New technologies will be needed for photovoltaics to become cheap.
Fact 1: The primary ingredient of most solar panels is purified sand. Fact 2: Enough sunlight hits the Earth in an hour to provide all of humanity’s energy needs for a year. So why isn’t solar power cheap and abundant?
For starters, building a device capable of turning incoming photons into electricity isn’t cheap. Add in installation and the cost of a solar system can still be more than US$10 per watt of electricity produced. That’s much higher than the cost per watt from burning coal or natural gas.
It’s going to take further technological breakthroughs to make photovoltaics cheaper.
New developments could include growing pure silicon wafers rather than sawing them from long ingots; or even fundamental shifts in the physics employed, like using so-called black silicon or quantum dots.
Of course, if all energy sources paid their full price, solar would be more competitive. After all, making solar panels doesn’t result in nearly as much mercury, CO2 and other pollution as spewed by coal-fired power plants. If the health and environmental costs of coal or natural gas were included in their prices, suddenly solar might look a whole lot cheaper.
(Courtesy of Liberty Times)
TODAY’S WORDS
今日單字
今日單字
1. ingredient n.原料成分；要素
例: What are the cake’s ingredients? (這蛋糕是用哪些原料做成的？)
2. breakthrough n.突破性進展
(例: Researchers say they have made a breakthrough in cancer treatment.
(研究人員說他們在癌症治療方面已有突破性進展。)
3. spew v. 噴出；放出
例: Smoke and ashes spewed from the volcano. (煙和灰燼從火山口噴發出。)
例: Smoke and ashes spewed from the volcano. (煙和灰燼從火山口噴發出。)
為了讓光能發電變便宜，新科技得派上用場。
事實一：大部分太陽能面板的基本成分是淨化後的砂子。事實二：太陽光照射在地球一小時的能量，足以提供人類一年的能源需求。如此說來，為什麼太陽能不能既便宜又豐沛？
對入門者來說，建造一個可以將光能轉為電能的裝置並不便宜。增添安置一套太陽能發電系統，其每瓦特發電費用仍超過十美元。這比燃煤或天然氣每瓦特發電成本還高出許多。
太陽能發電還需要更進一步的科技突破，讓它更便宜。
新的發展可能包括使用更純化的矽薄片，而不是將它鋸成長條的鑄塊。或者是物理學應用的重大改變，像是使用所謂的黑矽或是量子點。
當然，如果各種能量來源完全償付它的成本價格，太陽能會更具競爭力。畢竟，製造太陽能面板，不會像其他燃煤發電廠排放出那麼多水銀、二氧化碳和其他汙染物。如果燃煤或天然氣發電能計入健康和環境成本，太陽能馬上就看起來便宜許多。
（自由時報提供／翻譯：李信漢）
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