| The solar revolution is happening around the world. | | | | grid, effectively turning it into a massive solar battery. |
| People are realizing that they can easily change the | | | | This allows excess energy to be sent back to the |
| way that power is created. For two centuries the | | | | electric company, actually making the power meter run |
| world has relied upon fossil fuel, mostly coal and oil, for | | | | backwards. At night power is taken from the grid as |
| almost every form of power. It lights our homes, | | | | usual. This is only as reliable as the existing grid. Any |
| powers our appliances and drives our cars. | | | | power outages can still affect these solar panel |
| Unfortunately fossil fuels rely on combustion to release | | | | set-ups, but no rechargeable batteries have to be |
| their power. This power can drive turbines to convert | | | | used. |
| that explosion into electricity or move the wheels of a | | | | Rechargeable batteries are notoriously short lived and |
| car for transportation. | | | | expensive. They either have low power flows for a |
| Burning anything releases various gasses into the air, | | | | long time with a good capacity, or they have high |
| especially carbon dioxide. CO2 is essential to the health | | | | power flows for short times with poor capacity. |
| of the planet, but there is a strict balance that has to | | | | Typical batteries, especially lithium ion, have high |
| be maintained to allow life to flourish. That balance has | | | | capacity for storing power, but deliver a weak output |
| been put into jeopardy because of the massive | | | | and recharge slowly. The ideal solar battery would be |
| amount of cars, trucks, busses and airplanes that are | | | | able to charge quickly, have a high density for storing |
| operated every day as well as the amount of | | | | power and be able to emit as much of that power as |
| coal-fired electricity being produced. The average | | | | is needed. This ideal combination is something that no |
| person, not just scientists, has begun learning and | | | | battery has been able to do until recently. It was only |
| actually noticing how it is affecting the weather and | | | | through the study of nanotechnology that it was made |
| environment. Many everyday people are taking action | | | | possible. |
| against it by using and promoting alternative energy | | | | Researchers at the University of Maryland have |
| sources such as solar power. | | | | developed a way of creating very powerful, dense |
| Solar power is an effective way to harness the | | | | rechargeable batteries using nanotechnology. The |
| power of the sun, something plants have been doing | | | | individual parts, which look surprisingly like a photovoltaic |
| for millions of years. It is cheap and reliable and can | | | | panel only thousands of times smaller, are |
| produce incredible amounts of power, but only during | | | | self-assembling, self-replicating, and align by themselves |
| the day. This is where solar power runs into a problem. | | | | as well. No mechanical process can achieve anything |
| It can produce more power during the day than the | | | | nearly as small, which also contributes to their relatively |
| average home uses. Most houses will use less power | | | | low cost. They are still in the test and trial phase, but |
| during the day, and much less in the summer which is | | | | should see widespread production and implementation |
| the peak power producing time for solar panels. To be | | | | within a year. Being able to store the power created |
| effective this power must be stored somehow. | | | | from the sun and wind will soon make fossil fuels |
| One popular way of storing solar power is by | | | | obsolete and arcane. |
| connecting the solar panels to the existing electrical | | | | |