Solar Progress Being Made in Leaps and Bounds

Image by gr33n3gg / Creative Commons

Solar energy is one of the largest and most widespread alternative energy solutions in the world today. While wind energy probably comes in a close second in the personal energy market, the solar energy movement continues to make progress in leaps and bounds. Here are just a few of the more recent advances and accomplishments being made in the solar arena:

– The Pacific Island Nation of Tokelau made history when they decided to go completely solar. That’s right, all solar! With some funding from the New Zealand government (since they are a New Zealand territory), the island nation has tossed their diesel energy habit and are now getting 100% of their energy from the sun.

– To further show the power, and popularity, of the solar movement, the U.S. solar industry grew a whopping 13.2 percent in the last year with an addition of more than 13,000 solar-related jobs.

– Even the shipping industry is turning to solar (and wind) power to help them lower fuel costs, alleviate their dependency on diesel fuels, and cut down on their pollution levels. With those actions in place, they could add in some Green Plus® fuel additive and to further cut their emissions and improve their fuel economy.

– A solar and wave-powered mobile weather station managed to make it through hurricane Sandy in relatively good condition. On top of that, it was still be able to transmit real-time data from the storm. When you think about it, that’s pretty cool that there are solar/wave powered weather stations and the fact that they can weather a storm such as Sandy is a very positive sign.

– Denmark is looking at abolishing their current ceiling for solar production, from solar power plants, in order to encourage a much larger solar (and other alternative energy) production. This comes on the heals of domestic PV installations generating 223MW last month, up from 17.5MW at the end of last year.

– Samsung has also jumped into the mix by supplying a rural region of South Africa with solar-powered internet schools. But these aren’t your run of the mill schools, these are transformed shipping containers. A great idea, don’t you think?

– Then, to top it all off, researchers have been working diligently to try and make solar affordable on a broad scale. Can you imagine being able to print thin, flexible solar panels en masse, that were able to capture the power of the sun much more efficiently than the bulky panels of today? Between that and the development of solar spray-on technology, homes all around the world could be tapping in to the sun’s power.

Now, of course, these are just some of the advances and accomplishments being made with solar power, but they serve to give us all a good idea of what can be done when you tap in to the power of the sun.