Solar Energy

• Solar energy is radiant light and heat from

the sun harnessed using a range of ever-
evolving technologies
Solar Energy such as solar
heating, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal
energy, solar architecture and artificial
photosynthesis.
• It is an important source of renewable
energy and its technologies are broadly
characterized as either passive solar or
active solar depending on the way they
capture and distribute solar energy or
convert it into solar power.
• Active solar techniques include the use of
photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar
power and solar water heating to harness
the energy.
• Passive solar techniques include orienting
a building to the Sun, selecting materials
with favorable thermal mass or light
dispersing properties, and designing
spaces that naturally circulate air.
• In 2011, the International Energy Agency said
that "the development of affordable,
inexhaustible and clean solar energy
technologies will have huge longer-term
benefits.
• It will increase countries’ energy security
through reliance on an indigenous,
inexhaustible and mostly import-independent
resource, enhance sustainability, reduce
pollution, lower the costs of mitigating global
warming, and keep fossil fuel prices lower
than otherwise. These advantages are global.
ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION
• Solar power is the conversion of sunlight
into electricity, either directly using
photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using
concentrated solar power (CSP). CSP
systems use lenses or mirrors and
tracking systems to focus a large area of
sunlight into a small beam. PV converts
light into electric current using the
photoelectric effect.
• Commercial Concentrated Solar Power
(CSP) plants were first developed in the
1980s. Since 1985 the eventually 354 MW
SEGS CSP installation, in the Mojave
Desert of California, is the largest solar
power plant in the world.
• Other large Commercial Concentrated Solar
Power (CSP) plants include the 150 MW Solnova
Solar Power Station and the 100 MW Andasol
solar power station, both in Spain.
• The 250 MW Agua Caliente Solar Project, in the
United States, and the 221 MW Charanka Solar
Park in India, are the world’s largest photovoltaic
plants.
• Solar projects exceeding 1 GW are being
developed, but most of the deployed photovoltaics
are in small rooftop arrays of less than 5 kW,
which are grid connected using net metering
and/or a feed-in tariff.
CONCENTRATED SOLAR
POWER
• Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems
use lenses or mirrors and tracking
systems to focus a large area of sunlight
into a small beam.
• The concentrated heat is then used as a
heat source for a conventional power
plant.
• A wide range of concentrating technologies
exists; the most developed are the parabolic
trough, the concentrating linear fresnel
reflector, the Stirling dish and the solar power
tower.
• Various techniques are used to track the Sun
and focus light. In all of these systems a
working fluid is heated by the concentrated
sunlight, and is then used for power
generation or energy storage.
PHOTOVOLTAICS
• A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell (PV), is a
device that converts light into electric
current using the photoelectric effect. The
first solar cell was constructed by Charles
Fritts in the 1880s.
• In 1931 a German engineer, Dr Bruno
Lange, developed a photo cell using silver
selenide in place of copper oxide.
Although the prototype selenium cells
converted less than 1% of incident light
into electricity, both Ernst Werner von
Siemens and James Clerk Maxwell
recognized the importance of this
discovery.
• Following the work of Russell Ohl in the
1940s, researchers Gerald Pearson,
Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin created the
crystalline silicon solar cell in 1954.
• These early solar cells cost 286 USD/watt
and reached efficiencies of 4.5–6%.By
2012 available efficiencies exceed 20%
and the maximum efficiency of research
photovoltaics is over 40%.
• The Earth receives 174 petawatts (PW) of
incoming solar radiation (insolation) at the
upper atmosphere.
• Approximately 30% is reflected back to
space while the rest is absorbed by
clouds, oceans and land masses. The
spectrum of solar light at the Earth's
surface is mostly spread across the visible
and near-infrared ranges with a small part
in the near-ultraviolet.
 Darmstadt University of
Technology in Germany won the
2007 Solar Decathlon in
Washington, D.C. with this
passive house designed
specifically for the humid and
hot subtropical climate.
Australia hosts the World Solar Challenge where
solar cars like the Nuna3 race through a 3,021 km
(1,877 mi) course from Darwin to Adelaide.
• The solar-electric Helios Prototype flying
wing is shown over the Pacific Ocean
during its first test flight on solar power
from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range
Facility on Kauai, Hawaii, July 14, 2001.
The 18-hour flight was a functional
checkout of the aircraft's systems and
performance in preparation for an attempt
to reach sustained flight at 100,000 feet
altitude later this summer.
Solar water heaters facing the Sun to maximize
gain.
• Solar House #1 of Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in the United States, built in
1939, used Seasonal thermal energy
storage for year-round heating.
Solar water disinfection in Indonesia
Small scale solar powered sewerage
treatment plant
 The Solar Bowl in Auroville,
India, concentrates sunlight on
a movable receiver to produce
steam for cooking.
Worldwide growth of PV capacity grouped by
region (2000–2013): Europe, Asia-Pacific,
Americas, China, Middle East and Africa,
Rest of the World
• The 150 MW Andasol solar power station
is a commercial parabolic trough solar
thermal power plant, located in Spain. The
Andasol plant uses tanks of molten salt to
store solar energy so that it can continue
generating electricity even when the sun
isn't shining.
• Water heating
• Heating, cooling and ventilation
• SOLAR THERMAL
Water treatment
• Process heat
• Cooking
Wind Power
• Wind power is extracted from air flow
using wind turbines or sails to produce
mechanical or electrical power.
• Windmills are used for their mechanical
power, windpumps for water pumping, and
sails to propel ships.
• Wind power as an alternative to fossil
fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely
distributed, clean, produces no
greenhouse gas emissions during
operation, and uses little land.
• The net effects on the environment are
generally less problematic than those from
nonrenewable power sources.
• Large wind farms can consist of hundreds
of individual wind turbines which are
connected to the electric power
transmission network.
• Gansu Wind Farm, the largest wind farm
in the world, has several thousands of
turbines. Onshore wind is an inexpensive
source of electricity, competitive with or in
many places cheaper than coal, gas or
fossil fuel plants.
• Offshore wind is steadier and stronger
than on land, and offshore farms have less
visual impact, but construction and
maintenance costs are considerably
higher.
• Small onshore wind farms can feed some
energy into the grid or provide electricity to
isolated off-grid locations.
• The Gansu Wind Farm in China has the
highest power output capacity in the world
Modern wind farm in Idaho, United States
Global annual installed wind capacity
1997–2014 (in MW)
Bangui Wind Farm, Ilocos Norte
• Bangui Wind Farm is a wind farm in
Bangui, Ilocos Norte, Philippines.
• The wind farm uses 20 units of 70-metre
(230 ft) high Vestas V82 1.65 MW wind
turbines, arranged on a single row
stretching along a nine-kilometer shoreline
off Bangui Bay, facing the West Philippine
Sea.
• Phase I of the NorthWind power project in
Bangui Bay consists of 15 wind turbines,
each capable of producing electricity up to
a maximum capacity of 1.65 MW, for a
total of 24.75 MW.
• The 15 on-shore turbines are spaced 326
meters (1,070 ft) apart, each 70 meters
(230 ft) high, with 41 meters (135 ft) long
blades, with a rotor diameter of 82 meters
(269 ft) and a wind swept area of 5,281
square meters (56,840 sq ft).
• Phase II, was completed on August 2008,
and added 5 more wind turbines with the
same capacity, and brought the total
capacity to 33 MW.
• All 20 turbines describes a graceful arc
reflecting the shoreline of Bangui Bay,
facing the West Philippine Sea.
Fuel Cell
• A fuel cell is a device that converts the
chemical energy from a fuel into electricity
through a chemical reaction with oxygen
or another oxidizing agent.
• Fuel cells are different from batteries in
that they require a continuous source of
fuel and oxygen/air to sustain the chemical
reaction whereas in a battery the
chemicals present in the battery react with
each other to generate an electromotive
force (emf).
• Fuel cells can produce electricity
continuously for as long as these inputs
are supplied.
• Demonstration model of a direct-methanol
fuel cell. The actual fuel cell stack is the
layered cube shape in the center of the
image.
• Scheme of a proton-conducting fuel cell
A block diagram of a fuel cell
• The first fuel cells were invented in 1838.
• The first commercial use of fuel cells came
more than a century later in NASA space
programs to generate power for probes,
satellites and space capsules. Since then,
fuel cells have been used in many other
applications.
• Fuel cells are used for primary and backup
power for commercial, industrial and
residential buildings and in remote or
inaccessible areas.
• They are also used to power fuel-cell
vehicles, including forklifts, automobiles,
buses, boats, motorcycles and
submarines.
• There are many types of fuel cells, but
they all consist of an anode, a cathode
and an electrolyte that allows charges to
move between the two sides of the fuel
cell. Electrons are drawn from the anode
to the cathode through an external circuit,
producing direct current electricity.
• As the main difference among fuel cell
types is the electrolyte, fuel cells are
classified by the type of electrolyte they
use followed by the difference in startup
time ranging from 1 second for proton
exchange membrane fuel cells (PEM fuel
cells, or PEMFC) to 10 minutes for solid
oxide fuel cells (SOFC).
• Fuel cells come in a variety of sizes.
Individual fuel cells produce relatively
small electrical potentials, about 0.7 volts,
so cells are "stacked", or placed in series,
to increase the voltage and meet an
application's requirements.
• In addition to electricity, fuel cells produce
water, heat and, depending on the fuel
source, very small amounts of nitrogen
dioxide and other emissions.
• The energy efficiency of a fuel cell is
generally between 40–60%, or up to 85%
efficient in cogeneration if waste heat is
captured for use.
• The fuel cell market is growing, and Pike
Research has estimated that the
stationary fuel cell market will reach 50
GW by 2020.