Innovations in Solar Energy
Today, the world is advancing day by day and in many parts of it, we are facing wonderful creations that show solutions to many of problems for our planet earth. There are numerous of incredible ways utilize solar energy. Along this post, I will be discussing different inventions around the world that represent an incredible solution for our future.
Sahara Forest Project
“It is designed to utilize what we have enough of to produce what we need more of, using deserts, saltwater and CO2 to produce food, water, and clean energy.”
An ambitious Idea that started back in 2008 today is becoming a reality. The Sahara Forest Project would turn the desert into a source of food, water, and energy. This project combines concentrated Solar Power and Seawater greenhouses to provide renewable energy and sustainable agricultural solutions. The Sahara project has the purpose of providing us with key resources to live. According to Sahara project website, “In 2050 about 9.3 billion people will share our planet.” And as many of us know today in many places around the world looking for those key resources is a challenge. “The Sahara Forest Project is designed to utilize what we have enough of to produce what we need more have, using deserts, saltwater, and CO2 to produce food, water, and clean energy. This is done by combining already existing and proven environmental technologies, including saltwater-cooled greenhouses, concentrated solar power (CSP) and technologies for desert revegetation around a saltwater infrastructure. The synergies arising from integrating the technologies improve the performance and economics of the system compared to those of the individual components.”
The images below show what the project will look like when fully completed
Netherlans- SolaRoad
The world’s first solar road is an energy- harvesting bike path paved with glass-coated solar panels. What originally claim to be a great solution to generate solar power today it has shown to be even better than expected. This 70-meter test bike path generates 3,000 kWh this is enough to provide a single-person household with electricity for a whole year.
“If we translate this to an annual yield, we expect more than the 70kwh per square metre per year,” says Sten de Wit, spokesman for SolaRoad
How does it work?
The amazing creators behind this wonderful project spent five (5) years developing this technology. “ The solar panels are sandwiched between glass, silicon rubber and concrete, and are strong enough to support 12- tonne fire tucks without any damaged. Each individual panel connects to smart metres, which optimize their output and feed their electricity straight into street lighting, or the grid.”
The images below show how the road looks from the top and side view
Solar Billboards or “Eco-board”
Neon sign that uses wind and sun energy to brighten streets
“ Small changes in awareness can turn into large-scale progress”
This spectacular innovation consists of billboard powered by 100% self-supplied electricity from wind turbines and solar panels on the billboard. This eco-board have been placed by Ricoh company in different part of the world. New York, London, Tokyo and Sydney are some of the cities that count with these boards.
This “eco-board” only illuminate when there is sufficient power generated from renewable power supplies. The eco-boards are the first of this kind in Europe to be fully powered by renewable energy “five wind turbines and 96 solar panels” Only one day of sun exposure, the billboard can light up to 210, 60-watt lightbulb for one hour.
The eco-boards also use 1/5 the energy of an LED billboard and ¼ energy of a fluorescent light billboard, which is why the Ricoh team believed this kind of eco-advertising could change the face of the industry.
“the effects of reducing energy consumption due to a single billboard might be small. But an eco-billboard that embodies an eco-friendly message may generate significant momentum for change if it succeeds in raising awareness of global environmental issues. We seek to proceed step-by-step with everyone towards the realization of a society that runs on sustainable resources.”Said Ricoh
These are only a few of the amazing innovations we have been seeing around the world over the last years and without any doubt each of these are wonderful additions to our planet.
References:
http://saharaforestproject.com/concept/products.html
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/150510092535171.html
http://www.sciencealert.com/solar-roads-in-the-netherlands-are-working-even-better-than-expected
https://www.ricoh.com/about/company/promotions/eco-billboards/newyork/
http://mashable.com/2012/01/04/innovative-solar-energy-tech/#0LgxxZw1Biqh
These inventions in Solar Energy are really awesome. Even though they will take us a lot of time and money to achieve, I think they are still doable because energy is really important to human. And by then, we will have a green planet with low CO2 emission.
The Sahara Solar Project is really awesome! That is a great idea to use solar to develop a forest in the desert. I just did my blog post on Iceland, and using solar in the Sahara reminds me of how in Iceland, they are using geothermal energy to heat greenhouses. The commonality is they are harvesting their natural resources to grow plants in an environment that would not allow this otherwise.