ABSTRACT
With the evident effects of environmental neglect, energy all over the world is becoming more and more depleted. With energy sources becoming scarce, it generally results to a stiff competition to obtain the limited sources for energy resulting to high power charges. There are several sources of energy, and some of them are even natural resources such as wind, solar, and hydro. But
even if the sources of energy are natural resources and should be delivered to the people at a lower cost, still, power costs are high due to expenses incurred while generating electricity. For several years now, scientists and researches has been looking at other means to obtain the following: 1. Minimise generation costs of energy 2. Provide energy to the people without causing any damages to the
environment 3. Generate renewable and recyclable energy resources 4. Provide energy and electricity with the least possible charges 5. Deliver electricity and energy to the public at the lowest possible cost
Nanotechnology aims to build important things with the use of tiny machines or by producing highly advanced, essential, and quality products using tools and techniques provided by nanotechnology. Part of the researches being conducted is to come up with a solar panel that would accurately capture solar energy that can be utilised at home, in the office, and even in large-scale industrial areas. Although there are already solar panels available in the market today, these solar panels that are usually made of silicon panels only capture 67.4 per cent light incident or solar energy emitted by the sun. Whereas, with nanotechnology, industrial and electrical manufacturers can now produce a coating for solar panels using nanorods that can capture 96.7 per cent light incident. Nanorods used in nanotechnology solar panel looks like multi-layer funnels designed to capture light incident. The first layer absorbs the light that hits the panel at wide outer angles and turns it to a slightly narrower angle. The succeeding layers become narrower, like they are passing the light to the next layer even further as it funnels the light till it reaches the active region of the panel at a 90° angle. This process makes the solar panel securely capture the sun’s energy without having to rotate with the sun. The energy market encompasses a vast range of economic activity, from the extraction of fossil fuels, generation of energy by burning coal to generate electricity, for example; distribution, and consumption. A simple value chain is shown in Fig. 7.2.
