Solar energy in 2030
The growth rate in urban areas globally is on the rise, as well as digital transformation, IoT and automation for smart buildings and homes. The automotive industry has turned totally towards electric and autonomous vehicles.
By NICK JOHNSON
How would you change your life today? If you only knew that solar energy is the future for power generation.
Currently, 80% of the world’s energy system is based on fossil resources (coal, oil and gas). The fall in oil prices has reduced oil and gas exploration and production, private initiative and governments must focus their efforts on investing in cleaner energy sources, optimizing their assets and improving interaction with customers, as well how to generate value from disruptive technologies. By the year 2030, environmental policies should be aligned with the preservation of the environment, however there are interests of large corporations that will surely lead a battle to preserve monopolies and in turn the race for the electrification of mobility will be competing for use renewable energy on a large scale.
Governments that continue to invest in coal, oil and nuclear power plants will be becoming obsolete by the year 2030 where renewable energies are expected to reach a historic growth never before predicted and it is also due to the electrification of cars, the use of home automation in homes and offices as well as in the digital transformation where the IoT (Internet of Things) will be imperative for daily operation, which translates into greater consumption of electrical energy.
In addition to this scenario, it is worth mentioning that, with the large-scale deployment of solar energy, scientific advances to reduce costs and generate better efficiency in solar cells will be significant since currently only 25% of the energy captured from the sun is used by photovoltaic cells. And it is partly thanks to the properties of Silicon that they are only capable of transforming the energy of solar radiation in less than a quarter of use, and in order to generate enough energy, huge amounts of purified silicon would be needed, which is not exactly cheap.
Emerging economies such as Mexico should point to the new panorama in solar technology research, in which countries such as Spain, Germany and the United States have shown progress with thin film technologies, however they have great disadvantages due to use of lead and iodine, where until now they have only managed to equal silicon in 22% of use and although in a few years they may exceed the percentage, the serious drawback is the solubility with water, which is why they seek to replace lead.
“Emerging economies such as Mexico should point to the new trend of solar technology research”
However, the race continues towards the new scheme, and although the efficiency of Silicon will not be equaled at a reasonable cost, it is a fact that in the coming years thin film technologies will offer us other advantages such as integration in constructions in the form of solar tiles or even in coatings of structures, as well as textile substrates and of course in the application of electric vehicles with flexible panels mounted on hybrid prints of efficient composite materials to organic cells.
Looking to the year 2030, the potential of photovoltaic energy is immense, however there will also be more regulations in the process as renewable energies advance, where negotiations with large fossil industries must build a hybrid model where the generation of different sources is combined of energy, thus the costs for users would be cheaper since as we well know, the simple fact of transporting energy from one station to another requires a huge infrastructure, with solar panels the energy goes directly to where it is needed in large quantities, it is necessary to make efficient use of solar radiation and to construct political regulations that promote development.
Elon Musk mentioned well that “the main power generator of energy in the future will be solar energy and will be used by most of people” and it makes sense with the millionaire investment that Musk has allocated in his companies dedicated to solar energy, including Tesla which has developed more efficient batteries for residential use and released patents to make use of technology for the benefit of humanity.
Although solar energy will not be the main source for the year 2030, it will go from occupying 5% to occupying almost 30% in just 10 years. And it will continue to increase as technological advances in solar energy develop, there is much room to improve and discover, daily the sun gives us an immense amount of renewable energy that if we could take advantage of it, we would never need more fossil resources than for true … They have an expiration date.