CAJ 11 - Overview

As the CAJ project comes to its end quite soon, I would like to summarize what I have learned so far and what I have written about. As environmental technology is a very wide field of study, I could not nearly include everything there is to say or to write about it. However, I have tried to write about the most promising new technologies and how they could help us. In the end, I focused especially on solar energy because there is so much going on in this field right now and because some of the most promising concepts were developed there.

Solar cells are not only great because they function with the free energy of the sun but also because there are so many potential applications. One of the best concepts is Solar Roadways, in which normal asphalt roads would be exchanged with solar panels. You could drive on them, recharge your electric car and write warnings on a road that is never wet. There also is a new material for solar cells, called Perovskite that can not only absorb light but also emit it. Furthermore, the third generation of solar cells, the organic solar cells combine almost every advantage of solar power without real disadvantages. They can be produced cheaply, without the use of rare materials and use little energy in their manufacture. Solar power can also be harnessed in Space, where there is enough space available and where the power of the sun is even stronger.

Another concept which can be combined with solar energy but can also stand by itself is infrared energy. Researchers have found out that it is also possible to generate energy through temperature differences. So, it would be possible to collect energy when heat leaves a surface. For example, solar cells could generate energy by collecting light during the day and leaving infrared light during night.

A more controversial topic is nuclear energy. Everybody knows that this energy can be dangerous but there are ways to generate energy quite safely. The famous fusion reactor has never really worked and there still has to be more research done but the fusion-fission hybrid reactor could actually work pretty safely and without a lot of radioactive waste. Of course there are ethical questions to be raised but nuclear energy could be a technology of the future.