Executive Summary about Wind Generators by Gallen Ho
You may have noticed that there are more wind generators out there now than ever before. You can easy find a professional contractor with the experience to install home wind generators. You can even buy a wind generator kit that allows you to build it from the pieces it comes with. This is a great way to get the benefits from wind generators for the lowest possible price.
Firefly is a table that is designed for the parts outside the restaurant, cafe or even homes. This table does not needs a candle because it has inbuilt lights that charge during the day using solar power. In the daytime, the lamp located within the center radius of the table. When night comes, the top of the lamp is pressed, the lights came out and began to emit light at the top of the table. The underside of the lamp located above the stencil from the cafe choice (or selection of tables manufacturers) so the text or logo is projected onto a table leg. This design innovation is the fusion of tables function, extraordinary form and the message that the lamp project to the foot of the table. That message can be anything, from a logo or slogan of a company (because we are in the era of the dominant advertising) to the intimate messages, pictures or symbols. [Via]
Imagine if your local bus stop allowed you to check your e-mail, share community information on a digital message board or monitor the local air quality? And perhaps best of all, what if it could tell you the exact location of that bus that you’re waiting for?
Terry Hope has created the THEKPV (The Hybrid Electric Kinetic Photovoltaic Vehicle), a solar powered bike that is powered by a 50W array of solar panels and has a capacitor for boosting its acceleration capabilities.
Chinavasion introduces world’s first HD camcorder with Dual Solar Panel.
New Zealand-based company 2C sells a variety of solar light cap that charged during the day to give light at the night. All the collected energy, light-emitting technology lies in the curved part of semi-flexible pre-bent beak of the cap including solar panels and the NiMH batteries used to store them.
The Solar Powered FM Radio Kit allows you to teach children about environmentally friendly energy source of solar energy in a fun and interesting. The kit will make a fully functional FM radio that was designed to be bright and attractive to children.
A Singapore company, Shiro Corporation, introduced Shiro SQ-S, media player with solar power up capability. The compact and slim Shiro SQ-S player equipped with a solar cell in the back of the player. By placing the player under the sun with its back facing up, the player is fully charged within 4 hours. With one full charge, this player can playback up to 7 hours of video or up to 35 hours of music. With a 16GB built-in memory, Shiro SQ-S allows you to save a lot of your video / song collections in it. Media player supports wide music format (MP3 / WMA / WAV / FLAC / APE / OGG) playback capability. Other features include FM Tuner with FM Recording and RDS Function, voice recording, BMP / JPEG / GIF Photo Viewer, and Text File Viewer.
Seating is the main purpose of a bench. However, modern people do something more on the bench. Waiting for someone to become one of the new functions. Design of bench freed itself from tradition. This is a new approach of thinking what the bench is. While the traditional role, this bench becomes WiFi hot-spots and night-lighting with a thin film solar battery. In addition, made of aluminum and recycling plastic considered eco-issues.
Christmas solar lights are great for decorating your Christmas tree and reduce your electric bill at the same time. After buying no ongoing costs.
Christmas solar lights are affordable and come in many forms.: LED Christmas lights, outdoor animated Christmas lights, Solar string lights, Christmas mini lights, Christmas trees lights, etc.
Christmas solar lights do not need to be connected to the electrical outlet. Only by putting solar panels in a way that can get enough sunlight during the day. Today, most solar lights to function even in cloudy weather. Even when the weather was overcast, the solar panels will charge the battery.
Christmas solar lights lights have an ultra bright LED and operate automatically from dusk to dawn thanks to a built-in light sensor.
Adventures in microsolar supported by microelectronics and MEMS techniques
Representative thin crystalline-silicon photovoltaic cells – these are from 14 to 20 micrometers thick and 0.25 to 1 millimeter across.
Sandia National Laboratories scientists have developed tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected and used.
The tiny cells could turn a person into a walking solar battery charger if they were fastened to flexible substrates molded around unusual shapes, such as clothing.
The solar particles, fabricated of crystalline silicon, hold the potential for a variety of new applications. They are expected eventually to be less expensive and have greater efficiencies than current photovoltaic collectors that are pieced together with 6-inch- square solar wafers.
The cells are fabricated using microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques common to today’s electronic foundries.
Sandia lead investigator Greg Nielson said the research team has identified more than 20 benefits of scale for its microphotovoltaic cells. These include new applications, improved performance, potential for reduced costs and higher efficiencies.
“Eventually units could be mass-produced and wrapped around unusual shapes for building-integrated solar, tents and maybe even clothing,” he said. This would make it possible for hunters, hikers or military personnel in the field to recharge batteries for phones, cameras and other electronic devices as they walk or rest.
Sandia project lead Greg Nielson holds a solar cell test prototype with a microscale lens array fastened above it. Together, the cell and lens help create a concentrated photovoltaic unit.
Even better, such microengineered panels could have circuits imprinted that would help perform other functions customarily left to large-scale construction with its attendant need for field construction design and permits.
Said Sandia field engineer Vipin Gupta, “Photovoltaic modules made from these microsized cells for the rooftops of homes and warehouses could have intelligent controls, inverters and even storage built in at the chip level. Such an integrated module could greatly simplify the cumbersome design, bid, permit and grid integration process that our solar technical assistance teams see in the field all the time.”
For large-scale power generation, said Sandia researcher Murat Okandan, “One of the biggest scale benefits is a significant reduction in manufacturing and installation costs compared with current PV techniques.”
Part of the potential cost reduction comes about because microcells require relatively little material to form well-controlled and highly efficient devices.
From 14 to 20 micrometers thick (a human hair is approximately 70 micrometers thick), they are 10 times thinner than conventional 6-inch-by-6-inch brick-sized cells, yet perform at about the same efficiency.
100 times less silicon generates same amount of electricity
“So they use 100 times less silicon to generate the same amount of electricity,” said Okandan. “Since they are much smaller and have fewer mechanical deformations for a given environment than the conventional cells, they may also be more reliable over the long term.”
Another manufacturing convenience is that the cells, because they are only hundreds of micrometers in diameter, can be fabricated from commercial wafers of any size, including today’s 300-millimeter (12-inch) diameter wafers and future 450-millimeter (18-inch) wafers. Further, if one cell proves defective in manufacture, the rest still can be harvested, while if a brick-sized unit goes bad, the entire wafer may be unusable. Also, brick-sized units fabricated larger than the conventional 6-inch-by-6-inch cross section to take advantage of larger wafer size would require thicker power lines to harvest the increased power, creating more cost and possibly shading the wafer. That problem does not exist with the small-cell approach and its individualized wiring.
From left to right, Sandia researchers Murat OKandan, Greg Nielson, and Jose Luis Cruz-Campa, hold samples containing arrays of microsolar cells.
Other unique features are available because the cells are so small. “The shade tolerance of our units to overhead obstructions is better than conventional PV panels,” said Nielson, “because portions of our units not in shade will keep sending out electricity where a partially shaded conventional panel may turn off entirely.”
Because flexible substrates can be easily fabricated, high-efficiency PV for ubiquitous solar power becomes more feasible, said Okandan.
A commercial move to microscale PV cells would be a dramatic change from conventional silicon PV modules composed of arrays of 6-inch-by-6-inch wafers. However, by bringing in techniques normally used in MEMS, electronics and the light-emitting diode (LED) industries (for additional work involving gallium arsenide instead of silicon), the change to small cells should be relatively straightforward, Gupta said.
Each cell is formed on silicon wafers, etched and then released inexpensively in hexagonal shapes, with electrical contacts prefabricated on each piece, by borrowing techniques from integrated circuits and MEMS.
Offering a run for their money to conventional large wafers of crystalline silicon, electricity presently can be harvested from the Sandia-created cells with 14.9 percent efficiency. Off-the-shelf commercial modules range from 13 to 20 percent efficient.
A widely used commercial tool called a pick-and-place machine — the current standard for the mass assembly of electronics — can place up to 130,000 pieces of glitter per hour at electrical contact points preestablished on the substrate; the placement takes place at cooler temperatures. The cost is approximately one-tenth of a cent per piece with the number of cells per module determined by the level of optical concentration and the size of the die, likely to be in the 10,000 to 50,000 cell per square meter range. An alternate technology, still at the lab-bench stage, involves self-assembly of the parts at even lower costs.
Solar concentrators — low-cost, prefabricated, optically efficient microlens arrays — can be placed directly over each glitter-sized cell to increase the number of photons arriving to be converted via the photovoltaic effect into electrons. The small cell size means that cheaper and more efficient short focal length microlens arrays can be fabricated for this purpose.
High-voltage output is possible directly from the modules because of the large number of cells in the array. This should reduce costs associated with wiring, due to reduced resistive losses at higher voltages.
Other possible applications for the technology include satellites and remote sensing.
The project combines expertise from Sandia’s Microsystems Center; Photovoltaics and Grid Integration Group; the Materials, Devices, and Energy Technologies Group; and the National Renewable Energy Lab’s Concentrating Photovoltaics Group.
Involved in the process, in addition to Nielson, Okandan and Gupta, are Jose Luis Cruz-Campa, Paul Resnick, Tammy Pluym, Peggy Clews, Carlos Sanchez, Bill Sweatt, Tony Lentine, Anton Filatov, Mike Sinclair, Mark Overberg, Jeff Nelson, Jennifer Granata, Craig Carmignani, Rick Kemp, Connie Stewart, Jonathan Wierer,
George Wang, Jerry Simmons, Jason Strauch, Judith Lavin and Mark Wanlass (NREL).
The work is supported by DOE’s Solar Energy Technology Program and Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research & Development program, and has been presented at four technical conferences this year.
The ability of light to produce electrons, and thus electricity, has been known for more than a hundred years.
Grid-connected system was applied to many urban areas housing, existing electricity network. The purpose of using solar panels, to save the cost of excessive electricity consumption and help reduce the greenhouse effect caused by the use of fossil fuels which cause excessive air pollution. Electrical energy which is in turn, channeled into the electricity networks that already exist and can be stored in the electricity network. This term is called the Hybrid System, which combine solar power plants with electricity network. Solar systems can also be combined with other power plants such as PV-Generator Hybrid, Hybrid PV-Microhydro, Hybrid PV-Wind and can even be combined into 3 systems of different power to Hybrid PV-Wind-Generator.
The following illustration application of grid connected systems in housing
Caption:
1. Solar panels installed at suitable locations to generate optimal power.
2. Inverter (Controller) function to change direct current (DC) produced by PV into alternating current (AC) that can be applied to household electronic equipment.
3. Box distribution function to distribute the AC current through the PV generated electricity network.
4. Discharging the burden of household air-conditioning system.
5. Electric meter show the current of electricity network will b
Konarka Technologies, Inc., a company that develops and sells Konarka Power Plastic, materials that convert light to energy, announced today that it has partnered with Arch Aluminum & Glass Co. to launch a pilot project, first curtain wall. In this project, two walls of solar panels will be erected in the building Arch’s office in Tamarac, Florida. Solar panels produce 1.5 kilowatts power, is expected to be fully functional by the end of the year.
Array of solar panels, glass and aluminum used in pilot installations to be used as a living laboratory with full modularity, including the ability to simultaneously test a variety of panels in a variety of conditions, will be a curtain wall. The wall will be built solar panels to gather data for architects and other customers who are interested in integrating solar cells into building materials.
Via: Greentechmedia
Flat collectors, and even concentrator is a tool used to collect solar radiation energy so that thermal energy produced can be used in more practical for a variety of processes. Flat solar collector consists of a transparent cover, absorber and insulator. Solar radiation that falls on the surface of the transparent material in the short wave will be forwarded by transparent material and then absorbed by absorber. Black color have an ability to absorb a larger radiation so that most of the sun radiation will be absorbed. Absorption of this radiation will create a high temperature absorber. Heat radiation emanated by absorber but in the form of long waves. Most of the transparent material has an opaque nature of long wave radiation and therefore part of the long wave radiation reflected back by this transparent material to the absorber. Some radiation is absorbed will be reflected back and the rest will experience the same process that is part reflected back to the absorber. Thus, the loss of heat due to radiation can be minimized by flat collector. In addition, the transparent cover also functions as a heat loss barrier carried by the air above the absorber to the environment.
Heat from the absorber is used through heat exchanger to the media of heat carrier. Media of heat carrier commonly used can be air or water. When using water as the media, absorber will conduct heat to the surface of the outside pipes. Then take heat conduction from the outside surface to the inside surface. With the process of convection, heat will move from the inside surface to the water that flows in the pipes, so the water temperature will increase. Water with a high temperature and then used in the other parts of the outside collectors flat. A similar process occurs when air is used as a medium of heat, but in this case the pipe is rarely used. The air above (or below) the absorber heated through convection due to direct contact with the absorber. High temperature air is then flowed out of collectors than used in processes that require hot air.
The performance of a solar collector will depend on the absorptivity characteristics of the absorber, transmissivity of transparent material, overall heat transfer coefficient of the insulator, the transparent material and the absorber.
Absorptivity is the portion of light that is absorbed by an object; transmissivity is the portion of light that is forwarded by an object, while the overall heat transfer coefficient is a power of heat transfer or the opposite of heat resistant.
Check out my other guide on solar house
Function and uses:
Solar Mobile Charger is a versatile charger which utilizes 100% of solar energy you can use to charge phone battery, CD Player, MP3 Player, MP4 Player, a small radio and others.
Very useful for you who frequently travel, tent, camping, traveling far outside the city, and driving in an emergency such as natural disasters, floods, earthquakes, etc.. Where there is not (difficult) to search supply of electricity or other energy source. With a slim and lightweight, this versatile charger easily take you any-where. Safe and easy to use, and certifiable to use for years, without maintenance.
How to use?
Easy! Simply place the solar panel in place by the sun exposure (can be also on the car dashboard) survived more than 7 hours (from morning to afternoon) so that the battery charger is fully charged, and if you want to use, connect the panel with the connector type with HP according to the type of HP through the cable connector that has been provided, then connect to your HP. The time required until the battery charged with full capacity depend on each type battery HP/other equipment which would be charged. Solar Mobile Charger is still able to absorb solar energy even if the weather cloudy/rain, so your phones will always be charged whatever the weather. Ideal to use at festivals, on holiday or in the car, you will wonder how you ever coped without it.
Alternative Solar Panel Charging
Solar Mobile Charger can also be charged by the computer via USB as solar alternative energy. You can utilize the USB cable that is provided. Charging time with USB is 2-3 hours.
