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A Sun that Never Sets – Reflect Orbital’s Big Plans for Upending Solar Energy

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Solar Rising

Solar energy is becoming one of the world’s major power sources due to its natural abundance, “fuel-free” nature, and no carbon emission when operating (but some during production if the panels are not made with green energy).

A major reason for this progress has been the improvement in photovoltaic technologies, with the quickly rising efficiency of solar panels. And there is more to come, with bifacial panels, perovskite, thin-film cadmium telluride, or quantum dots all candidates to improve solar panels further.

This is something we discussed in further detail in “The Solar Age – A Bright Future To Mankind.” In parallel to improved efficiency, production costs also declined steeply, creating the perfect environment for making solar competitive against fossil fuels.

Still, solar power suffers from one key weakness. It cannot produce power at night. Or, for that matter, it produces very little on cloudy days.

This means that solar power can only work as mankind’s main power source in tandem with solutions to alleviate this problem.

Currently, the two main options considered are massive battery packs to store power for the evening and sunless days and long-distance power transmission lines to carry energy from sunny areas and throughout time zones.

The problem is that both options are rather expensive and resource-intensive.

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Jonathan adalah seorang peneliti biokimia yang telah bekerja di bidang analisis genetik dan uji klinis. Sekarang, ia adalah seorang analis saham dan penulis keuangan dengan fokus pada inovasi, siklus pasar, dan geopolitik dalam publikasinya 'The Eurasian Century".