Solar energy could hold the answer to a bright future

The sun delivers enough energy every 88 minutes to power our lives for a whole year. So why don’t we use it more, asks Steven Cutts

Harnessing just a fraction of the sun’s power could change the world (Getty)

There is a novel by the late, great British visionary Arthur C Clarke entitled The City and the Stars. Somewhere in his winding narrative, Clarke pauses to consider the nature of a perfect machine and reaches the following conclusion: no machine may contain any moving parts.

Sixty years later, Clarke’s message is still valid. Moving parts are an anathema to perfection. They create dust, wear and the gradual loss of precision. In the end and by its very nature, a machine that is built around moving parts will always let you down.

Needless to say, the electric car is the sort of invention that Clarke would have fully approved of. Whereas a conventional petrol-driven engine contains several hundred moving parts, a modern electric engine can manage with less than 10. Right now, an awful lot of people make a living by changing the exhaust pipes on a car. In fewer than 10 years, every new car in this country will have no exhaust and very few moving parts.