Conventional
solar energy plants operate well in daylight and sunny
weather. In order to operate at night and during cloudy
weather, they need an energy storage system.
All
traditional solar storage is based on simple energy
transfer systems that convert energy from the solar
array into an easily stored form. Some fraction of
the total energy put into the system is always lost
and the storage system therefore requires more power
than it delivers. The solar array must also supply
both the energy output it was designed for as well
as energy needed by the storage system.
A
solar power plant operating on a 100% duty cycle must
be approximately 4 to 5 times larger than one that
does not use storage. Clever schemes have been devised
for mitigating this limitation based on a variety
of strategies but the fundamental limits of conventional
energy storage remains a problem for solar energy
facilities.
A
new solution to the problem of storage has recently
been investigated. This method uses a form of solar
energy that has been neglected because it was difficult
to harness with traditional technology and because
it was even harder to overcome human preconceptions.
Like other useful techniques based on natural processes,
aerodynamic heavier-than-air flight for example, the
biggest hurdle is not technological but conceptual.
In
the early days of powered flight, people absolutely
refused to listen to those who said that it was possible
to make a heavy object fly continuously through the
air. Experts stubbornly resisted the idea, even though
animals had been doing exactly the same thing for
hundreds of millions of years. Today aircraft weighing
upwards of 1 million pounds routinely fly all around
the world and no one gives it a second thought.
Natural
energy systems like thunderstorms, tornados and hurricanes
use solar energy stored in the earth’s atmosphere
and operate unceasingly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
365 days a year around the globe. Unlike conventional
energy storage, this form of energy augmentation is
not limited to the amount of power put into the initiating
process. It is itself an additional form of solar
energy stored in the earth’s atmosphere waiting
to be released.
The
least difficult way to use this new method of power
generation is as a supplement for conventional solar
energy installations and in other applications where
it is desirable to reduce power consumption, such
as air conditioning.
For more information about unconventional solar energy
technology, please visit the other links on this website.
