Most of the energy generated for public consumption the world is through bio fuels and nuclear sources. These traditional and conventional sources of energy are not without their drawbacks. The present energy requirements of the world are not completely fulfilled by these sources and there are other alternate sources that have been put to use to overcome this deficit. The growing population, coupled with the technological advances is only going to increase the energy requirement of the world and it is estimated that the requirements are set to double up every 8 years, going forward. There is an urgent need to make the alternative energy sources viable for mass production and also cost efficient. Apart from this, the conventional sources are fast diminishing and they are not going to last for more than 50 years from now. There is also the problem of environmental pollution and danger with these traditional sources. There is a very real danger of the world coming under a serious deficit of required energy and no viable solution is visible in the near future. That said, it must also be noted that most of the governments and scientific organizations in the world have dedicated enormous amounts of resources

and funds for the research and development of alternative energy sources. Here has already been rapid strides made in some of these researches and some of the alternative energy sources have already been deployed for mass production. Hydro electricity and wind energy are some of the notable alternative energy sources. But, the most exciting and potentially problem solving energy source is understood to be solar energy. Solar energy is abundantly available and in fact is inexhaustible. The current technology in solar energy harnessing has reached a stage where this source is able to fulfill some percentage of the daily energy needs. Solar energy is primarily converted to electrical energy and is also being used for conversion into mechanical energy. However, there is still a long way to go before it can be safely said that this form of alternative energy source is the solution to the energy deficit problem. There are encouraging signs in the scientific development for harnessing this energy source and it is estimated that it can be commercially viable in the next 10 years. Till such time, people of the world will have to live with the available sources of energy, in the hope that better technology will be available, at least to the next generation of the world population.