The Stila for E! Live from the Red Carpet™ is the first solar illuminated refillable compact and powder duo. The package comes filled with sheer pressed powder and kitten shimmer shades, so it is universal to all skin tones.
One of the answers to the energy crisis is to apply solar power. Solar power is the energy source of the most powerful and freely available to us now. That is why production of solar energy kits more abundant.
Solar energy kits is slowly taking place in most of the different houses in the world. Householders feel easy, convenient and effective to obtain energy from the sunlight.
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.
Limoneira Company has installed Limoneira Solar in Santa Paula.
Detailed description from Limoneira after the pictures…
MIT Researchers in the opening of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center (SFC) that was built to promote research in advanced solar technologies has showcased a lightweight and flexible solar cell technology. This new solar cell made by using a process similar to inkjet printers. The paper used is coated paper with organic semiconductor materials.
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.
What’s the real truth behind all those ads?
Just searching around online for information about solar power, solar energy, and installing solar panels on your own home, you’ve probably run across many claims which say you can earn money from solar power. So is it true? Yes… sort of.
Strawberry Tree is designed by Strawberry Energy, a business group of Serbian student-entrepreneurs. It is a solar powered charging booth for mobile phones, cameras and even MP3 players.
Strawberry Tree uses solar panels on top and Lithium batteries make this recharging device can still be used at night. In the middle, there are various types of connections adjusted with the type of gadgets and it is also equipped with chair so we can sit and chat while waiting for the battery recharging process.
Sunhope, award-winning project by Joseph Cory and aerospace engineer Dr. Pini Gurfil is a breakthrough low-cost easily-deployable system that collects solar energy with very small environmental footprint.
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.
Solar technologies is now highly developed, with some progress is being developed to be used every day.
Below 10 Solar Technologies to note:
You may have seen a calculator that has a solar cell? calculator that does not need batteries, and in some cases do not even have the off button. As long as you have enough light, so the calculator can be on at any time and forever. You may have seen larger solar panels, such as in housing or traffic lights, haven’t you? In this article I will review how solar cell work so it can deliver the energy and drive an electronic device.
Today the demand for electricity has become a major requirement in all corners. The presence of power plants sometimes do not solve the need for electricity especially in remote areas where the terrain is always an excuse. Here an alternative energy that can be easily found in nature and can be used as an alternative free energy replacing conventional electricity, because it can turn on household electronics such as televisions, radios and lights.
Solar cells made from pieces of a very small silicon coated with special chemicals to form the basis of solar cells. Solar cells generally have a minimum thickness of 0.3 mm is made from semiconductor materials incision with positive and negative poles. Each solar cell produces usually voltage 0.5 volts. Solar cells is an active element (semiconductor) that utilizes photovoltaic effect to transform solar energy into electrical energy.
Solar cells contain a connection (junction) between two thin layers made of semiconductor materials, each of which is known as a semiconductor type “P” (positive) and semiconductor type “N” (negative).
N-type semiconductor made of silicon crystals and there are also some other materials (typically phosphorus) within the limits that these materials can provide an excess of free electrons.
Electrons are sub atomic particles are negatively charged, so that the silicon alloy in this case known as N-type semiconductor (Negative). P-type semiconductor made of silicon crystal in which there is a small amount of other material (typically boron) which caused the shortage of material free electrons. Lack or loss of electrons is called a hole. Because there is no or lack of electrons electrically negative charged then the silicon alloys in this case as a semiconductor type-P (Positive).
Composition of a solar cell, the same as a diode, consisting of two layers, called PN junction. PN junction obtained by staining a pure semiconductor silicon (valence 4) with the impurity valence 3 on the left side, and one on the right impurity stained with valence 5.
The effect of the electric field in a PV cell
Operation of a PV cell
Basic structure of a generic silicon PV cell
Thus formed on the left side that is not pure silicon again and called P type silicon, while the right side is called silicon type N. In the pure silicon there are two kinds of electrical charge carriers are balanced. Positive electric charge carriers called holes, while the negative are called electrons. After a desecration process, in the P type silicon formed holes (positive charge carriers) in a very large number compared with the electron. Therefore, in the P type silicon holes are majority charge carriers, while the electrons are minority carriers. Conversely, in the N type silicon is formed of electrons in a very large number so-called majority carriers, and holes called minority carriers.
In the silicon rod there was interaction between the P and the N. Therefore called the PN junction. When present, the P associated with the positive pole of a battery, while the negative polar associated with the N, then there is a relationship called “forward bias”.
Under forward bias, electrical currents arise in a series due to both types of charge carriers. So the electric current flowing in the PN junction is caused by the movement of electron and the movement of holes. An electric current is flowing in the direction of holes movement, but opposite direction with the movement of electrons. Just to further explain, electrons moving in the conductor material can lead to electrical energy. And electrical energy is called as an electric current that flows in the opposite direction to the movement of electrons.
But, if the P associated with negative pole of batteries and the N associated with positive pole, then now formed a relationship called “reverse bias”. In these circumstances, the hole (positive charge carriers) can be connected directly to the positive pole, while the electrons are also directly to the positive pole. So, clearly in the PN junction there is no movement of majority charge carriers either the holes or electrons. Meanwhile, the minority charge carriers (electrons) in the part P moves trying to reach the positive pole of the batteries. Similarly, the minority charge carriers (holes) in the N also moved to reach the negative pole. Therefore, in a state of reverse bias, in the PN junction there is also output current even in very small amounts (micro amperes). This current is often called the reverse saturation current or leakage current.
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Anything interesting in reverse bias. When the temperature of PN junction raised they will be able to enlarge leakage current. Means that if given the energy (heat), the minority charge carriers in the PN junction grows. Because the light is one form of energy, so if there is light that hit a PN junction may also produce enough energy to generate charge carriers. This symptoms are called photoconductive. Based on the photoconductive symptoms made of photodiode electronic components from PN junction.
In reverse bias, with increasing intensity of light that hit photodiode can increase the level of leakage current. Leakage currents can also be enlarged by increasing the battery voltage (reverse voltage), but the addition of leakage currents were not significant. When the batteries in the reverse bias circuit is removed and replaced with a load of resistance, the provision of light that can cause charge carriers both holes and electrons. If the illumination light is increased, current output was greater. Such symptoms are called photovoltaic. Light can provide enough energy to enlarge the number of holes in the P and the number of electrons on the N. Based on the symptoms of this photovoltaic electronic components can be created photovoltaic cell. Because usually the sun as a source of light, the photovoltaic cell is also called the solar cell (solar cells) or a solar energy converter.
So the solar cell is essentially a large photo diode and designed by referring to the photovoltaic symptoms so that could produce the greatest possible power. P type silicon is the very thin surface layer so that light can penetrate directly reach the junction. Part P is given ring-shaped nickel layer, as a positive output terminal. Under the P is the N type that is coated with nickel as well as the negative output terminal.
To obtain a large enough power required much of solar cells. Usually, solar cells arranged form the shape of the panel, and is called the photovoltaic panels (PV). PV as a source of electric power was first used in satellites. Then PV as an energy source for cars, so there are solar electric car. Now, in foreign countries, PV has started to be used as a roof or wall of the house. Sanyo has made even a semi-transparent PV that can be used as a substitute for glass.
After getting the output of the solar cell is a direct electrical current can be used to load utilized. But also the electric current can be used as a charge stored by the battery to be used when needed, especially at night because there was no sun.
If the solar cell is used for storage into the battery, then the resulting voltage magnitude must be above the battery specification. For example the battery used is 12 volts, the voltage produced by solar cell must be above 12 volts in order to perform charging.
We recommend that before carrying out the charging battery should be empty because the incoming flow will be filled with the maximum. The unit capacity of a battery is the Ampere-hour (Ah) and these characteristics are usually found on the label of a battery. For example a battery with 10 Ah capacity will fill up for 10 hours with the solar cell output currents of 1 Ampere.
Solar power is an effective way to harness the power of the sun, the plants have been doing this for millions of years. Solar energy is cheap, reliable and can produce tremendous power, but only in the daytime. This is the main problem of solar energy utilization. The average home will use less power during the day, and much smaller in the summer which is the peak power (fastest time) for solar panels to generate energy. To be effective this power should be stored.
One popular way to store solar power is to connect the solar panels to the electrical grid, which effectively turn it into a battery. This allows excess energy to be sent back to the electric company, actually make the electric meter run backwards. At night, the power drawn from the grid as usual. This is only as reliable as the existing grid. Each power outages could still affect these solar panels, but no rechargeable batteries should be used.
Rechargeable batteries are known for having a short age, and expensive. They also have low power flow for a long time with good capacity, or they have a high power electrical short time with the poor capacity. Typical batteries, especially lithium ion, has a high capacity to store power, but provides a weak output and recharge slowly. An ideal solar battery will be able to charge quickly, has a high density to save power and can emit as much power as needed. This ideal combination is something that no battery has been able to do until now. It can only be done through the study of nanotechnology.
Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a way to create a very powerful battery, the dense refill using nanotechnology. Individual parts, which looks surprisingly like a photovoltaic panel is only a thousand times smaller, is assembling his own, self-replication, and aligning itself too. There is no mechanical process can achieve anything similar small, which also contributes to their relatively low cost. They are still in the testing stage and court, but should look widely and production operations in a year. Able to store the power created from sun and wind will soon make fossil fuels obsolete and mysterious.
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
Executive Summary about Nanosolar by nanosolar.com -MICHAEL MOYER
Imagine a solar panel without the panel. Just a coating, thin as a layer of paint, that takes light and converts it to electricity. From there, you can picture roof shingles with solar cells built inside and window coatings that seem to suck power from the air.
Cost has always been one of solar’s biggest problems. Traditional solar cells require silicon, and silicon is an expensive commodity (exacerbated currently by a global silicon shortage). That means even the cheapest solar panels cost about $3 per watt of energy they go on to produce.
Nanosolar’s cells use no silicon, and the company’s manufacturing process allows it to create cells that are as efficient as most commercial cells for as little as 30 cents a watt. “It really is quite a big deal in terms of altering the way we think about solar and in inherently altering the economics of solar.”
In San Jose, Nanosolar has built what will soon be the world’s largest solar-panel manufacturing facility. California, for instance, recently launched the Million Solar Roofs initiative, which will provide tax breaks and rebates to encourage the installation of 100,000 solar roofs per year, every year, for 10 consecutive years (the state currently has 30,000 solar roofs). The company is ready for the solar boom.
NANOSOLAR: Solar-cell Coating
Executive Summary about Nanosolar by Silicon Valley
Solar panels are big, clunky, heavy, require special installation, and, if they break, replacing them can be quite expensive.
The PowerSheet is made from a layer of solar-absorbing nano-ink that is printed onto a foil-thin metal sheet.
Because of the ever-increasing costs of energy and the obvious environmental impact of burning up fossil fuels, turning to alternative energy sources such as solar energy is a priority.
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