 it lit at night than to dig up pavement for the placement of power lines. For the same reason, many municipalities or the highway departments choose solar cells to run street lamps or warning lights. However, solar electricity still costs more to generate than power from existing overhead utility lines. Many believe that current production methods – growing silicon into cylinders or casting them as ingots and then cutting them into very small pieces – cost too much to ever bring down the price to compete with centrally-generated electricity. To dramatically bring down their price, solar cell companies have invested a lot of money to somehow either grow the silicon into a shape that eliminates most of the slicing or merely deposit solar cell material onto an inexpensive but rigid support structure such as ceramic, glass, plastic, or steel.
The Silent Revolution Continues…
|With its wing covered entirely by solar cells, the Pathfinder has flown higher than any other aircraft except for the famous spy plane, the Blackbird.|
The solar-cell industry has grown dramatically over the last twenty years, increasing output 200 fold in this time period. Today, those needing power in remote areas no longer regard solar cells as an alternative source of energy but consider them the most effective solution. Institutions like the World Bank now believe that solar cells “have an important and growing part to play in providing electrical services to the developing world.” In less developed countries, where over half of the population must travel over two hours just to make a phone call, the United Nations today sees solar cells offering these people “for the first time a real practical possibility of reliable telecommunications for general use. Opportunities for solar cells in the developed world continue to grow as well. Solar cells produce electricity than highly polluting diesel generators. The National Parks Service and Defense Department have begun to replace their generators with solar cells. No longer on the highways or roads do portable generators power portable signs warning motorists of lane closures or other important news. Solar cells have replaced them. As the increasing demand for electricity starts to clog the world’s power lines, like traffic jams on our freeways, solar cells strategically built on or into homes and buildings can provide the much needed electricity without further burdening the old electrical routes. Or at times, like on a hot August afternoon, when the electrical highways have emptied, mini-electrical plants consisting of solar modules can refill transmission lines to prevent brownouts and blackouts. The skyrocketing price of oil and natural gas and their dwindling supplies as world demand continues to grow will force the world to use more and more electricity generated by the sun. The change from fossil fuels to solar cells will also help clean up our polluted skies and keep a lid on global warming. As Science magazine wrote more than twenty years ago, “If there is a dream solar technology, it is solar cells, a space-age electronic marvel at once the most sophisticated solar technology and the simplest, most environmentally benign source of electricity yet conceived.