An Australian company, Solar24 Inc., has developed a solar
thermal system that holds heat for 14 hours, long enough to sustain
through a cloudy winter night. One big problem with solar has always been the retention of the heat overnight.
While sunshine is only available during daylight hours, and no renewable energy source is without drawbacks, all forms of renewable energy can be a useful addition to the general power supply that would eventually stabilize and lower costs.
Wind farms do create a cost issue with transmission, and large commercial size solar installations can have that same drawback -- but so did natural gas and crude oil before the pipelines were built to handle distribution. Transmission solutions are just part of the challenge of energy business.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, the United States added more wind energy to its grid in recent years than any other country, and U.S. wind power capacity grew by 45 percent to 16.8 gigawatts in 2007.
While sunshine is only available during daylight hours, and no renewable energy source is without drawbacks, all forms of renewable energy can be a useful addition to the general power supply that would eventually stabilize and lower costs.
Wind farms do create a cost issue with transmission, and large commercial size solar installations can have that same drawback -- but so did natural gas and crude oil before the pipelines were built to handle distribution. Transmission solutions are just part of the challenge of energy business.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, the United States added more wind energy to its grid in recent years than any other country, and U.S. wind power capacity grew by 45 percent to 16.8 gigawatts in 2007.