A recently published patent by Google reveals its plans for floating solar farms. It’s high time and countries all across the globe are switching to renewable means of energy and Google’s plan doesn’t much of a surprise.
Another interesting thing is that the patent application is coming from the secret skunkworks lab of Google known as Google X. This is the same lab where Google Glass and Driverless car were born. Philipp Schmaelzle, and Leo Casey – also the lead power architect of energy kites Makani, are listed as inventors.
Why floating solar farms? This question often gets tossed around which has a really simple answer. There are two primary reasons someone would like to build a solar farm on water body instead of land.
The first and foremost is, building massive solar farms, obviously, requires massive land area which could easily be used for agriculture or other economic purposes. Another is, building floating solar farms on ecologically inactive water bodies (lakes and water reservoirs) can help keep the photovoltaic cells cool, thus, increasing their overall efficiency without harming any aquatic life.
This is not the first time Google has stepped in the energy sector to build something impressive. Last year Google also patented solar powered water harvesting rafts that collect rainwater on a sea. The collected water is then taken to a filtering facility running on the energy harnessed by Energy Kites of Google.
These pods will provide water to water-scarce areas like that of Africa. Further, everything is running on green and sustainable energy. Looking Google making a lot of efforts in the direction is making me feel that something impressive is soon coming our way.
Solar power is the key to all EVs success therefore car companies are using solar energy for generating electric for charging the vehicles. One such idea is being brought by Toyota which is using solar panel to increase the range of its EVs.