Solar Power Enrichment
Proposal
Problem Statement
We live in a world full of technology. Everywhere we go, our phones will follow us. Technology has brought about a lot of convenience and comfort. Modernisation has clearly benefited us. However in order to use them, energy is needed. Over the years, there has been an increasing demand for energy, to power all the electronic devices in the world. However, current methods to generate electricity involves the burning of fossil fuel, which results in the emission of carbon dioxide. This leads to global warming, as carbon dioxide traps heat, preventing it from escaping, causing temperatures to rise. This has severe negative reprecussions on the world, causing disasters like severe droughts and floods which can lead to secondary disasters like the destruction of crops and properties. Furthermore this form of energy is not renewable. One day, we will run out of fossil fuelds to burn and would have to resort to alternative energy sources.
History
An electron is knocked out of its orbit after absorbing a single photon of light as it gains sufficient energy to overcome the forces that hold it in its orbit. This effect is known as the photoelectric effect.
The photoelectric effect was first noted by a French physicist, Edmund Bequerel, in 1839, who found that certain materials would produce small amounts of electric current when exposed to light.
In 1905, Albert Einstein described the nature of light and the photoelectric effect
in his “On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation
of Light” paper. This theory is what photovoltaic technology is based on,
and it won him a Nobel prize in physics.
The first photovoltaic module was built by Daryl Chapin, Calvin Fuller and Gerald Pearson in Bell Laboratories in 1954. It was billed as a solar battery and was too expensive to gain widespread use. In the 1960s, the space industry began to make the first serious use of the technology to provide power aboard spacecraft. Through the space programs, the technology advanced, its reliability was established, and the cost began to decline. During the energy crisis in the 1970s, photovoltaic technology gained recognition as a source of power for non-space applications.
There are many alternative sources of energy such as: Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Hydro-electricity and Geothermal energy. With the multiple choices we have, one might ask, why solar energy?
To justify this, we will prove why utilisation other alternative sources of energy is not feasible. Singapore has a small amount of land (715.8 sq km) comparand to countries like Japan (377,835.00 sq km). Furthermore there are no volcanoes, ruling out Wind energy and Geothermal energy. Wind energy requires a large amount of land, preferably at a high altitude in order for the wind to turn the turbine, while Geothermal energy requires the heat that rests beneath the Earth’s crust, and tapping into it to generate electricity.
The burning of fossil fuel releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The combustion of fossil fuels to generate electricity is the largest single source of carbon dioxideemissions in the nation, accounting for about 38% of total United States' carbon dioxide emissions and 31% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2012. If this keeps up it will cause the melting of polar ice caps, leading to the flooding of low-lying areas.
Lastly, hydroelectricity is not possible as we lack a river system. Furthermore, we lack the land to build a dam to harness the hydroelectricity.
Thus we we are left with solar energy. Singapore's high average annual solar radiation of about 1,500 sun hours per year makes solar energy a potential renewable energy option for Singapore. With a large supply of sunlight, it would be a waste to be unable to utalise it.
