Alternate Power DIY

Posts Tagged ‘Solar Power / Solar Energy’

The efficiency of photovoltaic cells has increased and no longer are they simple black panels placed on a solar panel in an array – now they can concentrate much greater amounts of energy from the sun to particular points. These cells are no becoming more efficient as the size is smaller and fewer materials are used to produce. The prices have lowered per watt per hour. 17 years ago, the price was doubled.

Solar powered electricity generation is one of the best things that have happened to the environment. This is an alternative form of energy production that does not emit any hazardous material into the environment and uses something that is naturally available as its source. Today, solar collection cells have become very popular additions to the rooftops of people’s houses. Whether it is for heating your home or heating water or producing electricity for the home, you will find that these devices are quite simple to use. For heating water, water is first allowed to pass through the photovoltaic cells.

Photovoltaic cells are becoming increasingly better at collecting sufficient radiation from the sun even on overcast or stormy days. It manages this by designing the solar cells to absorb and store more energy on bright sunlit days so that this can be used when the weather is not favorable.

There is actually another solar power system available for use called the PV System. A connection is made of the PV system to the nearest grid of electricity and when a particular home produces more energy using the solar cell, this excess energy is sent off to the grid so now the grid will use this energy for electricity production. By providing such a network, the PV system allows you to use a cheap environment friendly source of energy and itself works without much pressure on it. In some parts of the world, centralized solar arrays are being designed to serve whole urban and suburban settlements.

The interest of several large corporations from across the world in setting up their own solar power plants has laid emphasis upon the point that this is being considered to be an extremely workable option for energy production. The popularity of the solar power plant reached its zenith when Google installed a 1.

Nations such as Japan, Germany, the United States, and Switzerland have been furthering the cause of solar energy production by providing government subsidies or by giving tax breaks to companies and individuals who agree to utilize solar power for generating their heat or electrical power. By checking out the new inventions in the solar trapping technology, new investors will want to cash in on the technology and make profits with it and this will only bring in more popularity to solar power generation.

When doing the research for a article on new green products, I was unaware of many of the different ways to convert the energy of the sun into electrical power. I have written about solar cell or photovoltaic cell systems, so let’s look at another type of solar energy system.

This system is not new; it was originally conceived in 1816 as an industrial rival to the steam engine. It has been largely underutilized for the past century. With the need for renewable energy sources caused by the overuse of the fossil fuels interest has resurged in solar designs, and it is now being designed into many new solar collector systems.

The Stirling engine is a heat engine that is vastly different from the internal combustion engine. It is highly efficient, operates quietly and is great at converting otherwise wasted heat into kinetic energy. Its only drawback is loss of power from internal friction. The gasses (most often air) used inside the engine remain inside and are never expelled. With no exhaust valves like a gasoline or diesel engine and with no explosions from combustion, the engines run very quietly.

The heat source needed to start and maintain the Stirling cycle depends on the temperature difference between the hot and cold chambers. The greater the differential between chambers, the faster the engine will operate. In some cases the difference that occurs when the cold chamber is cooled by wetting it is enough differential to start the engine.

The basic operation of this thermal engine is really quite simple. The engine has two chambers, one hot and one cold. When an external heat source is applied the hot air expands moving a piston and flows to the cold chamber. A flywheel is attached to maintain movement.

The reason the Stirling engine works so well for a solar application is that heat from the sun can easily be concentrated to heat the hot chamber. A parabolic mirror much like that seen with the roof mounted satellite dishes is used to gather and focus the sunlight. With the sunlight focused onto the hot chamber of the engine, the temperature raises and the engine starts running. Connect the output shaft to a generator, and electricity is the product.

With the space age list of available materials, the pistons in the hot chamber are much better designed to handle the high temperatures that would have fried previous generations. The new systems with the right mirror design and decent tracking systems are averaging up to 25 kilowatts of electricity

I will compare the different solar technologies in a later article. For now, I need to lay a foundational understanding of each of the green products used to produce power so a comparison can be made.

Michael