How solar energy be used in the future?

Answer 1

In the future solar energy could be the main source of energy in the world.

We only use a little bit of the suns energy but if we add more solar panels we can use so much some and scientists are working on taking energy from the sun more. With better panels and more of them spread out through out the u.s. and you might even see a few in you back yard some day soon, powering your home.

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The problem, apart from the obvious of being purely diurnal and dependent on cloud conditions, is sufficiency of the materials needed; and whether these can be re-processed for new panels when the original ones "wear" out. They do have a finite life, and as well as the rare-earth compound of the active components, they use a fair amount of plastic and metal in their construction. All these materials have to be sourced, processed, transported etc, - all needing fuels of one sort or another, and crude-oil derivatives for the plastics - and not all are recoverable at the end of a panel's useful life. Whilst it's right to consider and use where practicable, so-called "renewable energy" sources we must realise that they generate only electricity, and that that electricity is by no means "free" either financially or environmentally.

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In the UK, many homes now have solar-panel installations on their roofs, some have solar water-heating panels instead (or as well, given sufficient available, roughly Southerly-aspect area). The panels can charge battery-packs for nocturnal use, and the control systems balance solar-panel and mains sources to ensure high demand does not out-strip the solar arrays' rate. Some years ago now the Government introduced a so-called "feed-in tariff" whereby "surplus" electricity generated could be fed back into the National Grid mains; and many householders not only repaid the capital cost quite quickly but even made some profit from this sale.