Presently, 1590 MW is produced and used. Since solar power is an intermittent source of energy, due to cloud cover, storage devices are used, and often wind power is hooked up with the solar generators (solar panels). It is theorized that the deserts can provide all the MWs needed for the world. Maintenance is a problem in remote regions like deserts, therefore most of the installations are near the edges of the deserts.
Solar reflectors are used to concentrate the sunlight on the solar arrays, increasing the efficiency of collecting sunlight. The current silicon-based solar cell is only 21% efficient in converting the MW of sunlight into MW of electricity, and other materials are under investigation, such as GaAs, gallium arsenide, which shows a 30% efficiency in test models.
Presently, 1590 MW is produced and used. Since solar power is an intermittent source of energy, due to cloud cover, storage devices are used, and often wind power is hooked up with the solar generators (solar panels). It is theorized that the deserts can provide all the MWs needed for the world. Maintenance is a problem in remote regions like deserts, therefore most of the installations are near the edges of the deserts.
Solar reflectors are used to concentrate the sunlight on the solar arrays, increasing the efficiency of collecting sunlight. The current silicon-based solar cell is only 21% efficient in converting the MW of sunlight into MW of electricity, and other materials are under investigation, such as GaAs, gallium arsenide, which shows a 30% efficiency in test models.