Some solutions above the horizon

Finally, there is the energy that moves, that allows us to live, the light of the Sun.
The flow of light energy that comes from the Sun is not very intense, it is around 343 watts per square meter as an average over the Earth's surface over a year. Being able to exploit it, we must do it. The technologies that will transform the energy from the sun directly into electricity in the quantities that will be needed to live and to produce are being developed.
There are those who say that the future energy on a large scale will be nuclear and solar.
At present nuclear technology is much more advanced than solar. But things could soon change. The studies and ongoing research provides hope. Photovoltaic technology, now in use, costs too much respect to energy efficiency. But we are doing enormous steps forward.
Recently new systems called concentration plants, that induce optimism, have been developed. These systems use photovoltaic cells joined to lenses or mirrors focusing the light, so increasing efficiency. In these plants the costs are about 45 euro cents per peak watt produced, with a cost reduction of about seven times the photovoltaic technology currently in use. A nice step forward.
In addition, there are experimental technologies that further raise the performance of cells up to touch the 70 per cent. These include the use of nanotechnology that will make solar panels sensitive to infrared radiation, enabling the production of electricity at night: they would transform into electricity infrared energy accumulated during the day and emitted at night from Earth, energy that today is not used. It would be necessary to have just a square of 500 km side of these solar panels to provide energy to the whole planet. What a fantastic thing! And yet…
It’s just completed the experimental phase, with the consequent beginning and move to the industrial phase, of plants that are able to accumulate the warmth of sunlight, with a thermodynamic process, in a mixture of salts zone where the temperature reaches about 600 degrees centigrade. The heat from the accumulated salts is made available to the production of steam, which feeds a pressure turbo electric at night, that is, even in the absence of sunlight, with a continuity of production of 24 hours.
However, all technologies available today (not excluding solar) have strong environmental impacts, are expensive and in the case of solar occupy large spaces.
In finding new ways of production we have to find a compromise between cost, practicality, environmental impact and other factors.
And it’s well-known the difficulty of new technologies to supplant the old technologies for reasons of investment, consumer inertia, skepticism, governmental settings etc.
These factors can be overcame only when the new technology has an overwhelming technical superiority than the old, or well below cost.
All technological transitions take years and considerable investments.
In the energy sector two of these transitions have been already occurred in the past, that from wood to coal in the nineteenth century and later that from coal to oil. Both have requested a century to be completed. Today we have not this time, cause the situation related to climate change is already very critical.
The knowledge, the technology, the pressure of public opinion, never as today so aware on these issues, will be useful for a faster transition from fossil fuels to another source of energy. Even in the most optimistic forecasts of availability of oil, we could obtain a "sweet" transition only starting now…