A solar future isn't just likely — it's inevitable
Here it is: solar photovoltaic (PV) power is eventually going to dominate global energy. The question is not if, but when. Maybe it will happen radically faster than anyone expects say, by 2050. Or maybe it won't be until the year 3000, or later. But it'll happen.
The main reason is pretty simple: solar PV is different from every other source of electricity, in ways that make it uniquely well-suited to 21st-century needs. (Among those needs I count abundance, resilience, and sustainability.)
Solar PV is different from other energy sources in one crucial way
Every other commercial source of electricity besides solar PV generates energy through roughly the same means: by spinning a turbine.
Coal plants, gas plants, nuclear plants, and concentrated solar power plants are all just different ways of boiling water to produce steam that spins a turbine. Wind power harnesses the wind to spin a turbine. Hydropower dams use flowing water to crank a turbine. These spinning turbines, in turn, provide mechanical force to an electric generator, which translates it into electrical current (this is done by moving electrical conductors through magnetic fields see Faraday's Law).
Solar PV works differently: it converts sunlight directly into electricity. Photons of light excite the surface of a semiconductor, knocking electrons loose to become part of a charged electrical field, generating electromotive force that can be tapped by wires. (See: the photovoltaic effect.)
This difference sounds technical, but it is enormously consequential. It brings three obvious advantages, often touted by solar proponents.
First, a solar cell has no moving parts, so operation and maintenance costs tend to be very low. It has to be kept clean, but that's about it.
Second, a solar cell requires no fuel so fuel costs are zero. Once the initial investment is paid off, and subtracting modest O&M costs, the power produced is free.
And third, a solar cell generates power without any pollution.
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http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/a-solar-future-isnt-just-likely-%e2%80%94-its-inevitable/ar-BBiMf4X