Comment:Visions | Solar-energy

Solar Energy

Programme: Harvesting the Sun

May 1, 2009 in Solar Energy

Discussion: Climate change and the world’s growing energy needs demand that we increase the use of alternative energies, but is it happening fast enough?

Programme: Air conditioning from the sun

May 1, 2008 in Solar Energy

Renewable energy has been both praised and derided as an alternative source of power over the past two decades. To its detractors it is inefficient, unreliable and economically unsound. To its advocates it is free, clean, and unlimited in its potential. With global reliance on dwindling oil reserves an international political priority, attention continues to focus on renewable energy and its applications.

This month’s Comment Visions examines the developments in renewable energy by talking to a man whose work harnesses the power of the sun to produce cooling technology. Dr Ahmet Lokurlu is a Turkish engineer and scientist whose company produces air conditioning systems run by solar power. Generating energy from the sun and turning it into cold air in countries where fuel-hungry air conditioning accounts for more than 40% of totally energy use vividly demonstrates the innovative solutions renewable sources can provide.

Discussion: Renewable energy: can it ever replace fossil fuels, or do other sources have to be explored?