Solar Applications

June 21, 2011 By: Admin Category: Solar Power

Solar Energy Applications

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.

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Photovoltaic Cells

December 21, 2009 By: Admin Category: Solar Cells

Glitter-sized Solar Photovoltaics Produce Competitive Results

Adventures in microsolar supported by microelectronics and MEMS techniques

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.

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.

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.

[Via]

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Home Solar

November 22, 2009 By: Admin Category: Solar Home

Top Guide Of Home Solar

Home solar power could actually fun, modern, and even interesting. Limited electricity does not mean sacrificing convenience and comfort provided by the air heater, water heater, and air conditioning.
The design of home solar will save electricity because the walls, windows and floors designed to absorb and store heat energy during the winter and distribute them. And dissipates heat during the summer. Therefore comfort provided by the heating and air conditioning can be displaced.

Here are five basic elements that must be interconnected with each other in designing a home solar.

Collectors

The large glass windows that are directly related to the sun should be facing 30 degrees to the north and should not be obstructed by other buildings or log starting at 9 am to 3 pm.

Absorbent

Walls, floors and partitions are objects that can absorb and store heat.

Thermal mass

Thermal mass is a material that can store heat from solar energy and is located behind the surface of objects that can absorb heat like the floor.

Distribution

Heat that has been collected and stored, then distributed or in circulation from one room to another. Method to distribute this is conduction, convection and radiation.

Setting

Control tools should be used to utilize energy use that has been collected, such as a thermostat to check the temperature so that it can turn on and off the fan.

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Solar Water Heating

November 15, 2009 By: Admin Category: Solar Heater

Benefits of Solar Water Heating

The fuel needed to heat water can be reduced by solar water heaters because it capture renewable energy, the sun. Many solar water heaters use a small solar electric (photovoltaic) module to power the pump needed to circulate the heat transfer fluid through the collector. Use of these modules allows solar water heater to operate even during a power outage.

Solar water heaters can also be used for hotels and motels, car washing, swimming pools, restaurants, and others.

There are many designs for solar water heaters. But, in general consists of three main components:
1. Solar collectors, which convert solar radiation into heat.
2. Heat exchanger / pump module, which transfers heat from solar collectors into drinking water.
3. Storage tank to store solar hot water.

The most common types of solar collectors used in solar water heaters is a flat plate and evacuated tube collectors. In both cases, one or more collectors are installed on the south facing slope or roof and connected to the storage tank. When there is enough sunlight, a heat transfer fluid, such as water or glycol, is pumped through the collector. When the fluid through the collector, he is heated by the sun. Fluid which is heated and then circulated to heat exchangers, which transfer energy into the water tank.

When the owner of the home using hot water, cold water from the main water into the bottom of the solar storage tank. Solar hot water at the top of the storage tank flows into the conventional water heater and then to the faucet. If the water at the top of the solar storage tank hot enough, no further heating is required. If the solar-heated water is not too hot (because the clouds long enough), a conventional water heaters heat water until the desired temperature.

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Collector Solar

July 08, 2009 By: Admin Category: Solar Accessories

Flat Collector

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

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System Solar

June 25, 2009 By: Admin Category: Solar Cells

Solar Electric Power Systems

Solar system has a mechanical and electrical components that can convert and store electrical energy that can be used to run your home. Start the calculation that you want to do is an energy audit. You need to evaluate the amount of power that will be needed per day preferably in kilowatts / hour. So the need to consider is the location of your home. That will determine the type of solar system you need is a factor such as climate, number of days of peak sunlight per day, average rainfall and number of days of peak sunlight per year. This calculation can be done by companies that make solar electricity system, and they will guide you in choosing solar electric power systems that are appropriate for your home.

Solar electric power system consists of several components. Some of the components that you will find in the solar electric power system is a primary collector, an inverter, a circuit breaker, battery, charge controller, for collectors and mount the display panel. Collector is a component that collects the sun’s energy. In normal cases, is a solar panel collectors. Collectors on the roof is still using the cushion. Location of solar panels is very important and must be in place where the sun will fall in the maximum on it. Is the ideal place solar panels on the north-south as it will ensure that even if the sun from east to west, the panel get the sun for longer duration.

Inverter is the component that will convert the 12 volt DC power to AC power. Based on the location of the power inverter can convert the 110 volt DC to 220 volt. One of the most important component is the circuit breaker or fuse box. This component has a switch and fuse is important to set the transfer energy from the solar panel to the battery or directly to the outlets. Circuit Breakers control the amount of power that will flow to the outlet and will act as security devices for the application.

If you want to have the storage, then you need to buy one or more batteries depending on your needs. If you have then you need a battery charge controller. This component will ensure you are not over or less in charging battery that will reduce the ability of the battery.

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Solar Collector

May 30, 2009 By: Admin Category: Solar Accessories

Solar Collector The Heart Of A Solar Heating System

Executive Summary about Solar Collector by Armand Hadife

Solar energy is accessible in plentiful places around the world. This high temperature produced can be exploited for heating air or water in houses and buildings

Using solar energy is a natural and affordable approach for spaces or water heating. When using solar power for heating purposes you employ a device that will allow capturing the heat of the sun. This device is called a solar collector. A basic solar collector can be made with no difficulties.

The next step is to find a system to help circulate water or air inside the solar collector. In general, devices like fans and pumps are used to push air or water thru the solar collector and from the storage tank to the house.

For the novice, making a solar collector can be a difficult and demanding project. This is why solar collectors are broadly offered online and in solar products shops.

How to Build a Solar Collector
Executive Summary about Solar Collector by Mick Jeys

Building a solar collector is the best way to save money on electricity bills, and can be used to generate electricity or to heat water. The two most popular uses for solar collectors are to heat water and generate electricity.

Solar Collector To Generate Electricity

Typically known as a solar cell or panel, they are typically made from titanium dioxide, and create electricity through the photovoltaic effect. It is now very simple to build your own generator at home quite cheaply by substituting titanium dioxide with cuprous oxide.

Solar Collector To Heat Water

The most common example of this type can be seen in common solar hot water systems, where the hot water tank is actually up on the roof with the solar collector. Trials are being held in Germany to use solar heated water from the summertime to heat homes in the winter.

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Solar Hot Water

May 20, 2009 By: Admin Category: Solar Heater

Solar Hot Water

Executive Summary about Solar Hot Water by Anna Williams

Solar hot water heating systems are a great way to effectively conserve energy and reduce your energy bill.

Important Facts about Solar Hot Water Systems

• Solar water heaters can be used in any climate.
• The fuel used to run a solar heater is sunshine.
• A solar water heater can reduce your water heating bill by fifty to eighty percent.
• Aside from reducing your energy bill right now, a solar heating system will protect you from future energy price increases.
• When building a new home, or when refinancing, the economic aspect of this becomes even more interesting.
• Using solar power to heat your water will significantly reduce your carbon footprint.
• Solar heaters can be installed in combination with backup systems.

Types of Solar Hot Water Systems

There are two types of systems, “active solar water heating systems” and “passive solar water heating systems.” With a passive system, the water storage tank must therefore always be positioned above the solar water heater collector.

Active Solar Hot Water Systems

There is also the direct circulation system, where water is simply passed through solar heat collector and then routed to the water storage tank for use.

Passive Solar Hot Water Systems

Passive solar water heating systems are usually cheaper than “active solar water heating systems,” as they do not need controls or pumps to circulate the water.

If you live in a warm climate, a passive water heating system might be all you need. Essentially, solar water heating systems consist of a water storage tank and its solar collectors. The solar collectors are used to collect solar energy (which heats water), and the tanks store the heated water. 75% of the energy consumption of the average home is for hot water and heating. The most economical and effective way of using solar power is through the use of solar heating, and solar hot water heaters.

Homemade Solar Hot Water Heater – One of the Easiest Home Renewable Energy Systems You Could Make?
Executive Summary about Solar Hot Water by Denzil De Vries

Installing a solar hot water system is one of the easier projects to undertake if you are keen to create your own home made renewable energy systems.

The key to the solar hot water system is the solar collector. It is just a tank that has been modified to absorb thermal energy from the Sun. So it may be painted black on the external surfaces and have insulation on the internal surfaces to prevent heat loss.

The flat plate solar collector design uses the same principles but is designed to squeeze even more juice out of the Sun. The plate is painted black to again absorb solar radiation and heat. Along the plate is tubing that will hold water. The tubing exposes far more water to the heat than the ordinary old solar collector. This means more water is heated or made hotter.

Where you place your collector is vitally important but is dictated by two factors. It needs to get as much Sun as it can, so a south facing location in the home is best. But it also needs to move water to the boiler system in the home. So the nearer it is to the boiler the better. If the boiler is well located you could position the solar water collector above the boiler and let gravity move the water from boiler and back to collector based on the heat of the water.

A solar hot water system can be a simple as a solar water collector that has no moving parts or electricity to worry about and a connection to your boiler system.

Most people look into a solar hot water heater because they want to save money on their heating bills. With this in mind a solar hot water heater will help to reduce your bills by pre-heating water that goes into your traditional boiler.

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