Global Solar Energy Grid - The SolarsBay Vision
March 26, 2008 – 1:41 pmCurrently, SolarsBay is a website providing an eBay-based trading platform, a marketplace for people to buy and sell solar energy. But SolarsBay is the fruit of a much broader vision, the vision of a global solar energy grid where regular people provide energy to the grid and consume energy off of it.
That solar energy grid will have 2 components-a certain type of global infrustructe, trasnfering the solar energy from point A to point B, and solar panels at points A and point B. Let’s think about this 2 components.
Global Infrastructure For Transferring Solar Energy
It might sound a bit crazy, but if you think about it long enough, you will understand it is not that far fetched. The internet is a type of a global infrastructure for transferring energy. Over the past two decades the internet infrastructures evolved tremendously. The first time I surfed the web from my home was with a 14Kbps dial up modem, about 12 years ago. Phone lines were used to carry signals (a form of energy) from my computer to servers located thousands of miles away.
I am now surfing the web at a speed of 10MBps. That’s about 1000 times faster. That also means a lot more energy is traveling between me and the internet server hosting this page than 5 or 10 years ago.
Why should that increase in energy transfer capacity stop? It won’t. Fiber optics cables will continue to provide global communication, becoming more efficient,loosing less energy and becoming cheaper to produce and install. There is no doubt that fiber optics and other mediums of communication will enable the global transfer of increasing amounts of energy.
Solar Panels
Once we have the grid, we need to connect the dots. What are these dots? Solar Panels. We all use solar panels. In many countries, solar water hitters save huge amounts of energy that otherwise would have to be provided by fossil fuels based power plants.
Solar panels that provide energy are becoming increasingly popular. Many people have installed them despite their relatively high price. I think it’s clear now that everyone who lives in areas where solar energy is available will install solar panels. If not today, maybe in 1,2 or 5 years, but many of us will rely on solar energy to replace current electricity providers. Solar panels technology will improve. They will become more efficient,being able to convert more solar power to electricity. The panels will become cheaper. And hopefully, they will have the right connectivity to the grid.
The Solar Grid
Imagine the implications of such a grid - you get back from work at 08:00Pm. You park your electric car in the garage, plug it to the solar grid. Your car is pumped with solar energy traveling from someone’s rooftop solar panel. It’s now morning or noon for your solar energy supplier. He lives in an area of the world where solar energy availability always exceeds his own needs. Your car’s battery is now fully charged. You consume more solar energy from him to light your house, heat your water or charge batteries you will later use when you cook or watch T.V.
You pay your solar energy supplier a fee you agreed on, based on consumption. Every dollar you pay goes to the person at the other end of the grid. The infrastructure companies, the owners of the cables or satellites that were used to transfer the solar energy through the grid are also paid small usage fees, but in general, it’s an eBay type of economy-two people, a consumer and a providers, who contracted together to make their lives better, to make our lives on this planet better.
I hope you will take time to contemplate on the ideas suggested here. If you think of the components of the grid, it is very easy to understand that all the pieces will be there in a few years.
The purpose of SolarsBay is to provide the justification for the investments in research for the technology that will enable the creation of the global solar energy grid. When enough people will be part of SolarsBay, selling and buying solar energy, the ball will start rolling and it will not stop.
What can you do about it? First, I’d love to get comments. I am sure all of you have something enlightening to say. If you want to help get the ball rolling, join the SolarsBay community. Start buying and selling Solars. Keep track of our blog.
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