Here comes the sun: solar’s pulling power revealed in survey

Mega’s Twitter poll puts solar top of the list of viable alternative energy sources.

solar energy in city

Solar has a bright future. That’s the message from Mega’s alternative energy Twitter survey, which revealed that three in five of the 1600 followers who took part believe solar power offers the best hope for tackling climate change.

The poll, conducted in June, asked respondents to select the renewable energy technology that will have the greatest positive impact on our planet.

Solar was by far the most popular choice, attracting 60 per cent of all votes, beating wind power and natural gas into second and third place respectively.

Falling production costs and improving efficiency have been behind solar power’s renaissance in recent years.

solar industry

Gone are the days when solar could only be made to work in parts of the world that see hours of uninterrupted sunshine.

Today’s solar panels can produce significant amounts of energy even on foggy or overcast days. And their usefulness has been further boosted by the development of new battery technologies that allow energy to be stored much more efficiently.

Indeed, thanks to economies of scale, solar photovoltaic technology (PVs) is already a low-cost energy.

The cost of producing solar energy panels has halved over the four years to 2014 while the price for polysilicon – the main component of solar cells – has dropped to a record low of below USD15 a kilogram.

At the same time, researchers are also developing technology that will enable solar panels to convert a far greater proportion of the energy generated by the sun’s rays into electricity.

solar cost

“From the favelas of Latin America and the villages of India to the cities of Europe, solar power offers electricity that is now competitive with all other energy sources.” clean energy expert Chris Goodall writes his latest book The Switch. “And it is becoming cheaper each month through predictable technological changes.”

Solar power is set to become the cheapest form of electricity in many regions of the world in less than 10 years’ time, according to German think tank Agora Energiewende. What is more, says the International Energy Agency, solar electricity could provide up to a quarter of world energy demand by 2050.

solar energy prediction

Wind took second place in Mega’s Twitter poll with just over 20 per cent of the vote, followed by natural gas, which attracted 11 per cent.

Comments that accompanied our poll also found a minority of respondents put their faith on nuclear alongside solar.

“Solar, until nuclear fusion is harnessed. Then that will be a game changer,” one respondent said.

Nuclear fusion is a process that combines hydrogen atoms to release energy. A focus of scientific research in the 1970s, nuclear fusion mirrors the reaction that powers the sun and it is considered more sustainable and environmentally friendlier than today’s nuclear technology, which relies on fission,or the splitting of hydrogen atoms. Yet it is unclear whether fusion can ever be commercially viable.

About

Mega

Mega seeks to energise and enrich the debate over how to create a better-functioning economy and society.

Megatrends are the powerful socio-economic, environmental and technological forces that shape our planet. The digitisation of the economy, the rapid expansion of cities and the depletion of the Earth’s natural resources are just some of the structural trends transforming the way countries are governed, companies are run and people live their lives.

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