"Understanding the Future of Sustainable Energy"

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About the Author

Solar energy is an immense source of energy.  Solar generation has the potential to resolve global climate change, and national security risks, yet solar generation has not yet effectively been taken advantage of.  The main challenge of solar generation is cost.  The most typical solar energy conversion is through photovoltaic cells.  Such cells requires high purity materials, which are intrinsically expensive. While major improvement in photovoltaic technology maybe possible, the cost of solar energy can be substantially decreased through the development of large thermal plants where solar energy is used to heat up fluids to be used in heat engines.  Such technologies can be scaled to huge sizes and do not use noble materials.

Solar energy like wind energy is also intermittent. However, solar irradiance is much more predictable and less intermittent than wind energy.  This makes the potential to integrate solar with other technologies much more manageable.  As large solar technology develop, solar generation will become more attractive and more popular.

"I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy.  What a source of power!
I hope we don't have to wait 'til oil and coal run out before we tackle that."
-Thomas Edison

U.S. Direct Normal Solar Irradiation
NREL: United States Atlas of Renewable Resources