|
Our
country’s abundant sources of energy, oil and gas for example, have been
identified and utilized for the welfare of the nation for at least a
century since their discovery in Sumatra. They are now becoming problems
because of our long dependency on them and lack of capital and modern
technology among other things. Then there is coal, another potential
source of energy, the stocks of which according to experts will last for
60 more years.
Environmentally friendly sources of energy comprising geothermal, wind
and solar power, may soon become primary energy sources. Bio energy,
including palm oil, Jatropha curcas and other agricultural sources of
energy, has begun to be exploited for the sake of energy security.
Waste-to-energy systems will also play an important role, at the same
time as easing the problems of waste management in large cities like
Jakarta and Bandung.
Whatever the future energy mix, it is becoming apparent that coal and gas
are both hugely consumptive and damaging to the environment.
Renewable energy like solar, wind and hydro on the other hand supply only
a small proportion of the world’s energy needs, yet they are much
cleaner. The challenge is scaling them up to such an extent that they can
be truly useful.
But how do you make use of nature’s own energy? One option is solar roads
— using heat from the network of asphalt, roads and parking lots, in
every country to generate electricity.
The theory is this: In hotter climates roads and parking lots get
extremely hot. It is very uncomfortable for you to walk on them in a hot
day, with extra heat radiating from the black ribbon of asphalt under your
feet.
Latest reports say scientists at Worcester Polytechnic in Massachusetts
propose burying water pipes a few centimeters beneath the road surface.
Heat absorbed by the dark road surface will heat the water, which in turn
can be used to generate electricity. As a side-benefit, the transfer of
heat from road to water also helps cool the road surface, extending its
working life.
Water heating is used in many current solar generation applications. The
difference here is that it is visually no more intrusive than the
existing road. No fields would be filled with solar energy collectors,
for example.
According to the associate professor who led the team of researchers, the
“preliminary results provide promising proof of concept for what could be
a very important future source of renewable energy”.
Don’t get too excited though — there are a few handicaps to overcome.
The first is finding investors for a system with untried, unknown
potential returns. Some scientists speculate that the heated water simply
would not be hot enough to generate high levels of energy, making return
on investment too low.
And it would be quite some investment — not just installation costs for
the water piping and electricity generators, but the cost of fully
resurfacing any road where the system was installed. To ensure that
return on investment, you would need to be talking significant stretches
of highways such as in a US state like Utah.
It could, potentially, be a technology worth pursuing on private land,
but it seems like there are too many disadvantages to see widespread
adoption of solar road technology.
In Indonesia, places where solar heat has strong potential such as
Pontianak, West Kalimantan, a city on the equator, and also in dry and
arid areas including West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara could
probably be suitable for the application of solar road technology, also
roads in remote areas where energy is quite difficult to supply.
It is the duty of researchers including those who are with the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and Development Institute for Technology
Application (BPPT), possibly in cooperation with potential investors, to
develop such a hidden but long-lasting source of energy with simple and
easy applications and maintenance for remote villages.
It is time now for the inventors and creators to make use of other hidden
but free and long-lasting energy sources for the welfare of the nation.
●
|
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar