Solar Power Plant

Group 3 IV- Einstein

What is Solar Power?

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaics convert light into electric current using the photoelectric effect.

How to Harness Solar Power?

Solar thermal The solar thermal method uses energy from the sun directly to generate heat. Solar panels can be used to collect heat from the sun to capture its heat and transfer it for water and space heating in buildings. Commonly such panels are positioned to maximise absorption of heat from the sun throughout the day and contain tubing through which water circulates. This tubing is known as solar thermal collectors There is also an indirect method where not water but a non-toxic anti-freeze liquid is used.

Photovoltaic

This method converts the suns power into electricity. This is the photovoltaic process. Solar cells, or photovoltaic cells are often silicon-based pieces of material that absorb the suns light. Not warmth, as in the thermal application Many of these solar cells are often combined in solar panels Numbers of solar panels can be combined and interlinked for greater power Solar energy excites the electrons in the solar cell and electricity is produced This electricity is in the form of direct current or DC So, next DC power is transformed through an inverter to alternating current, or AC at 120 Volt, a common-use voltage A small amount of solar energy is lost in this DC to AC conversion but is now ready for distribution to household appliancesnight time use and reduced sunlight You may be connected to the regular power grid. It may be possible to feed any excess energy that your batteries cannot hold, back to the grid. In this way you may become a green contributor to a public utility.

Cost per kwh

Solar Energy Costs Average system costs = $95 per square foot Average solar panel output = 10.6 watts per square foot Average solar energy system costs = $8.95 per watt

Power plant in the Philippines

Heres something about the Philippines to be proud of. Did you know that the Philippines has the largest solar power plant in Southeast Asia? Can you guess where it is? Its in Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental! The CEPALCO 1MW Photovoltaic Power Plant is owned and operated by the Cagayan Electric Power & Light Company, Inc., which is one of the largest electricity distributors in the country and services Cagayan de Oro (CDO) and nearby municipalities.
The power plant, which generates 1.1 MW of power, is currently the 133rd largest solar power plant in the world (with ties) according to this list and puts the Philippines at number 9 among the countries in the world having the largest solar power plants! The Philippines is behind solar powerhouse Germany (who has 64 out of the top 100 largest solar power plants), Portugal, Spain, Japan, USA, Italy, the Netherlands, and South Korea. This also means that the power plant is also the largest among developing countries.

Power plant in the World

5. Arnedo Solar Plant, Spain The plant produces an impressive 34 GWh every year, which will power 12,000 households and prevent 375,000 tonnes of CO2. The facility sits on seventy hectares and houses 172,000 panels. The projects budget was around 180,000,000. La Rioja, a Spanish region known for its wine, already covers 62% of its electricity with renewable sources. 1. Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park, Spain The Olmedilla Photovoltaic (PV) Park uses 162,000 flat solar photovoltaic panels to deliver 60 megawatts of electricity on a sunny day. The entire plant was completed in 15 months at a cost of about $530 million at current exchange rates. Olmedilla was built with conventional solar panels, which are made with silicon and tend to be heavy and expensive.

Advantages
- Solar energy is free of pollution. - The plant requires little maintenance or help after setup. - It is economical. - When it is connected to the grid, solar energy can overtake the highest cost electricity at peak demand and can also reduce grid loading, apart from getting rid of the need for local battery power in darkness.

Disadvantages
- Diffuse source you need large number of solar panels to produce the needed electricity, from there you need a large land spot for this purpose - There are locations in the world where this energy is collected efficiently. But some of the locations are not with the appropriate sunlight. - The initial cost of the solar panels are expensive investment - You can collect it only during the day - Depends on the climate conditions