The world of electronic gadgets has accelerated very dynamically in recent years. There are newer and newer products and solutions that each of us can use. On the roofs of houses, we see photovoltaic panels , vacuum cleaners move automatically on the floors, and intelligent speakers answer our questions. Was such a vision in our minds at the turn of the century, nearly two decades ago?

Smart homes

More and more areas of our life are somehow automated. Interestingly, this process is progressing and evolving. It is worth taking, for example, an ordinary garage door – initially it was opened manually, then an electric drive was used with a remote control, and now the home service system is able to detect by GPS coordinates of our smartphone that we are approaching the property and open the door ourselves so that the household member he absolutely didn’t have to remember anything.

Vacuum cleaners appeared, which at first drove around the apartments according to their algorithm and cleaned. The current ones can create a map of rooms, update it on a regular basis and return to the base during cleaning to replenish their energy reserves. Energy that is often provided by a photovoltaic installed in the house , so it comes from an ecological source, fully renewable and almost inexhaustible.

The smartphone has become our remote control for everything, but in order for certain activities to take place, we do not have to use it. Just say “Ok Google” or “Hey Siri!” and you can easily manage lighting, heating or activation of individual devices. At the push of a single physical button, we also have the option to turn off the light, lower the screen, close the blinds, turn on the projector and illuminate the cabinet with movies, available in 4K format. Most interestingly, in the next five years these things will be funny and obvious, even outdated.

Cars packed with electronics

All driving assistance systems, navigation, great audio sets – it’s all in the past. However, while driving a Tesla today, we can use the autopilot option, let go of the steering wheel on the route and indulge in a bit of relaxation. A handful of sensors and very precise software, using artificial intelligence, for the process of further learning and improvement, ensure that the car keeps the appropriate distance, stays in its lane and does not exceed the speed.

In this case, photovoltaics should be a complement, because popularization of electric cars will bring with it an increasing demand for energy by consumers. That is why you can already see modern lighting on the streets of cities, which uses cells to obtain the necessary power.

Internet of Things

The motto of today seems to be: “If you have any electrical device, it can certainly be manufactured so that it can be connected to the Internet.” And so our oven, fridge and washing machine have both simple and advanced internet functions. The washing machine can send a notification about the finished washing, the refrigerator can make a shopping list and export it to the appropriate application, and the baking program can be adjusted in the oven directly based on the recipe downloaded from the network. Is this the future that amazes us? It is scary, therefore, to think what Internet options can meet a hair dryer, toaster and water heater. Although, probably in the case of each of these items, someone tried to check this possibility.

These are the next fields in which we have equipment inextricably linked with constant access to a power source, so that it can remain online at any time. That is why, already today, technology is installed so often on single-family houses, which only in the future will become our everyday life, i.e. photovoltaics . Unfortunately, natural fuel resources will run out one day, and unless the world is covered by some exceptional climate catastrophe, we should have access to the sun in uninterrupted form all the time.

Also photovoltaic  installations are already quite interesting. Scientists have worked intensively to improve the efficiency of the cells themselves, which has been achieved with great success since the 1990s. The trend of our times has resulted in the fact that solar systems central units have been equipped with special modules that can calculate the efficiency of the inverter and collect statistical data. The next step was to connect everything to the Internet, so this thing also gained completely new functions.

In the next twenty years, the world will exist again according to different rules. It is almost certain that they will still fit in the trend that has just begun to create everything around as intelligent things. It doesn’t matter if it’s a photovoltaic system, air conditioning system, car, watch or ordinary light bulb – everything remains smart today. And if we add the prefix “artificial” to supposed intelligence, we get an answer to what we as a humanity will be doing for the next decades.