SOLAR

WHAT is it?

 Solar is the energy that comes from the sun that supports life on earth. Solar radiation brings heat and light to the earth.

 Solar energy is energy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy.
Its a form of radiant heat and light from the sun. When it hits the earths atmosphere it is giving off over 174 Petta Watts, which is equivalent to 174 quadrillion watts.

GENERAL FACTS
Solar Energy is better for the environment than traditional forms of energy.
Solar energy has many uses such as electricity production and heating of water through photovoltaic cells and directly for drying clothes. Solar energy can also be used to heat swimming pools, power cars, for attic fans, calculators and other small appliances. It produces lighting for indoors or outdoors. You can even cook food with solar energy. Solar Energy is becoming more and more popular. The worldwide demand for Solar Energy is currently greater than supply.

FACTS ABOUT SOLAR ENERGY USAGE:

Solar Energy is measured in kilowatt-hour. 1 kilowatt = 1000 watts.
1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) = the amount of electricity required to burn a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours. According to the US Department of Energy, an average American household used approximately 866-kilowatt hours per month in 1999 costing them $70.68. About 30% of our total energy consumption is used to heat water.

FACTS ABOUT SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEMS:

A home solar system is typically made up of solar panels, an inverter, a battery, a charge controller, wiring and support structure.
A 1-kilowatt home solar system takes about 1-2 days to install and costs around US$10,000, but can vary greatly and does not take into account any incentives offered by the government. A 1-kilowatt home solar system consists of about 10-12 solar panels and requires about 100 square feet of installation area. A 1 kilowatt home solar system will generate approximately 1,600 kilowatt hours per year in a sunny climate (receiving 5.5 hours of sunshine per day) and approximately 750 kilowatt hours per year in a cloudy climate (receiving 2.5 hours of sunshine per day).

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A 1-kilowatt home solar system will prevent approximately 170 lbs. of coal from being burned, 300 lbs of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere and 105 gallons of water from being consumed each month!

About 40 solar cells are usually combined into a solar panel and around 10-12 panels mounted in an array facing due North to receive maximum sunlight.
The system usually comes with a 5-year warranty, although the solar panels are warranted for 20. Relying on the battery back up, a solar energy system can provide electricity 24x7, even on cloudy days and at night. Solar panels come in various colors. Solar energy can be collected and stored in batteries, reflected, insulated, absorbed and transmitted.

SUN RELATED FACTS ABOUT SOLAR ENERGY:

Sunlight travels to the earth in approximately 8 minutes from 93,000,000 miles away, at 186,282 miles per second.
The sun is also the main source of non-renewable fossil fuels (coal, gas and petroleum), which began life as plants or animals whose energy came from the sun millions of year ago. Solar energy is responsible for weather patterns and ocean currents. Clouds, pollution and wind can prevent the sun's rays from reaching the earth.

TYPES OF SOLAR
2 main types of solar:
* Photovoltaic Systems Solar Electricity

* Solar Thermal Solar Water Heating

Photovoltaic
The direct conversion of sunlight to electricity

Thermal
The use of heat to generate electricity

Photoelectric applications use photovoltaic cells in converting energy from the sun into electricity.
Photovoltaic cells are considered low maintenance and well suited to remote applications. They use semiconductors like silicon to convert energy from the sun into electricity.

Solar thermal applications use the sun's energy to provide direct heat to air or liquid.
Solar thermal panels can be used for both residential and larger-scale applications.

A photovoltaic Solar Power Plant contains:

Solar Arrays Inverter Transformer

A Thermal Solar Power Plant contains:

Collector Field Turbine Generator Cooling Tower Transformer

PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS
The sun illuminates the solar cells in the PV array, which convert the energy in the sunlight into electricity. The electricity goes into an inverter and into the power lines to your home.

SUN

POWER LINES

HOME

PV ARRAY

INVERTER

PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER PLANTS

Glendale Airport, Single Axis and High Concentration Photovoltaic

PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER PLANTS

Prescott Airport, Single Axis, Tilted Tracker Single Axis and High Concentration Photovoltaic

PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER PLANTS

Scottsdale Covered Parking, Fixed Photovoltaic panels

SOLAR THERMAL
The principle of solar thermal captors is simple:
A plain surface, the captor itself, to recover solar heat; A circulation system to carry that heat to a storage place or to its end use; A system of control, to maintain the desired temperature.

HOW A SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANT WORKS

Parabolic (trough) mirrors can focus the sun at 30 to 60 times its normal intensity on a receiver pipe located along the focal line of the trough.
Synthetic oil captures this heat as it circulates through the pipe, reaching temperatures as high as 750F. The hot oil is pumped through a heat exchanger on the power production side of the plant to produce steam. Electricity is produced in a conventional steam turbine/generator The power cycle is completed with the condensing of the steam through a cooling tower and then pumping it back through the heat exchanger connected to the solar energy collection field.

SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANTS

Power tower in Barstow, California.

SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANTS

350 MW Parabolic Trough Power Plant, California

BENEFITS OF SOLAR ENERGY

The main benefits of solar energy are: Solar energy systems do not produce air pollutants or carbon-dioxide When located on buildings, they have minimal impact on the environment

LIMITATIONS OF SOLAR ENERGY

Two limitations of solar energy are: The amount of sunlight that arrives at the Earth's surface is not constant. It varies depending on location, time of day, time of year, and weather conditions. Because the sun doesn't deliver that much energy to any one place at any one time, a large surface area is required to collect the energy at a useful rate.

HOW MUCH SOLAR ENERGY?

The surface receives about 47% of the total solar energy that reaches the earth. Only this amount is usable.

SOLAR HOW IT IS USED

Solar energy works by converting the sun's rays into electricity with the use of solar panels to supply power to the appliances use in our homes. Solar energy works by converting the sun's rays into heat with the use of solar thermal collectors for warming water, i.e. for the swimming pool. Solar energy works by converting the sun's rays into hot air for heating buildings with the use of solar thermal collectors.

SOLAR PANELS WHAT ARE THEY?

Energy from the sun is converted into solar power using solar collectors, most commonly known as solar panels. Solar panels consist of solar cells designed to capture energy from the sun. Solar Panels are devices that converts solar energy to thermal or electrical energy. The solar panels used in heating air and liquid are different from those used to provide electricity. To absorb the highest possible amount of solar energy, solar panels must be pointed at the sun.

HOW DO SOLAR PANELS WORK?

Rays of sunlight hit the solar panel (also know as a photovoltaic/ PV) and are absorbed by semi-conducting materials such as silicone.
Electrons are knocked loose from their atoms, which allow them to flow through the material to produce electricity. This process whereby light (photo) is converted into electricity (voltage) is called the photovoltaic (PV) effect. An array of solar panels converts solar energy into DC (direct current) electricity. The DC electricity then enters an inverter.

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The inverter turns DC electricity into 120-volt AC (alternating current) electricity needed by home appliances.
The AC power enters the utility panel in the house. The electricity (load) is then distributed to appliances or lights in the house. When more solar energy is generated that what you're using - it can be stored in a battery as DC electricity. The battery will continue to supply your home with electricity in the event of a power blackout or at nighttime.

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When the battery is full the excess electricity can be exported back into the utility grid, if your system is connected to it.
Utility supplied electricity can also be drawn form the grid when not enough solar energy is produced and no excess energy is stored in the battery, i.e. at night or on cloudy days. The flow of electricity in and out of the utility grid is measured by a utility meter, which spins backwards (when you are producing more energy that you need) and forward (when you require additional electricity from the utility company). The two are offset ensuring that you only pay for the additional energy you use from the utility company. Any surplus energy is sold back to the utility company. This system is referred to as "net-metering".

ADVANTAGES OF SOLAR
As the sun provides limitless light radiation, the source of solar energy is fully renewable Once solar panels are set up, there are no electrical costs associated with powering them Solar panels require very little maintenance because they lack moving parts The recovery/ payback period for this investment can be very short depending on how much electricity your household uses.

DISADVANTAGES OF SOLAR
Capital Costs associated with the setup of solar panels generally very high, although declining with technological improvement Solar power can only be utilized in a realistic manner where abundant sunshine is present Although the production of energy itself does not use fossil fuels, oftentimes fossil fuels are used to produce the materials in solar panels. However, new technologies are emerging that decrease or even eliminate the use of fossil fuels in solar panels. Large scale farms can disturb the ecosystems of local animals

HOW WAS SOLAR USED IN THE PAST?

People have been trying to harness the power of the sun for centuries. In 1877, air blowing over sunheated iron was used to heat homes. In 1910, The first patent involving a solar collector was awarded. The 1930s saw the first widespread use of solar power for heating.

A WORLD WITHOUT SOLAR ENERGY?

Solar Energy is the light that the sun produces, the world would survey not be the same without it.
This energy is required to grow all forms of plants, without plants not only will carbon dioxide increase and oxygen decrease, animals like sheep and cattle will die due to starvation. Not only will our food sources and oxygen rapidly decrease, all light on Earth will vanish. Leaving us to live in a world of darkness.

WHERE SOLAR IS FOUND

Solar Energy Is Everywhere the Sun Shines
Solar energy is by far the Earth's most available energy source. Solar power is capable of providing many times the total current energy demand. But it is an intermittent energy source, meaning that it is not available at all times. However, it can be supplemented by thermal energy storage or another energy source, such as natural gas or hydropower.

CALIFORNIA HAS THE WORLDS BIGGEST SOLAR POWER PLANT

Nine solar power plants, in three locations, in California's Mojave Desert comprise the Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS). SEGS VIII and IX (each 80 megawatts), located in Harper Lake, are, individually and collectively, the largest solar power generating plants in the world. SEGS plants are concentrating solar thermal plants. Concentrating solar power technologies use mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto receivers that collect the solar energy and convert it to heat. This thermal energy can then be used to produce electricity via a steam turbine or heat engine driving a generator.

EUROPE HAS SOME LARGE PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER PLANTS

Another solar generating technology uses photovoltaic cells (PV) to convert sunlight directly into electricity. PV cells are made of semiconductors, such as crystalline silicon or various thin-film materials. Photovoltaic can provide tiny amounts of power for watches, large amounts for the electric grid, and everything in between. Recently multi-megawatt photovoltaic plants have also been built. The Moura photovoltaic power station in Portugal and the Waldpolenz Solar Park in Germany, both completed in 2008, represent the trend toward larger photovoltaic power stations.

FINAL THOUGHT
Argument that sun provides power only during the day is countered by the fact that 70% of energy demand is during daytime hours. At night, traditional methods can be used to generate the electricity.
Goal is to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels. Currently, 75% of our electrical power is generated by coalburning and nuclear power plants. Mitigates the effects of acid rain, carbon dioxide, and other impacts of burning coal and counters risks associated with nuclear energy. Pollution free, indefinitely sustainable.

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