When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, many residents lost power for months — and some neighborhoods are still struggling to get electricity back up and running.
Puerto Rico had solar panel fields generating power before the hurricane, but much of it was inaccessible when the grid (or the network that delivers electricity to people) went down.
That’s one of the biggest challenges with solar energy, which provides an alternative way to power homes and businesses. The technology is still limited, not only because sunlight collection can be inconsistent on cloudy days and unavailable at night, but also because rural or remote areas often lack proper infrastructure.
Some companies are working on solutions to make solar energy technology more resilient and efficient.
Source: CNN Technology
Date: March 7th, 2019
Link: https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/06/tech/yotta-solar/index.html
Discussion
1) Data centers and cloud service provision centers consume enormous amounts of electricity. How could this technology help?
2) Most residential solar panels, the ones you see on house roofs, are “grid-tied”. Grid-tied means they only produce electricity when tied to the electricity grid. Why are they “grid-tied”?
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