Drones are controversial, proliferating and inevitable. So we might as well make them run on sunshine.
Alta Devices has lately been making the case for its flexible, thin-film AnyLight solar cells at energy summits and conferences, for the future of unmanned vehicles and smart buildings. The company claims that its gallium arsenide cells hold “the single-junction world record for light conversion efficiency at 28.8 percent” – but whoever ends up trying to break that record will nevertheless enter a growing solar drone market buzzing with opportunity. That’s because their applications to our globally warmed future seem proverbially endless.
“The use of solar on a fixed-wing, unmanned system significantly increases its endurance,” Alta VP Rich Kapusta told SolarEnergy. “This extra endurance comes in very useful in a precision agriculture, land surveying, search and rescue in remote areas, forest fire reconnaissance, animal rescue and research for migration patterns, anti-poaching, as well as infrastructure maintenance of pipelines, power lines, aqueducts and more.”
It’s a convincing sales pitch, but the current data is … complicated. When it comes to drones, solar or otherwise, the barriers to acceptance still remain a sticking point. Whether you’re talking alarmed privacy advocates or annoyed national parks, outright bans on police or public drones, for the sake of surveillance or science, are more the tenor of the time.
“The park has experienced an increase in visitors using drones within park boundaries over the last few years,” the U.S. National Park Service explained in a press release banning them in Yosemite and other natural sanctuaries within in its system. “Drones have been witnessed filming climbers ascending climbing routes, filming views above tree-tops, and filming aerial footage of the park…The use of drones also interferes with emergency rescue operations and can cause confusion and distraction for rescue personnel and other parties involved in the rescue operation.”
Of course, these reasonable objections haven’t really stopped anyone, public or private, from using them anyway. And the burgeoning possibilities of unmanned eyes in the sky, empowered by photovoltaics, promises only to speed up the mainstreaming process.
“Today most battery-powered systems can only fly for an hour or so; solar power enables these to fly all day long,” Kapusta said. “Solar power on unmanned aircraft allows the operator to be more efficient, and enable new use cases In these applications. Small solar powered UAVs will replace manned flights, which are much more expensive and much more dangerous.”
It may sound niche, but even the big money is paying big attention. Earlier this year, Google bought high-altitude solar drone manufacturer Titan Aerospace for a secret sum, with an eye on 2015 for the launch of commercial operations. “Atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation,” the company touted in a benevolent green statement that likely will do little to counter the more dystopian roles – and political and philosophical concerns – of combat drones that have captured broader international attention and imagination.
But if Alta, Google and other companies building today’s solar drone marketplace are to be believed, tomorrow should instead turn out to be a sunny utopia where unmanned technology happily helps out where earthbound humans simply cannot. If we can keep the pressure and most importantly our money, on the significant and rewarding green applications of solar drones, then we might just end up getting what we are all paying for.
This article appeared at Solar Energy