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Annoyed by high power bills? It’s time to look at how businesses can benefit from solar energy advancements.
FREMONT, CA: As business leaders, one of the highest overhead costs facing CIOs must be the cost of electricity. This chooses solar power as an alternative energy source among business owners. Solar technologies have evolved a lot since they made their debut in the 1960s. Today across the globe, companies, and researchers are working to commercialize new solar technologies that cloud further boost the adoption of renewable energy generation. In previous years alone, there have been milestones in solar efficiency, solar energy storage wearable solar tech, and solar design tech. Read on to get the complete update on all breakthroughs CIOs must know about in the world of new solar technology.
• Solar Skin Design
Business and homeowners consider solar panels to be an unattractive addition, being a significant barrier for the solar industry. Fortunately, new entrants in the market are venturing with innovative solar skin designs which are making significant strides with the idea of an aesthetic enhancement that allows solar panels to have a customized look. Solar skins are available in the market, which makes it possible for solar panels to match the appearance of a roof without affecting panel efficiency or production.
• Solar Roadways
The roads and sidewalks of the future are ready to generate power from solar energy and provide surfaces for people to travel around on. Since the ground space is already in use, this idea makes complete sense. CIOs can try this out in office sidewalks and walkways as a progressive investment to energy efficiency. The cost of solar roadways depends entirely on the system installed and the area it covers. The solar road tiles could power electric vehicles through induction technology, stored or connected directly in the grid for use by nearby infrastructure, and cities.
• Wearable Solar
Wearable solar devices are not new, there solar powered watches and other gadgets already available in the market. But as researching the possibilities of integrating the solar panels to textiles have given way to wearable solar. In this super-thin organic cells are combined with the dress, which is heat printed. These cells could be used to power portable devices and wearable tech, eliminating the need to carry around battery or power bank. The new textile concept makes it possible for solar to expand into products like window curtains and dynamic heated car seats.
• Solar Storage
The off-grid solar and solar plus storage has gained immense popularity among people. It is the clean energy that can be used for commercial power purposes. Solar batteries are becoming common, and their ability to store renewable energy is expected to aid the energy storage industry to grow at a rapid pace. Solar storage is still a relatively expensive product, but there is a surge in demand from solar shoppers, which credits in bringing more efficient and affordable batteries to the market in the coming years.
• Solar Tracking
More and more business owners today are considering solar. Because of this expansion, ground-mounted solar is becoming a viable option which allows solar panels to maximize energy production by the following sun as it moves. Solar manufacturers are genuinely embracing this technology, and it is witnessing an upward trend in the market.
• Solar Water Purifiers
UV rays can destroy bacteria and germs present in the water and taking it as a cue researchers have developed a new solar device that can purify water when exposed to sunlight. It can be considered one of the significant strides towards utilizing solar energy to clean water. Previously, purifier designs needed to harness UV rays and required hours of sun exposure to purify water entirely. But this new advancement can access visible light, and it only requires minutes to produce reliable drinking water. As the technology behind solar purifiers continues to evolve more efficient design may come to the market with campers and hikers being an ideal consumer audience.
• Solar Thermal Fuel
Storage is an area of debate when it comes to solar energy’s drawback. The future of solar involves affordable storage solutions that will make solar a truly sustainable energy source. Though solar batteries are storage option, they are still not economically viable. Luckily researchers are spending time developing alternative storage solutions for solar, and the best one has come out as solar thermal fuels. The technology behind solar thermal fuel is comparable to a typical battery. It can harness sunlight and store it as a charge and then releases when needed. This latest improvement is considered as an enhancement of prior design that allowed solar power to be stored in liquid substances. This solid-state application could be implemented in windows, windshields, car tops, and other surfaces which are exposed to sunlight.
• Solar Panel
There is a race in the solar energy industry to become top in terms of solar cell efficiency. A number of panel manufacturers have brought out higher efficiencies with advancements in solar panels. The solar cell type used in the mainstream market could see significant improvements with this. Now there are solar panels that can generate more than twenty percent efficiency while remaining as the lowest cost options on the market. This new tech concept captures and utilizes the waste heat that is usually emitted by solar panels. As an opportunity to improve solar energy technology, these innovations could help the cost of solar to reduce further.
It is a piece of good news for CIOs considering solar energy for their business now. This long list of solar energy technology advancements has the potential to bring efficiency upgrades, storage improvements, and device capabilities, which in the end can translate into more efficient power use and reduced costs.
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