Rooftop solar is impacting the machine- and robot-builder OEM market in multiple manners.
Most of what’s reported about solar power concerns large base-station installations, but this type of facility faces limits due to the huge amounts of land required. The highest power density achieved is around 20 W/m2 in desert solar photovoltaic farms, and conventional power plants often have power densities in excess of 1,000 W/m2, writes Robert Wilson in his article, “The Future of Energy: Why Power Density Matters,” on The Energy Collective.
Given the huge amount of land required for solar, it’s no surprise that it generates less than 1% of worldwide power, writes Matt Ridley in his article, “Fossil Fuels Will Save the World (Really),” on The Wall Street Journal online.
To learn more about solar power, read “Machine builders raise the roof with solar” from Control Design.
