Companies are now rushing to break the $2 barrier. Texas Instruments and Southern California Edison have joined forces to produce flexible solar panels from inexpensive low-grade silicon. The innovative technology will allow the panels to be integrated into car and building design and, even more important; will crash the price to $2.50 a watt.
Some of the biggest boosters of solar power are the utility companies, eager for a clean source of electricity that will enable them to produce more power without new billion-dollar plants. Both as consumers of solar technology and as the promoters of home solar panels, utilities will drive much of the industry’s growth into the next century. “Utilities are beginning to realize that they’re going to have to get on the solar bandwagon,” says S. David Freeman, general manager of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). “If they don’t and rates go up sharply, people are going to buy their own solar panels and pull the plug on the utilities.” His company embraced alternative energy when rate payers voted to close its trouble nuclear facility in 1989.
Last month, 68 utilities from New York City to San Francisco formed a consortium to purchase $500 million worth of solar panels over six years. SMUD is putting solar cells on 100 residential roofs a year as part of a five-year pilot project. Encouraged by the response, SMUD has ordered 100,000 more solar panels, enough to generate electricity for 2,400 homes, and is purchasing land for a 100-MW solar furnace that would rival the size of standard power plants.
What SMUD is doing parallels what developing countries have been up to for many years? These nations, which cannot afford to build costly nuclear or fossil-fuel plants in rural areas, now, buy nearly two thirds of all solar panels produced in the U.S. “In Mexico there are 28 million people without electricity, and Mexico has the most ambitious solar electrification program in the world.” Elsewhere, India and Zimbabwe are using World Bank financing to light up remote areas with solar power; India is installing photovoltaic systems in 38,000 villages, and Zimbabwe is bringing sun power to 2,500 villages.
But the era of solar power will have to wait for the cost of converting sunlight to fall enough to pay for the cost of installing a system. “Solar is competitive now if you take the long view,” says SMUD general manager Freeman. “And it’s going to be highly competitive by the end of the decade.” If he’s right, the forecast for the industry in the 21st century is bright and sunny.
4. Micro machines
In the past, one of the biggest disadvantages of machines has been their inability to work on a micro (or tiny) scale. For example, doctors did not have devices allowing them to go inside the human body to identify health problems or to perform delicate surgery. Repair crew did not have a way of identifying broken pipes located deep within a high-rise apartment building. However, that’s about to change. Advances in computers and biophysics have started a micro miniature revolution that’s allowing scientists to envision and in some cases actually build microscopic machines. These devices promise to radically change the way we live and work.
Micromachines already are making an impact. At Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, research scientists have designed a 4-inch silicon chip that holds 700 tiny primitive motors. At Lucas Nova Sensor in Fremont, California, scientists have perfected the world’s first microscopic blood-pressure sensor. Micro machines have captured the interest of a wide range of industries. Automobile manufacturers soon will begin using tiny devices that run on static electricity to sense when to release an airbag and how to keep engines and breaks operating efficiently. Machines like these are likely to appear in airplanes and even space vehicles by the beginning of the next century. Some futurists envision micro machines also being used to explore the deep sea in small submarine, or even to launch finger sized rockets packed with micro miniature instruments. 感谢您阅读《ScienceandTechnolo 》一文，出国留学网(liuxue86.com)编辑部希望本文能帮助到您。
