The costs of buying new equipment mean solar energy is still more expensive than energy generated from fossil fuels.
It would also mean that large scale solar farms, like the giant array in Alentejo, Portugal, could increase their output while saving on energy used to track the sun.
In the mean time, silicon solar manufacturers, from silicon producers to those who take the silicon and turn it into cells and then panels, have built many more giant factories.
FORBES: First Solar Struggles Amid Decline Of Thin-Film Solar Market
Even if only 10 percent of electric car owners turn to solar that would mean 120, 000 new customers, nearly doubling the national total.
He said fitting the solar panels would mean the council was paid for the energy generated and would also be paid for unused energy exported to the grid.
But if Svensmark was correct, it would mean that periods of high solar output should coincide with reduced cloud formation (due to reduced cosmic ray incidence), which in turn would have a warming effect on the Earth, since less sunlight would be reflected back into space by clouds.
Indeed, it is still not clear how the ongoing anti-dumping sentiment in world solar component trade will mean for Africa.
FORBES: More On Africa's Power Problems And Possible Solutions
He told MPs the plans could mean up to 20 gigawatts of solar energy would be produced in the UK by 2020.
But advances mean the sensors are now tiny, solar powered and capable of operating for decades.
Equally some electric vehicle owners have been able to recharge their cars with solar panels, which means their emissions are practically zero (although the emissions involved with actually constructing the solar panels and the cars will mean that no cars are ever totally clean).
If Fomalhaut b bears similarities to Jupiter in our own Solar System, we muse, could that mean that Jupiter is not unique?
Sure, we've been frustrated by solar-powered iPhone chargers and amused by the irony of solar-powered lamps in the past, but that doesn't mean we're not looking forward to the day when we can meet our gadgets power needs without relying on fossil fuels.
ENGADGET: ReNu solar panels announced for iPhone charger, sound dock, LED desk lamp
应用推荐