Renewable Solar Power
The quest for practical energy renewables is driving technology advances in solar power, wind and wave power as well as hydroelectric energy generation.
As we move away from carbon fuels towards green alternatives, a great many engineering challenges lie ahead.
While the principles of electric vehicles, solar powered homes, wind farms and the like are all well and good in principle, in practice there are gaps in the technology provision that mean battery life, storage of generated energy at a large scale and of course the vageries of the Uk weather all play a part in making the supply of stable, useable energy a distant reality.
Recent advances in solar panel technology now allow for energy to be cleanly harvested on even the cloudiest days. It wasn’t that long ago that direct sunlight was required to provide sufficient energy.
As manufacturers respond to the industries requirements and the efficiency of solar increases, it allows for the panel size to shrink, making solar units more compact.
How long will it be before we see integrated solar roof tiles that connect together to make the whole roof surface one giant solar panel to power the building? While there are already several companies such as http://www.solarcentury.com/uk/c21e-tiles-and-slates/ that manufacture integrated solar panels to replace sections of tile and slate roofing, these are still top end products and it looks like it’s going to be quite some time before we see the manditory installation of integrated solar power roofing on all new builds.
Lots of uses for good quality solar power have risen in the last few years, including security lighting that doesn’t require mains installation. Garden and pond lighting, path and driveway lighting, road and street lighting, remote location power supply as well as decorative lighting.