The Coming Decade Looks Good For Solar Energy

There was a time, not all that long ago, when solar energy was pretty much limited to small hand held calculators and little else. Only the very rich had the money to put solar to use in their homes. Those days have been replaced by a broader range of devices, uses and price ranges.

The hopes for solar have always been high. Unfortunately the cost of producing solar power has been high as well. Solar panels stubbornly refused to bow down to cost cutting and mass production. The Twentieth Century simply refused to find a way to make solar affordable to the masses.

The Twenty-first Century may just manage to do what the Twentieth could not. The price, at last, is coming down. Solar is already used as a supplemental part of several power plants in the American Southwest. Since latitude is important for consistent solar radiation, this is no surprise.

Areas of the earth that get the most consistent hours of sunlight are those near the equator. The Polar Regions have their sunlight condensed into half of the year. The Northern area gets sun from March to September and the Southern from September to March.

Some areas near the equator have used solar panels for many years. Remote stations that report weather and other meteorological information use solar panel arrays for their power. Rural government offices in Kenya that are off the grid routinely have solar panels on their roofs.

But recently the innovations in solar have started to snowball. First solar panels were half as expensive, then a quarter, and now with the advent of nanotechnology, the cost is bumping up against the cost of oil. Once it reaches a par with petroleum, solar will begin to take a larger share of the load.

Now there are commercial solar power stations in California and other Southwestern states. These are still highly subsidized but are producing power for homes and businesses on the national power grid. Solar energy is part of the US power structure. In Germany and the Netherlands, solar has an even higher profile.

Solar is now commonly used to recharge batteries of almost any kind. You can order a flexible solar panel to help cool your car when it is parked. And there are concept cars that run on solar alone. Solar energy has been used to fly planes, move bicycles and motorcycles too.

It is quite common to see large retailers advertise their use of solar to gain the loyalty of conservation minded shoppers. Suburban solar panels are ubiquitous where once they were rare. Incorporating solar into a new commercial building or private home is no longer unusual.

Solar energy has finally begun to fulfill the promise it made back in the seventies. Clean, renewable, affordable power for everyone is tantalizingly in sight. Sunlight is no respecter of persons, only of latitude. The Sunbelt will likely benefit more than the Polar Regions. But if a way to store solar becomes available, everyone will all get all the power they want. 

Discover what you need to know about solar energy by going online. There you will find many articles with tips to save money. Head online and learn more now.