Executive Summary about Sun Power by Richard Chapo

Generating electricity from the sun is all about converting sunlight into power. The technology behind solar systems is known as photovoltaic technology. Essentially, this technology involves using sunlight to create a chemical reaction. This process creates a direct current of electricity. The electricity is then converted to usable alternating current electricity and stored in a battery or fed into a utility grid system.

Solar platforms use this exact process to produce energy. The arrays are made up of small squares called photovoltaic cells. A collection of these cells forms a single panel and a collection of panels makes up a “solar array.”

The photovoltaic cells in a solar array are where the action happens. The cells are typically made with crystalline silicon under a glass cover. When sunlight hits the crystalline silicon, the material reacts by kicking off electrons. Tiny wires built into the cells collect the electrons in the form of an electrical current.

The biggest issue with solar platforms is how efficiently they convert sunlight into electricity. Top brands will convert at roughly 15 percent efficiency.

Making Use of the Power That is Supplied by the Sun
Executive Summary about Sun Power by Mick Purcell

The period of time has been relatively short since the idea of using solar power has come into effect for homes. Solar power for homes may become more reliable as more builders explore ways to make new energy saving measures coincide with their use.

Augmentation systems – The majority of solar power systems for homes fall into this category. This system will power a system that is specific with in the home rather than powering the entire home. Some systems can power heating and cooling systems on their own, without any need for electricity. A system like this one takes pressure away from the home’s electrical system and puts the cash saved from this back into the home owner’s pocket.

Backup systems – Sun-powered generators will extend to backup systems for solar homes. When backup is necessary, this system won’t always keep the home performing completely. One reason a backup system is so helpful would be for installing heating, air conditioning, or refrigeration backups in the event of a power outage.

Over the past several decades, there has been great improvement in solar power for homes. Is it odd why no one invests in solar power? Fuel costs rising and US dollar falling due to the power outages and hurricanes.

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Limoneira Company has installed Limoneira Solar in Santa Paula.

Detailed description from Limoneira after the pictures…

The Limoneira Solar Project is located in Santa Paula, just north of the Santa Clara River on an alluvial fan, in Ventura County, California. The project began in February of 2008, and installation was complete in October of 2008. The Limoneira Company, the largest producer of Lemons in the state, wanted to fix its high energy costs to stay competitive in the global marketplace. The 5.5 acre, 1 megawatt solar facility is used to power the adjacent cold storage facility and packing house. It is currently producing clean energy at rates above design standards.

The facility consists of a solar array and a visitor’s center with a vegetated, or green roof. The landscape palette for the solar array consists of annual and perennial native grasses and wildflowers. The plants used on the project are native to Santa Clara River Watershed and the majestic peaks surrounding the array, linking the site to the larger landscape. The project took a collaborative approach by reviewing plant choices and planting methods with numerous local experts.

The project was entered into the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design, or LEED, Certification process. It is the first privately funded project to receive LEED Gold Certification in Ventura County. As part of the project, the Landscape Architect submitted an Innovation Credit for Ecological and Regenerative Landscape Design which was accepted by the USGBC LEED reviewers. California native plants were an integral part of the proposed Innovation Credit.

This is the first solar project using California native plants as a vegetative understory for a solar array. We hope that this model will be adopted by other projects throughout the state. Most solar arrays rest upon a gravel site which requires inputs of herbicides to kill weeds. The gravel and panels can also increase local temperatures thereby reducing energy generation efficiency. The non-irrigated native plant mix used at this site keeps the environment cooler than a gravel area and does not require intensive herbicide applications. The plants are beneficial to local insects and birds, providing habitat, food, and nectar. The vegetation also reduces stormwater runoff and improves water quality. The array is maintained by a herd of miniature babydoll sheep.

The Limoneira Solar visitor’s center has a green roof that displays plants native to California, mostly to Ventura County. The design form mimics the surrounding landscape, recalling the river as it meanders to the nearby sea. The plants are arranged by community, from the coastal environment to the coastal mountain environment. Plant communities represented include coastal strand, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and oak woodland. Since there is much overlap in species composition in many of these communities, some plants are found in several communities, effectively unifying the planting design.

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Beach Ball designed by industrial designer Tony Leung, is the concept of solar energy generating system in Abu Dhabi between Saadiyat Island and Yas Island. This system has a photovoltaic panel that is contained in the inflatable transparent latex material.

Full description after the photos…

After inflation, the ball is temporary stabilized by a counterweighted bottom cap and a base station. For maximum sun exposure, photovoltaic films which assembled into a stretched membrane tilted at 25 degrees, according to the latitude angle of Dubai (25° N). When deflated the angle of the PV film will be zero.

Each ball contains 3sqm PV cells film and can produce about 200W of electrical power. The base cap contains LED light, air valve and silicone cable connector that provides flexible cable movement. After dark, Beach Balls illuminated by the LED light mounted on each base cap.

The energy generated by Beach Balls supplied to the base station, which are planted 1 meter underground and equipped with air pump, inverter and battery. This station supplies anchors for five to six Beach Balls and converts electricity from DC to AC before sending it to the grid.

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Solar energy technologies use energy from the sun to produce heat, light, hot water, electricity, and even cooling, for homes, commercial and industrial.

There are a variety of technological applications that have been developed to take advantage of solar energy. Technology can be read further below.

Photovoltaics System

Solar cells work by converting sunlight directly into electricity. The electrons in the semiconductor material, the material used to capture sunlight, will move when the sun’s energy in the form of photons hit it. Solar energy is forcing the electrons to move, occur continuously, and consequently there is also a continuous electricity production. Process, which turns sunlight (photons) into electricity (voltage), called the photovoltaic effect.

Solar Cell Module

Solar cells are usually organized into modules that each module can consist of 40 solar cells. Some modules can be arranged to form a PV line fitted with a fixed angle facing south. Or even could be placed in a sun-tracking device, to get more solar energy throughout the day. Several rows of PV could produce enough power for a house. As for industrial applications or power companies, hundreds of lines of PV can be linked to form one large PV systems and sufficient to meet the electricity needs.

Thin Film Solar Cell

Thin film solar cells use several layers of semiconductor material with a thickness in the micrometer scale. Technology allows to create solar cells integrated into rooftops to the skylights. Even solar cells are designed for applications having the same power with actual roof.

Concentrated Solar Cell

Some solar cells are also designed to work with concentrated sunlight. Solar cells are integrated into the sunlight collector which usually uses a lens to focus it onto the solar cells. There are several advantages and disadvantages by using this technique when compared with flat plate solar panels. Its main objective is to use a minimum of expensive semiconductor material while increasing efficiency with more solar energy doubling of the cell surface. But because the lens must be directed to the sun, the use of collectors limited by location or region that get the most sunlight. Almost the same as flat plate solar panels, this technology can also be mounted on sun tracking devices are simple, but most use a sophisticated device. As a result, the use of solar cell technology is still limited to the power company, industry and large buildings.

Solar Cell Performance
Solar cell performance can be measured by looking at its efficiency in turning sunlight into electricity. Only a certain energy range from the sun which can efficiently converted to electricity, and most of it is reflected or absorbed by the material forming solar cells.

Because some of these, then the efficiency of commercial solar cells is only 15%, or about one-sixth of the sunlight that produce electricity. The lower efficiency, the more wide solar panels needed, and that is, the more expensive price to be paid. Increasing efficiency solar cells while maintaining low prices is a challenge that must be
solved. Until now, little by little these challenges can be overcome, as evidenced by the efficiency of the current 15% which in the 1950s, the efficiency is still less than 4%.

Solar Water Heaters

Shallow water in a pond or lake tend to hotter than the water in the deeper places. This occurs because the sun can heat the bottom of a pond or lake in the more shallow areas, and that means water that was on it become hot too.

With the same principle, the sunlight can be used as a water heater in the building and swimming pool. Most of the water heating system that uses the sun as a source of heat, consists of two main parts: the sun collector and storage tank. Collector commonly used are flat plate collectors. Collector consists of a thin flat box with a transparent top cover and facing toward the sun. Small pipes in the box with liquid, which can be water or other liquid, to be heated. The pipes are attached to a black plate that serves to absorb heat from the sun. After the heat formed in the collector, the fluid inside the pipes get hot.

Hot liquid is then flow to the storage tank which usually larger and thermally insulated better than conventional water heater storage tank. Systems that use a liquid instead of water, usually using the liquid to heat the water through the pipes like loops formed in the tank.

The system used can be active or passive systems, but the most commonly used is the active system. Active system works depends on the pump to move fluid from the collector to the storage tank. While passive systems rely on gravity to work with and the nature of water to circulate when heated.

The system used for the swimming pool is much simpler. Pool filter pump is used to drain water through a collector of sunlight, which is usually made of plastic or rubber, black, and hot water then flows back to the pool.

Solar Thermal

Most of currently existing power plants use fossil fuels as a source of heat to boil water. The resulting water vapor then turn turbines, which in turn drive generators to produce electricity. But now came into power generation using solar concentrator system, using the sun as a source of heat. There are three main types of solar concentrator systems: parabolic, dish / engine, generator tower.

Parabolic system concentrate energy from sunlight by using a U-shaped length mirror. The mirrors are arranged toward the sun and focus sunlight into a pipe containing oil that extends in the midst of such a parabolic focal point. Hot oil is used to boil water in a conventional steam generator and produce electricity.

Dish/engine system using the mirror disk to collect sunlight on a receiver that receive the sunlight and transfer heat to the fluid inside the machine. Heat result in fluid to expand and push the piston or a turbine and produce mechanical energy. Mechanical energy is then used to turn a generator or alternator to produce electricity.

Meanwhile, the generator tower using a mirror in a large number and placed in a large location to collect the sun rays and centralize it to the top of a tower where a receiver is placed. Generated heat melt salt which then flows to heat the water. The steam generated from hot water used to turn conventional steam generator. Molten salt can store heat for a long time. That means electricity can be generated at the sunset or when the sky is very cloudy.

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In recent years, Google invest in green energy sector seriously. More than US$ 250 million invested by this company and there is no clear information about why the company’s biggest search engine in the world invest in this sector in addition to its commitment to encourage and develop green energy more quickly.

Google company may not only “simply” investing. The company has a team that is able to analyze and predict the future of this sector.

This time Google reinvest US$ 168 million in a solar thermal power plant located in the Mojave Desert, southeastern California, USA.

BrightSource Energy, a company that received funding from Google will build solar thermal power plants which, when completed the development will generate 392 MW and is the largest in the world beyond the kind of power plants located in Spain which is only 50 MW. Construction of three plants in the same location will be implemented in stages starting from 2010 to 2013.

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) built by BrightSource Energy in these locations will use 173 000 heliostat mirrors to concentrate sunlight and direct it into a 173 meter tower that stands in the middle of the mirror field.

What does Google do is look at the efficiency of solar thermal tower system. Although technological developments are not like other thermal solar technology, in terms of efficiency, solar thermal energy storage with the tower is better than similar technology. In addition, this technology does not require a lot of water – saving 90% compared to similar technologies – for using the working fluid instead.

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To build a big wind power generator needed a large enough space to put many large-sized turbines.

Designer Francesco Colarossi, Giovanna Saracino and Luisa Saracino have a solution for this problem by utilizing the empty space below the flyover. This concept is called “Solar Wind.”

Rather than be left empty, they tried to take advantage of a fly under a bridge by installing 26 wind turbines on the bottom and according to them at least 36 million kilowatts per year can be produced with these 26 wind turbines.

In addition to wind turbines, they also will install solar panels that could generate an additional power source of 11.2 million kilowatts per year.

Although still a concept, the wind turbines planned to be built in the Southern Italy bridge with an estimated cost 55 million dollars.

If this can be realized, the total electric power that can be generated about 40 million kWh per year and it is enough to meet the electricity needs of about 15,000 homes.

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If you live in apartments in high-rise buildings, and want to use renewable energy, such as wind turbine and solar cell, then Greenerator concept design is one of the solutions. The Greenerator by Jonathan Globerson can be installed on balconies and equipped with flexible solar panels and a vertical axis wind turbine. The energy generated by the system can be used to power computers or other equipment in the home. The designer believes that each unit can reduce your electric bill by 6 percent.

All Images © Jonathan Globerson

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Sometimes the plants we have in our apartment might be a little trouble getting enough sunlight. Thus, the Solight concept may resolve the problem. This device is able to store solar energy through the internal battery, after which it will be able to be placed on top of the plants, provides a healthy dose of natural sunlight.

Designer: Lee Ju Won

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Solarve (Solar Vehicle), the first solar-cell-equipped public bus in the world, recently announced by Sanyo in Japan. The bus was revealed to memorialize the 100th anniversary of Ryobi, a Japanese transportation and logistics company.

The Solarve is basically a city bus with solar cells on top that generate power for its interior LED lightings.

Sanyo says the bus solar panels generate total power of 798 watts (420 watts through crystalline silicon cells, and 378 watts through amorphous silicon cells). Power will be supplied by storage batteries inside the bus about nine hours for a long winter, or extended periods of time without sunlight.

The Solarve expected to be first used as a beginning September 1 (in Okayama City in southern Japan).

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Did you ever want to have an emergency “backup” system that supplies electric power constantly? There is now a truly portable (and ultra-high efficient) solar power generator that produce up to 1800 watts of household electricity on demand when you need it.

This new “solar powered backup generators” is so powerful and very easy to use. It produces electricity continuously and running with absolutely no sound whatsoever. It does not emit the smoke. But the best part of this solar generator is that it … Generate Electricity Free! The unit then stores the power for you when you need it.

Click here for more Details and Specifications.

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