The enormous rate of energy consumption is one of the vital matters of concern as the non-renewable resources of energy is diminishing day by day. It is estimated that the remaining non-renewable resources will run out within the end of 21st century. For this reason, the whole world is trying to adopt the way of using renewable resources of energy. The renewable resources of energy are not only amply available in nature but also friendly towards the environment whereas non-renewable resources are limited and over consumption of it can cause severe damage to the natural environment. That is why all nations of the world are trying to apply variant methods of using renewable resources of energy for the progression of their socio-economic status without causing any damage to their natural environment. So it can be easily claimed that the development of renewable energy technologies is one of the chief challenges of the 21st century. Nanotechnology has enormous potential to play a significant role in the field of utilizing renewable energy which is reason of consideration of it’s being one of most the recommended choices to pursue. Thousands of research groups are trying to adopt to nanotechnology in order to utilize solar, biomass, wind, geothermal and tidal energies as much as possible.
Nanotechnology basically means the study and manipulation of those matters whose scales are about atomic or molecular level. It works particularly with those materials and devices which have the dimensions around 1 to 100 nm. The knowledge of this branch of science can be applied in several fields such as chemistry, biology, physics, material science, soil science etc. At present, nanotechnology has gone to an extent where it can help to change the material property as well as composing new materials of improved properties. In near future, the demand of renewable energy will rise about multiple times to the present time demand which indicates the larger impact of nanotechnology in extracting energy from renewable sources by designing improved structured materials. These improved materials can help to build efficient photovoltaic devices to improvise the solar power generation system. Not only the solar power generation system which the nanotechnology can contribute to elevate but the technology can also assist in flourishing the system of wind power generation, tidal power generation etc. Inventions of nanotechnology can play a significant role in adding value to the different parts of energy supply chain.
Nanotechnology in solar power generation
Solar cells or photovoltaic cells are the fundamental elements of solar power generation system which mainly consist of the property of transparency, conductivity and catalytic activity. The researchers are finding the solar power generation system to be a promising source of energy production by implementing nanotechnology for the development solar cells. Solar cells can be made more light, cheap and efficient by using pure nano-structures in designing the materials of photovoltaic cells. The use of nano-structure materials helps to enhance the conductivity of electrons in light contact as well as improving the structural property of solar cell materials. The application of discreet nano-particles of silicon in composing solar cells is improving the power efficiency of it. The use of quantum dots and carbon nano-tube (CNT) is also increasing the quality of solar cells with respect to efficiency and power supplying capability. Many researching groups are trying to find other ways to improve the performance of solar cells.
Nanotechnology in wind energy
Talking about eco-friendly power generation system, the wind power generation can be considered as an ideal resource. With the help of this system enormous amount of electric power can be generated without causing any damage to nature. Nanotechnology is proving to be playing a vital role in development of wind power generation system by inventing materials of advanced properties. The conductivity of electricity of windmill can be enhanced to great extent by applying polymer of carbon nano-tube. The strength and durability of the materials used in windmill can also be enhanced by using nano-particles.
Nanotechnology in geothermal energy
Geothermal energy is one of the most reliable sources of energy which causes no harm or pollution to the environment. The resources of geothermal energy can be utilized greatly with the help of nanotechnology. The conventional process of extracting electrical energy from geothermal energy involves injections of cold fluids into heated rocks that can be found under the depth of earth surface. It is the heated fluid which is used to generate the electricity. Nanotechnology is allowing the process to be more energy efficient by producing materials of such property that can extract or retain more heat from low temperature.
Nanotechnology in energy storage
Despite of having enormous amount of resources the renewable energy has limitations of availability as it cannot be found all the time. For instance, solar energy is amply available in day time but it cannot be found in night and in cloudy weather. Similarly for different circumstances several sources of renewable energy cannot be found which makes it very important for the people to store renewable energy. In the field of energy storage, the battery and capacitors plays a significant role as it can be considered as impeccable medium of storing energy in the form of electricity. Now a days carbon nano-tubes (CNT) are being widely used instead of old graphite electrodes to improve the structural property of batteries. In order to provide battery with the property of high electrical conductivity along with improved geometric structure and high surface area, nano-structured materials have been used widely. The battery has been made more powerful, light in weight and energy efficient with the blessings of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology has invented nano-structured batteries which consumes less amount of energy and provides far better performance than the conventional ones.
The whole world is going through a time where saving energy is considered to be one the greatest issues as the non-renewable sources of energy is decaying at significantly high rate. So it has become a mandatory task for each and every nation of the world to find alternate resources of energy rather than consuming the conventional resources in order to save the humanity from a great tragedy of energy scarcity. In this current situation, nanotechnology is giving a shine of hope to avoid the tragedy of energy scarcity. The technology of nano-particles seems to be very promising in creating the system of utilizing the renewable resources of energy without harming the natural environment. The current inventions of nanotechnology has been proved very effective for work and reliable. So thousands of scientific groups are conducting research in huge amount with a purpose of finding more efficient device and materials that completely make the world free from using non-renewable resources of energy.
