Why Light Matters?

Harnessing A Never Ending Resource – “Light”- Possibilities

Capturing the sunlight more effectively and economicallyby making better photovoltaic cells: The modern solar cells which are being used for converting solar energy into electricity are powering nearly 26%Of world where as if we could make better solar cells sun will be powering half of The world.

Harnessing The Power Of Lightening : Each year about 500 million lightening boltsOccurs in our atmosphere . This idea was initially proposed by Benjamin Franklin. You would be surprised to know that each bolt of lightning contains about 5 billion joules ,which is quite large!If we could harness this great power we could run 56 houses for 24 hours from just a Single lightening bolt.

1. Most of the power in lightning is dissipated as thunder and light, which cannot be easily harnessed to generate electric power.2. However, even just the electrical current of lightning is considerable — 20,000 amps on average, the same as 100 steel welders. But the power is on for only a brief fraction of a second.3. The huge surge of electrical current over very brief times makes storing the energy impractical.4. Lightning strikes to specific locations are infrequent and inconsistent. This makes scheduling power availability impractical.5. Lightning can be very damaging. The collection systems have to be incredibly robust, which would drive up costs. Lightning is also very dangerous, making it tough on the collection system workers.1. Solar energy can only be harnessed when it is daytime and sunny.2. Solar collectors, panels and cells are relatively expensive to manufacture although prices are falling rapidly.3. Solar power stations can be built but they do not match the power output of similar sized conventional power stations. They are also very expensive.4. In countries such as the UK, the unreliable climate means that solar energy is also unreliable as a source of energy. Cloudy skies reduce its effectiveness.5. Large areas of land are required to capture the suns energy. Collectors are usually arranged together especially when electricity is to be produced and used in the same location.

Challenges :