Eco Trees

The giant solar balloons could be the solution for providing electricity in remote areas where no exist infrastructure for traditional energy systems, researchers suggest at Technion Institute of Technology, Israel, Reuters informs. The world it challenge in finding sources of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels and the business man's it fight for a piece of clean energy market which analysts say that reached almost 150 billion U.S. dollars last year. For instance, the usefulness of California Edison South belonging to the company Edison International announced plans to build the biggest photovoltaic system in the U.S. with a capacity of 250 megawatti sufficient to feed the 162,000 houses.

Because as many of the most sunny areas of the world are in the middle of the ocean or desert, balloons could be the solution to "harvest" energy from the sun remote areas. Helium Balloons covered with solar panels can fly at heights of a few hundred meters in the air and are connected to a reversing gear which convert electricity into a form that can be used in homes.

The system could be ready in a year, announced Pini Gurfil, a knowledge developer. At first researchers showed that a balloon with a diameter of three meters could provide about one kilowatt of energy, as 25 square meters of solar panels traditional. But if a solar panel of 25 square meters costs around 10,000 dollars, the cost of a balloon would be less than 4,000 dollars, said Gurfil.

This balloons will not have an impact on the environment and no carbon imprint, because helium is a natural gas and friendly with environment, and the system does not mean employment or land resources for installation, may explained the developer.

Nevertheless, solar energy electricians think that balloons have a limited application, considering the roofs still available for installing solar panels and as the largest and the only cost is not the earth, but solar panel. "There is available on the roofs of buildings, there is space for gigawatti electricity even in Great Britain," said Jeremy Leggett, president of Solar Century.