Which Power Source Is Most Efficient?
Australian researchers just unveiled the most efficient solar panels ever. How efficient are they, and what is the most efficient source of energy? Get 15% off http://www.domain.com's s domain names and web hosting when you use coupon code DNEWS at checkout! Read More: In world first -- UNSW researchers convert sunlight to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-12/uons-iwf120514.php "UNSW Australia's solar researchers have converted over 40% of the sunlight hitting a solar system into electricity, the highest efficiency ever reported." New world record for solar cell efficiency at 46% French-German cooperation confirms competitive advantages of European photovoltaic industry http://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/press-and-media/press-releases/press-releases-2014/new-world-record-for-solar-cell-efficiency-at-46-percent "A new world record for the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity has been established." Australia develops world's most efficient solar panels http://rt.com/business/212383-australia-record-solar-energy/ "?Australian researchers have developed a new method of using commercial solar panels that converts more electricity from sunlight than ever before." What is the efficiency of different types of power plants? http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=107&t=3 "One measure of the efficiency of a power plant that converts a fuel into heat and into electricity is the heat rate." Improving Efficiencies http://www.worldcoal.org/coal-the-environment/coal-use-the-environment/improving-efficiencies/ "Improving efficiency levels increases the amount of energy that can be extracted from a single unit of coal." The Most Common Electricity Sources in the U.S. http://pureenergies.com/us/blog/the-most-common-electricity-sources-in-the-u-s/ "Though renewable energy is growing fast, the U.S. still gets the vast majority of its power from conventional power plants." Increasing the Efficiency of Existing Coal-Fired Power Plants http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43343.pdf "Coal has long been the major fossil fuel used to produce electricity." Coal Will Survive as Efficient Power Plants Boost Demand http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-02/coal-seen-surving-as-efficient-power-plants-boost-demand.html "President Barack Obama's plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions left coal with a future even as the industry accuses him of trying to make the fuel obsolete." How Do Wind Turbines Work? http://energy.gov/eere/wind/how-do-wind-turbines-work "So how do wind turbines make electricity?" Screwy-looking wind turbine makes little noise and a big claim http://www.gizmag.com/the-archimedes-liam-f1-urban-wind-turbine/32263/ "Although it's getting increasingly common to see solar panels on the roofs of homes, household wind turbines are still a fairly rare sight." Betz's law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betz%27s_law Wind Energy More Energy Efficient than Fossil Fuels http://cleantechnica.com/2012/07/18/wind-energy-energy-efficient-fossil-fuels-uk/ "Here's something that may surprise you. Wind energy is more efficient than carbon-based fuels." Wind Energy's Shadow: Turbines Drag Down Power Potential http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/05/130516-wind-energy-shadow-effect/ "As seemingly limitless as the air that swirls around us, wind has proven to be the world's fastest-growing source of renewable energy." Advanced Nuclear Power Reactors http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Nuclear-Fuel-Cycle/Power-Reactors/Advanced-Nuclear-Power-Reactors/ "The nuclear power industry has been developing and improving reactor technology for more than five decades and is starting to build the next generation of nuclear power reactors to fill new orders." Hydroelectric Power http://www.mpoweruk.com/hydro_power.htm "Hydro-electric power, using the potential energy of rivers, now supplies 17.5% of the world's electricity (99% in Norway, 57% in Canada, 55% in Switzerland, 40% in Sweden, 7% in USA)." Hydroelectric Power http://www.usbr.gov/power/edu/pamphlet.pdf "It's a form of energy ... a renewable resource." ____________________ DNews is dedicated to satisfying your curiosity and to bringing you mind-bending stories & perspectives you won't find anywhere else! New videos twice daily. Watch More DNews on TestTube http://testtube.com/dnews Subscribe now! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=dnewschannel DNews on Twitter http://twitter.com/dnews Trace Dominguez on Twitter https://twitter.com/tracedominguez Tara Long on Twitter https://twitter.com/TaraLongest DNews on Facebook https://facebook.com/DiscoveryNews DNews on Google+ http://gplus.to/dnews Discovery News http://discoverynews.com Download the TestTube App: http://testu.be/1ndmmMq
Comments
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I live in Manitoba and hydro is the best
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Solar panels are made from rare earth elements. That's not infinitely renewable. What is the environmental impact of producing these new panels? Is the manufacturing process commercially viable with current technology? Would it be cheaper to use three normal solar panels than these new ones? Petroleum is used to produce solar panels, which will have ya own environmental impact. Did you consider any of these thing when you made this video? If so, why not discuss them?
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No mention of all the externalities involved. You have to build a solar panel or wind turbine, but after you deploy it you don't need fuel source. You have to build a coal, nuclear, or hydro plant, and once you do that you still have to feed it raw resources which have their own impact (mining, transport, flooding, etc). It would be more accurate to bundle in all those externalities before making an assessment of "efficiency".
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Nuclear's still best
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Comparing figures as is done in this video might sound interesting but is largely comparing apples and oranges. Efficiency is an attribute of energy conversion processes, and comparison is only fair when input and output are of the same nature. (An example would be converting electric energy to kinetic energy for transportation, via the intermediate paths of battery storage, hydrogen production+fuel cells, or synthetic hydrocarbon production.) For fossil fuels (including nuclear) the energy is already present in stored form, but for renewables it is about harvesting energy that would otherwise be completely lost anyway, so "efficiency" is a secondary matter. For hydro, we have renewable energy for which the conversion into high grade energy is already done for us, so it is not surprising that efficiency is very high; we don't take into account the efficiency of evaporation and rainfall needed to get the water upstairs in the first place.
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Dam them all!!
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Considering that there is a gigantic amount of solar energy falling onto our planet, I am OK with low efficiency of solar panels.
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Why not solar shingles by Elon musk's company. Solar city?
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ok i have plans to buy a house in 7 yrs.. get those 40% efficient solar panels to tesla and make those solar shingles asap. time is ticking
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From what I read the high-efficiency solar panels are only in lab testing on small cells under intense light.
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2:30 When plants know better than we do.
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What a great universe it would be, if we can choose our power sources based purely on their eficciency. But in a real universe...well at first, its really questionable to compare results from lab tests to results from actuall real devices. Because lab tests can differ greatly from performance of mass produced panels.
And second: there are many other aspects we have to account in any comparassion between energy sources. One that is most importand is reliability. And that is were others sources really beat crap out of solar and wind. Both relies heavily on current weather conditions. And those are pretty unpredictable and variable. So unless we invent some much better ways of storing excess energy for later use, or transporting it in huge amounts over extremely long distances (intercontinentally, from one hemisphere to other), we cannot afford to base our power grid on such unreliable sources. -
What are the costs involved?
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Yeah lets compare a solarcell thats made without any budget in a lab to commercial powerplants that has been running for 40 years that sound like a good comparision. Not at all twisted for your point of view..
And the material they use for this solarcell is sure easy to get a hold of and not at all a sparse resource say like uranium...
And not a single word that windpower has an max efficiency that is impossible to get over (at 59%) -
Interesting, shows what is possible. BUT, energy efficiency is not the most important spec. What really counts is the bottom line, $/kwh (dollars per watt-hour) of the finished installation. That includes all the variables, of which there are several. This can make all the difference; for example, hydro looks good at 95%, but may cover many hectares of valuable land with water.
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If there was a way to transfer energy wirelessly we could set up solar panels on the moon ✌🏻
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There is something fishy in your efficiency formula at 1:23 in the video. Efficiency = Pout / Pin = Pout / (Pout + losses) = (Pin - losses) / Pin where Losses are heat and noise.
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it's not fair to compare plants that convert heat into electricity to those that convert mechanical energy into electricity. If you want to be more accurate try with second law's efficiency ( real efficiency devided by theoretical maximum efficiency ).
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Solar! Also, gravitational and wave power. Taking the energy of the sun and using it to generate electricity is a technology that should have been used 100's of years back. Concentrating the suns energy to produce steam was a technology has been known about for 100's of years (if not more) so it's absurd that it's just now gaining traction. I'd have said hydro-electric, but it's impact on the wildlife of rivers, it's not so great.
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Thorium - Salt nuclear reactors can run at nearly 100% efficiency WITHOUT any of the dangers of typical nuclear power plants. with Thorium, it actually burns ALL the nuclear fuel completely (Plutonium (and others) only burn a small fraction of their fuel rods - the rest is toxic waste). Thorium - Salt is the only logical and safe way that we as a society will EVER meet our insatiable thirst for power. No other power source even comes close to the virtually unlimited power with ZERO risk of nuclear meltdown - no matter what. We could have these powerplants running in our cars!! oh yeah, they've done that (with a proof of concept car).
Why the hell are Thorium - Salt reactors not the industry standard everywhere!? Learn about it and spread the word.
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