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Have you ever gotten a brand new gadget like some super awesome computer and

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powered it on for the first time with that satisfying noise? No, the other

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noise that's better. And thought to yourself, why is it that we are using

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electricity produced by, you know, power plants that are burning coal or nuclear

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fishision reactors? What about the most abundant source of energy on the planet,

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sunlight? Well, me too. And that's what this video is about. Sunlight is

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literally everywhere and keeps everything on Earth alive in one way or

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another. So it raises the question, so why has so little of our energy

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production been from solar technology until recently? And what are the

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advancements that are making solar useful for so much more than calculators

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and those funnyl looking cars? Well, first it helps to know a little

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something about how we actually convert sunlight into electricity. One way is

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with those big solar panels made of lots of individual photovoltaic cells which

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contain semiconducting materials such as silicon, not silicone. And when sunlight

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hits a solar cell, it knocks some of the electrons in the silicon free, which

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causes an electrical current to flow. Big solar power plants or farms take

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this electricity and store it for later usage. Not very efficient. Or send it

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directly to the grid. More efficient, but still not very efficient. More on

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that later. The other major solar technology is called CSP or concentrated

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solar power, which is really just a much bigger version of using a magnifying

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glass to fry ants or whatever other twisted stuff you did as a kid. I don't

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even want to know. These power plants work by using large mirrors or lenses to

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focus sunlight. Really, it is just like that. Onto a series of tubes, not the

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internet, other tubes, actual pipes that contain a special fluid that can use the

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sun's heat energy to produce steam that drives a turbine. Both photovoltaics and

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CSP were very minor players in the

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energy market around the turn of the 21st century. But since then, energy

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capacity from solar power has skyrocketed. In 2013, the world produced

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10 times as much energy from sunlight as it did just 5 years prior. And that

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number should continue to grow. In fact, the International Energy Agency has

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projected that over 1/4th of the world's electricity supply will be solar by

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2050. But what's behind this huge solar

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renaissance? Well, some of it has to do with government policies and the state

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of the energy market. But there's also been a lot of innovation in the actual

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technology that's propelled solar to the forefront. One of the biggest challenges

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since the advent of solar power has been efficiency. See, I said I would talk

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about this later. A solar plant can't just convert all the light that hits it

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into useful electricity. Some of it is reflected back or lost as waste heat,

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which has made solar energy expensive. I mean, not to mention the land it has to

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sit on and inefficient for a long time.

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So, what we need are cheaper, more efficient materials such as thin film

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cells, which are not only cheaper than traditional silicon, but are hundreds of

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times thinner and now power some of the largest solar farms in the world due to

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their low cost. There are also some other more experimental materials in the

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works that promise to push efficiency to unprecedented heights. In the year 2000,

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the most efficient solar cell in the laboratory was rated at just above 30%.

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But in 2015, that number has risen to 46%.

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So, while there's a long way to go before we can run the entire world like

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one gigantic calculator, speaking of calculators, there are some amazing

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private projects going on that allow you to determine if your area is optimal for

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solar panel installations on your roof, which can actually help you lower your

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personal electricity bills, even if it, you know, doesn't do much for powering

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an entire city. The day might be coming pretty soon when your gadgets can run

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cleaner and cheaper. Even if you opted for the, you know, Deluxo clothes dryer

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that blacks out the whole neighborhood every time you set it to a drying cycle.

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Speaking of setting up drying cycles, you know what?

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Wow, this segue isn't going to work. Okay, clearly that segue wasn't going to

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work. So, I'll bet Fresh Books. It's an online tool designed to make running

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your invoicing in there. You can keep track of your cash flow. You can track

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know, useful details like if you've sent it to the client, if the client has

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viewed it, and if the client has paid it, something they can do directly

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through the online tool. And all you have to do is head over to freshbooks.com/techquicki

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for a free trial and just try it out. I mean, here's something that's kind of

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crazy. Freshbooks has had us doing these spots for them for months and we have

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not received yet a single complaint from anyone using FreshBooks. Pretty cool,

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right? So, if you're on your own business, give it a try. That's freshbooks.com/tequicky

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and start using tools that make you feel like the boss that you are. So, thanks

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for watching, guys. Like if you liked, dislike if you disliked. Don't forget to

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check out our other channels. We got a great video over on Channel Super Fun

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where we were like Nerf battling it up in the new office here. That was all

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pretty sick. So, make sure you go and subscribe over there and subscribe over

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here and leave a comment if you have suggestions for future Fastest Possible videos just like this one. Thank you and

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I'll see you again next