Scientists are constantly looking for new ways to improve existing technologies. Solar energy suffers from quite a few drawbacks including the amount of energy that is lost simply through the inefficiencies of the collection method. Another obvious problem with solar energy is that the sun will only be available during the daylight hours.

Two studies conducted around the world have brought about breakthroughs that could possibly address both of these issues one day.

At the University of Queensland Professor Max Lu has made a ground-breaking discovery by growing the world’s first titanium oxide single crystals with large amounts of reactive surfaces. These crystals absorbs sunlight at far higher rates than existing materials which can then be concerted into sunlight. The electricity produced may be done at a cost that will be a far cheaper alternative to solar panels.

This technology won’t be available any time soon, though, with Professor Lu’s estimates indicating that the technology could take up to 10 years before it is ready for commercical use.

Meanwhile, in India, the Indian Planning Commission estimates that by 2030 the country’s electricity requirements will be 700,000 MW in addition to their current needs.  While marge chunks of these electricity needs will come from coal-fired power plants, another solution is being considered that does not involve ground-based power stations.

The idea is that giant sun-gathering satellites could collect power and then be able to electromagnetically beam the solar generated energy back to earth-based receivers where it would than be converted to electricity.

Because these satellite solar power plants would be unaffected by the earth’s shadow they could potentially be in operation 24 hours a day every day of the year. This particular idea is not new, in fact American scientist Peter Glaser introduced the idea of space solar power in 1968. However the price of setting such an operation up has always been supremely high. The estimated cost back in the 1960s was somewhere around the $1 trillion mark.

Although the technology for satellites has become cheapere, the cost is still prohibitive. The fact remains though that oil prices are skyrocketing and, according to a study released in 2007 by the US National Security Space Office, there is enough solar flux in one year in a one kilometre band of geosynchronous Earth orbit to produce almost equal the energy produced through conventional oil reserves.

A project to send enough materials out into space to build miles-long solar platforms has been flagged as possible, but it will still take a great deal of money to bring it to fruition.

Charles Miller, a director of the Space Frontier Foundation, a group promoting public access to space believes that this kind of solar project could be achieved saying “We could see the first operational power satellite in about the 2020 time frame if we act now”