Quik Thinking

Why solar power is a big deal

The total global energy needs are on the order of a few dozen terawatts. The maximum potential energy from Hydroelectricity, wind, geothermal and biofuel put together wouldn't even come close to giving us half of that. Solar energy, on the other hand could supply the entire world's power needs using a pretty small amount of desert landscape. The problem, however, is that solar energy currently costs about 5-6 times as much as coal, which is the dominant source of energy today. New approaches to creating solar cells are showing some promise at bringing the cost down to be competitive with coal, however, although it will take a few more years of research before they are sufficiently efficient to make it worth putting them into production.