens as well as other kitchen appliances are becoming more and more popular. Something as simple as a greenhouse uses solar power. Power from the sun will help the plants to grow and thrive. Greenhouses also take in the rays of the sun to heat up the inside of the greenhouse. This is very beneficial to the plants during the winter time when they would normally die.

Many of us are unaware of the fact that solar energy is also responsible for generating wind currents, which help the spreading of spores and gametes in plants and fungi to allow their propagation over a wide area.

Herbivores or omnivores also require solar energy to gain energy, which help them to produce various B vitamins such as B-12 to energize and stimulate several processes.

Solar energy even affects our daily moods, as our bodies adapt and adjust throughout the different seasons as the amount of sunlight changes. For example, many people feel more depressed or less energetic in the winter or during rainy seasons, while the summer tends to see more positive feelings and productive work styles.

This is commonly known as “Seasonal Affective Disorder” and is common among not only people but many animals as well.

Solar energy is also partly responsible for the generation of oceanic waves and currents as well as regulating the salt/fresh water mix through the melting and re-freezing of the polar ice caps.

This supports a conducive living environment for ocean creatures as the oceanic currents circle and deposit shared nutrients across the globe. The melting of the ice by solar energy makes sure that new fresh water is made available for countless ecosystems around the world that are dependent upon this cycle for survival.

Lastly, the commercial use of solar energy has helped to provide an alternative, renewable power source through the usage of photovoltaic energy cells for harvesting direct energy from the sun’s rays as well as through harvesting wind and hydro power, both byproducts generated from solar energy.

Many people have utilized effective renewable energy in a number of different ways, helping to reduce energy consumption in many countries, thus providing a cleaner, safer environment for people to live in. This is especially important now as the oil reserves deplete increasingly each year, paving the way for alternative energy.

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New Silicon-Air Battery to Have Unlimited Shelf Life



It does sound like a dream, but the Scientists at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have finally made it come true! They have been successful to create an eco-friendly, silicon-air battery that can provide power to devices for literally thousands of hours before replacement.

silicon air battery

Created from silicon and oxygen, the batteries are light in weight, and can work well in extremely dry conditions as well as in areas having high humidity levels. The new battery would become very useful for medical applications like hearing aids or diabetic pumps. It can also be used for several other purposes such as for microelectronics and sensors.

According to the lead researcher, Yair Ein-Eli, silicon-air batteries will be used like the ones already in use today. But by using silicon, which is a safe, non-toxic, and common material, it would be possible to create very lightweight batteries, having infinite shelf life and high energy capacity.

The silicon-air batteries will not have the built-in cathode that is present in the conventional batteries, resulting in reduced weight and cost. The silicon-air batteries make use of the oxygen in our atmosphere, which works as the cathode.

The best thing about this battery is that silicon and oxygen, both are present in abundant quantities on our planet, making this battery a breakthrough in clean energy manufacturing.

According to the researchers, silicon-air batteries will become much more powerful and rechargeable too in the coming years.

Moreover, in about ten years time, electric cars might also start using silicon batteries that will be recycled over and over again.

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Reducing Carbon Emissions Unlikely In Near Future



According to a new study, one of the major causes of global warming, the increasing carbon dioxide emissions, cannot be stabilized unless the world’s economy collapses completely or the society successfully generates 300 giga watts of nuclear power annually.

CO2

Tim Garrett, who is an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah, has conducted this new study. He has said in the study that it seems unlikely that there will be any substantial near-term departure from the recently observed acceleration in carbon dioxide emission rates.

In order to stabilize the carbon dioxide emissions at current rates, approximately 300 giga watts of power, through some new non-carbon-dioxide-emitting way, is required on a daily basis.

However, in reality, there are no other options available that do not cause any harm to the economy. The fact is that if the society uses up no energy, there would be no civilization.

According to him, the civilization must be seen like a heat engine that uses up energy and in turn, does work in the form of economic production, which then stimulates it to consume more energy.

Thus if the society used up no energy, the civilization would become worthless. In order to keep its activities going, the civilization needs to consume energy on a daily basis.

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New Solar Storage Solution Could Be The Key To home-Brewed Electricity



Since the usage of solar energy is dependent on regular provision of energy, storage systems are the important part that needs to be look upon to move towards the era of personalized solar energy.

saving solar energy

The emphasis of this article is more on production of energy in people homes rather than big central generating stations.

How Solar Energy Can Be Saved?

According to the new paper by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Professor Daniel Nocera explains the expansion and improvement of the less costly storage system of inexpensive storage method for achieving tailored solar energy. It uses a catalyst that separates water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen.

This then results in a fuel for generating electricity in a fuel cell. The latest oxygen-evolving catalyst works like photosynthesis, the procedure plants use to make energy, making clean energy from sunlight and water.

According to Nocera, low-energy densities describe most recent ways of solar storage. These consist of batteries. Though, significant hard work is presently being done for the improvement of the battery, it represents difficult challenges for large-scale solar personalized energy execution.

The energy density of liquid fuels (~50 MJ/kg) is greater than or equal to 100 times larger than the best of the current methods of solar storage.

Nocera’s method of making use of the solar energy to generate fuel for a fuel cell could be the appropriate solution to providing personalized solar energy at a reasonable price in the upcoming. Moreover, this solar storage can also act as a factor of leveler between the developed and developing world.

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