Solar, remedy for electric pain

Renewable energy and specifically solar energy has seen spectacular rise globally. In my university there are two major buildings that I know of which has got solar panels installed on rooftop. With plenty of sunshine and somehow large storage there will be guarantee of uninterrupted power in those buildings in case WAPDA, the Water and Power Development Authority, switches off in the course of their notorious load-shedding routine. Thanks to the Heavy-duty batteries now you can literally harvest energy from your rooftop and lock it up in your store. According to the IEA (International Energy Agency) the cost of solar panel has reduced by five fold over the last six years and the cost of installation of the photo-voltaic system by three fold within this same period. Also according to an article by a physicist, Dr. Pervez H the ‘Levelised cost’, the total cost of installing a renewable-energy system divided by its expected energy output over its lifetime, is now close to the retail electricity in some countries. 

A recent statistics I came across states that the sun radiates around 23,000 Terawatts annually and the estimates of current global potential is: coal 900TerraWatts per year, Uranium 90-300TeraWatts per year, Oil 240TeraWatts per year and natural gas 215TeraWatts per year totaling to 1655 TeraWatts in one year which is a round 7% of what the sun radiates. With the expectation of being the dominant energy source in the next one or two decades as the physicist says many countries have decided to embrace it en masse and sooner or later it will be become the energy of choice in many households. In china, for instance, where there is less sunshine relative to Africa, Dr. Pervez says every rooftop has solar panel and the extra rooftop space up for rent to those who need extra energy. In India according to a report by Deutsche Bank solar will provide 25 percent of India’s power capacity. In United States, a leading consumer of global energy, electricity from solar panels and wind turbines is expected to be as cheap as the standard grid electricity. Solar energy, apart from being cheap it’s also the energy of choice in the mitigation of global warming phenomenon. In Germany and Japan solar powered autos are becoming popular and if the news I read sometimes back, German auto industries going solar, is anything to go by, then soon they will flood our streets and this will happen quickly like ICT did. 

Unlike china and India in Asia, in Sub-Sahara Africa, region with the highest solar radiation many still don't have access to electricity. With reports of the region's remarkable economic growth more is expected to be done in the energy sector to sustain this growth.And with many tech-cities coming up in major cities, powering them with solar will not only reduce the cost of electricity but also substantially reduce the load on the national grids thereby increasing energy surplus for industrial needs.