Futurology: How renewable energy systems are impacting developing countries
The idea of converting the sun's energy can be dated back to the 1800s, yet it is in the last 10 years that the development of renewable energy has advanced, coming to the forefront of design companies around the world.
As we continue advancing our resources, we both broaden and narrow our options for the supply of energy for our future cities. Renewable energy is the obvious choice; coming in many forms such as geothermal energy, hydroelectricity, wind power and more. We look at solar energy and see what countries around the world are doing to support this, from developing to the developed.
Today, developed countries such as Germany, China, Japan and the United States are beginning to use and have made substantial progress using solar energy as an important supply to the city's grids due to the rise in costs of non-renewable energy. This in turn has meant that less developed countries, such as Kenya, Guatemala, Tanzania and Mongolia, are beginning to skip a step, choosing solar over fuels that are more expensive to import and thus moving towards a clean and more exciting revolution of energy design. This is also greatly beneficial to their off-grid locations, and it can provide a substitute to burning wood, kerosene and other materials at night. As solar design improves, efficiency increases encouraging more countries to switch to solar. Currently over 100 countries successfully have photovoltaic design systems in place, coming in varying sizes, making them more accessible to the everyday man.
For instance, as a South African country receiving large amounts of daylight and with a large population without electricity, Kenya is a great candidate for solar energy. They are world leaders in the amount of solar power systems installed per capita, note, not the amount of watts added. On a yearly basis, more than 30,000 small solar panels are sold, with each producing 12 to 30 watts. Additionally, Kenya pioneered the way in Africa for using geothermal power, and remains the largest installed capacity of geothermal power with 200 megawatts (MW).
Kenya already have in place a system deemed microsols, which are implemented to provide power, heat and clean water to large-scale villages up to 1,000 habitants. These designs produce 50 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, 1,000 cubic metres of water and about 800MWh of heat energy per year, with a lifespan of up to 20 years. Other villagers have seen families put in place solar panels to supply clean and safe electricity to their homes.
First mass produced during 2000, solar energy is now one of the top three most important renewable energy sources following hydropower and wind power. In 2014, solar panel installation amplified to 177 gigawatts (GW), or in other words, enough to power one per cent of the world's electricity demands. This rapid progression is on its way to reach 200GW, which will be 40 times the installation capacity since 2006. Leading countries include China, Japan and the United States for the fastest growing markets however Germany is the world's biggest producer, using solar energy to power approximately seven per cent of its annual domestic electricity consumption.
The Netherlands have put in place a 70m solar panel road from SolaRoad to replace one of their bike paths and it has already received positive results. After just six months the bike path has generated 3,000kwh, or, power to supply a single person home for a year. With these positive statistics, the estimated annual power generation will be more than 70kwh per metre per year. If we can migrate even just 20 per cent of bike paths in the world towards solar panel roads, the amount of clean energy produced would increase tenfold.
Since the first solar cells were created we have seen a natural progression in the technology. Due to this increased efficiency through design, the costs of solar energy are gradually declining and mass production is rapidly increasing. Because these power systems are changing the world, developing countries could have the potential to essentially 'catch up' to wealthier countries at an increased rate due to modern technology and how they adapt to modern design. With the evolution of energy design, it is only fitting that we continue to advance and integrate this green energy system into our future.
