renewable engergy:
Wind
solar
Tidal
Wave
Ocean
Bio
Etc.
How much energy we gonna need as following years:
The unit is of Tera Watts.
And how much we can get from the surroundings:
theoretically
Much of the wind energy are coming from the center of ocean. But it's only efficent now to get engergy by shore.
Biomass: 5-7 TW if we use it all, that would be half of the energy we gonna need. But not enough.
Hydroelectric: It is briiliant but it is limited to the place where there are are load of water and river at some altitude.
Geothermal: It's very tricky to extract energy from heat. And it's very limited to some places such as volcanos and somewhere hot under ocean.
Tide/Ocean currents: It depends on geography and some places of the planet.
Above all, perhaps the largest one is the wind energy.
Solar energy has vast potential. The potential energy has 10,000 TW on the earth.
How much solar energy we can get actually.
photon ---> useful
*['fәutɒn]
n. 光子, 光量子, 光度
【化】 光量子; 光子
【医】 光子
Sun + chemistry = Fuel
Solar fuel:
H20 __with_light__ ---> H2 + 1/2 02
Store energy from the sunlight.
Direct fixing of C02 ---> Liquid or gaseous fuel ( Methane, Formic acid, formaldehyde, Methanol)
methane
*['meθein]
n. 甲烷, 沼气
【化】 甲烷; 沼气
【医】 甲烷, 沼气
formic acid
【化】 甲酸
【医】 甲酸, 蚁酸
formaldehyde
*[fɒ:'mældihaid]
n. 甲醛
【化】 甲醛
【医】 甲醛
methanol
*['meθәnәul]
n. 甲醇
【化】 甲醇
【医】 甲醇, 木醇
Later we can burn it and get energy from it.
These sunlight can be transferred directly into electricity.
Solar thermal engery which means light into heat.
Solar fuel is the lest efficent of the moment.
Solar effience range:
Solar fuel (chemical ) < solar electric (10% -- 20% )< solar thermal ( 85% or more)
But what we get from solar thermal energy is heat. This can be used for industrial heating, process heating, domestic heating.
So we are looking for photovoltaics.
photovoltaic cell
光电池
光生伏打电池
What we need
Requirements:
Large surfaces
Materials
Manufacturing
Low energy payback time
Low carbon footprint
Efficiency
Low cost
Speed