Solar Energy Benefits

Posts Tagged ‘Information On Solar Energy’

Solar energy is what is known as a renewable energy source, as long as we have the sun we will have solar energy. Even on cloudy days the sun is shining and will produce energy for solar panels. It would be an obvious statement to make to say that solar energy is most efficient in really hot countries that receive lots of sun, but on the same note many people use solar powered systems in colder countries and still manage to yield decent amounts of energy.

The current energy demand for the world could easily be supplied by solar power alone and many people estimate that in 50 years from now a large amount of the worlds energy will come from the sun. Now is the an especially important time to be using a renewable energy source like this due to the fact that fossil fuels are running out and once there gone, there gone!

So how does solar power work? Well sunlight is converted directly into electricty using photovoltaics. Initially photovoltaics were used to power very small applications such as calculators but nowadays they are formed into arrays to provide lots more power.

The largest power station in the world that uses photovoltaic cells is based in North America with an enormous capacity of around 354 Mega Watts!

Possibly the only flaw of solar energy is that is obviously not available at night therefore all solar powered systems need adequate storage facilities to keep energy produced in the daytime. One of the most commons ways of storing it is by using high temperatures and molten salt, mainly because it is so cheap and have a very high heat capacity.

The cost of solar power can vary from supplier to supplier but for most people it can be a great investment with the majority of people seeing a return within the same year. Once the cost of the equipment and installation is paid off most people will find that they never have to pay another electricity bill again, on top of this any excess energy produced can be sold back to the grid and therefore you can be making money on your solar power system.

Depending where you purchase a solar powered system from prices generally start off at around $15,000 and can increase up to double this and over. The differences are usually in how well the panels convert the energy and also how well they cover areas that are going to be exposed to lots of sunshine. It is important that the contractor has a well laid plan of how your panels will be setup and where they will be situated as this will be the key factor in how much sun you will get and therefore how much energy you will produce.

It is always good to go with a well reputable supplier who have years of experience in the industry, this way you will ensure you are getting the optimal technology available and you will be getting a quality installation done.

Remember that the more energy you use and the bigger your household then the more sense it makes to get a solar powered system, this way you can see a return quicker and nowadays it is easy to produce lots of energy with a good system whatever your location is (within reason!).

The popularity of solar power is forever on the increase and with the technology behind it becoming cheaper many people have decided to use solar energy to power their homes. The initial investment that comes with using a solar power system can be quite large with home owners however many people have proven that it can pay off in the long run.

If installed and used properly a solar power energy system in a home can not only provide enough energy to power everything inside it but also generate excess energy that can be sold as surplus to energy suppliers.
Many people have adopted a solution like this for their homes and have found that the initial investment cost can be paid back within a couple years or maybe even less.

Believe it or not a solar powered system will operate all year round and still yield energy, obviously the periods of the year where the sun is the strongest will give out the most energy however even winter months will receive exposure, not only this but systems nowadays are very efficient and will make optimal use of the sunlight they receive.

Another advantage to powering your home with solar energy is that your house price can increase because of it, most people will see it as a massive benefit because in many cases it means they will never have to pay another electricity bill again!

Depending upon the country you reside in your government may be able to offer you a grant to help with the initial cost of installing a solar powered system. In Germany there is a big government scheme to do just this and many people have benefited from it.

Wind energy is not the only renewable source of energy. As fossil fuels are starting to run out many business’s are considering alternative forms of energy. Whilst wind energy is one of the main ones there are also other alternatives of wind energy. Lets take a quick look at them:
Solar Energy
Solar energy is considered to be one of the ‘future energy sources’ and is currently being used by many business’s and home owners to power various devices. Essentially solar panels are built and they absorb energy from the sun which is then converted into electrical energy. Solar energy is ideal for countries and areas that get lots of exposure from the sun, just like wind energy is ideal for places that get high winds.

Geothermal
Geothermal energy is essentially energy derived from the internal heat of the earth. The heat is used to produce steam which is then used to power turbines which then converts into usable electrical energy. Typically geothermal ‘hotspots’ are used as these are ideal places to the mantle is of reduced thickness, by using these it saves from having to drill down for miles to reach temperatures hot enough to boil water and produce the steam. Although geothermal energy is useful currently it is not practical enough to produce mass energy needed for power grids.

Tidal Power
The force and energy that is produced from waves is big, sadly converting it into usable electrical energy is quite a hard task. The basic process involves a huge dam being built across an estuary, as the tide goes in and out the water flows through tunnels that are built in the dam. The flow of water through these can then be used to turn turbines and in effect produce electricity in similar way to other forms of renewable energy.

Have you ever wanted to make your own solar panel? Well now you can and believe it or not it isn’t as hard as you might think! Follow this guide and within a couple hours you will have your own solar panel generating power, ok sure its not going to be enough to power your house but you can see the concept of it working and actual power output!
To make your own solar panel you are going to need the following:

1) A sheet of copper flashing, you can get this from most hardware stores, we don’t need a lot and its usually around $5 per square foot, this will be plenty.

2) A micro-ammeter, you will need a sensitive one of these and the power output will not be very big. You can get these from most electronics stores like radio shack.

3) A small electric stove, you need quite a powerful one that will get the ring red hot, somewhere in the region of a kilowatt, you can get these from camping shops and many other places and they are not expensive.

4) Two alligator clips.

5) A plastic bottle, preferably quite a large one, you will need to chop the top off it.

6) Tap water and table salt

7) Some sand paper

Something to cut the copper sheet with (metal shears should do it)

Building your solar panel

Firstly you will need to cut the cooper sheet to size, make it around the same size of the ring on the stove so that it fits on top of it nicely. Once you’ve done this give the sheet a good clean and then use the sandpaper to remove any corrosion from it.

Next we need to heat the copper sheet up, so stick it on the stove and turn it up to full blast. As the copper gets hotter you will notice different coloured patterns forming, this is the oxidization of the copper and is completely normal.

After a while the copper sheet will turn black, this is a coating of cupric oxide. At this stage we need to leave it for around half an hour to ensure that the black coating is thick, otherwise it will be tricky to remove it as a thin layer will stick to the copper.

After hour or so turn the stove off and let the copper sheet cool down, this may take a while but leave the sheet on the stove so it cools down slowly, you will probably start noticing some shrinking and parts of the black oxide will start flying off, this is normal.

Once the copper has completely cooled down most the black coating will be gone, you can run the sheet under cold water and remove any excess bits but do not scrub the sheet as this can damage the red cuprous oxide layer that will make the solar cell operate.

That’s the hard part done! Next you need to cut an identical size piece of copper from the sheet your bought, take both sheets and bend them so they fit inside the plastic bottle that you cut the top off from. Make sure that both sheets do not touch each other, ideally you want the top side of the sheet that we burnt to be facing inwards.

Next, connect up your two alligator clips to both sheets of the copper, the one attached to the burnt copper sheet must go to the negative terminal of the ammeter and the one sheet must go to the positive terminal. OK were almost there! Get your tap water and mix two tablespoons of salt into it, pour this solution into the bottle carefully and try to submerge around an inch of each copper plate under the water.

How is wind energy used? Well unlike conventional power plants wind farms are often owned by private business’s who will then sell on the electricity produced electric utility companies. The usage of wind energy varies from company to company. Some homes and business’s will be powered by wind energy, some partly and some entirely. Power grids will also use wind energy as part of their distribution, however the nature of wind power means that the energy produced will vary from day to day dependant upon the wind speeds, because of this reason no power grid can ever completely rely solely upon wind energy.

Many people use wind energy privately and build their own mini wind turbines, if done properly these can be very effective and can yield a decent enough power output to provide power to a residential home. Once wind energy is properly converted to usable electrical energy in the right voltage then it can be used for any electrical appliance as normal.

Currently the department of energy are exploring new ways to use wind energy and there are certain areas they are focusing on, one the main ones being hydro power. Hydrogen is the main material that is used to clean and move water supplies. Better hydrogen production means less fossil fuel energy needed. Wind turbines combined with the use of hydrogen generating electrolyzers can be used to solve two energy problems; producing electricity and hydrogen at the same time.

In summary wind energy is the future of power and is constantly being invested in to make it more efficient and usable. Currently there are many uses for it from powering small electrical devices to provided redundant energy sources for power grids.

The use of wind power as a form of energy has many advantages to other renewable and non renewable sources. With wind farms all across the road it is clear to see that Wind energy is becoming the top energy choice of the future.
With wind energy being renewable this is probably one of the biggest advantages, the fuel for it is free and will never run out. Wind is produced by changes in atmospheric pressure that are caused by the suns radiation. In terms of costs, wind energy is one of the cheapest sources of renewable energy available, the turbines are relatively cheap to make and build and with technological advancements they are getting cheaper all the time.

Another major advantage is that wind energy produces absolutely no pollution at all and for most people the wind turbines themselves are quite elegant and do not ruin the landscape. When compared to a power station, wind turbines take up very little room. With wind being readily available all round the world it is a global choice of energy for all countries and does not require any other resources, obviously the location of the wind farm is an important aspect but with the right planning wind farms can produce plenty of energy.

Finally the cost of wind energy is a major advantage when compared to other energy sources, with new advancements in technology the wind turbines themselves are becoming cheaper to produce and to maintain and many more people are investing in wind energy. Once the wind farms are produced the only ongoing cost is maintenance since the fuel itself (wind) is obviously free.

The cost of wind energy is an interesting subject when looking at renewable sources of energy and the cost implications of using them. When people talk of renewable energy they think of ‘free energy’, whilst wind energy is technically free the initial cost is quite great compared to other sources of renewable energy.

The fuel for wind energy costs nothing, wind is essentially generated through changes in atmospheric pressure caused by the suns radiation. To actually put this energy into use massive wind turbines are needed which create kinetic energy when they spin.
The cost of wind energy can be broken down into the following:

1.The capital costs. i.e. the cost to build the turbines.

2.Running costs, which is the cost of maintaining and repairing the turbines.

Of course the return of the costs can depend on a few things also, primarily the windiness of the site that the turbines will be operating on. The amount of electricity that is produced from a turbine can be measured using a cube, for example if the wind blows twice as fast at one site then the electricity that is produced will increase eight fold. Other factors involved are things like how the wind farm is set-up, carefully planning must be used to ensure that the turbines do not shadow each other and therefore lower wind resistance.

From a financial point of view wind energy is a cheap energy to invest in and the cost is constantly decreasing, this is mainly due to technological developments that allows the turbines to be built cheaper. Developers are also focusing on creating bigger turbines and therefore using less, not only this but people are becoming more confident in the use of wind energy as it has been proven to be reliable and clean.

Measuring the price of energy is hard as there are many factors involved that are not necessarily financial (I.e. pollution), with this in mind wind energy is probably the cheapest form of renewable energy to produce and investment is set to continuously rise in the future.

Wind energy is a renewable source of energy and from a manufacturing point a view a relatively easy source to acquire and use. Getting wind energy and turning it into a usable energy source is done by the following process:

1. Wind hits turbine blades and makes them spin, you will probably see these huge turbines in large open spaces, especially in Europe.
2. As the blades spin a shaft inside the the box at the top of turbine (which is called the Nacelle) turns.

3. The shaft is connected to a gearbox which in turn starts rotating and gaining speed.

4. A generator is then used to convert rotational energy into electrical energy, it does this by the use of magnetic fields.

5. Once the power is outputted it goes into a transformer which then in turns converts the electricity to the correct voltage for the distribution system (which is normally around 33,000 volts)

6. The power is then ready to use and is distributed from the grid.

Although there are other factors involved, this is the basic process that will convert wind into a usable source of electrical energy. It is also worth noting that wind energy is in fact derived from solar energy, the radiation from the sun heats parts of the earth at different rates which can also depend on the surface that absorbs it. This then causes parts of the atmosphere to warm differently. Hot air will then rise and this will then reduce the atmospheric pressure at the earth’s surface, cooler air is drawn in to replace this and finally we have wind!

Since air has mass and wind provides motion for it, we now have kinetic energy which in turn can be converted into usable electrical energy.

There are many benefits of using solar energy especially nowadays with cheaper prices on systems and better technology. Solar power is a renewable energy source and as long as we have the sun it will never run out, it is a clean energy, produces no pollution whatsoever and is completely natural.

Many people are turning to solar power for residential and business purposes, the initial investment cost can be pricey for some, but there is almost a guarantee that it will be made back and most people will actually generate extra revenue by selling excess power back to the grid.

Since fossil fuels are slowly running out people are looking at future energy sources that will not run out, solar power is probably the top contender as it is one the easiest to implement and the most cost effective. I.e for what it costs to install it will yield the most energy.

The other great things about solar energy are that:
Its silent, it doesn’t generate any noise. Once its installed it can be left alone and it is rare for any maintenance to be required. The sun will always be there to provide energy for solar panels, even on cloudy days the panels will receive exposure and will produce energy.

As you can see solar energy is the choice for the future and with fossil fuels running it now is the time for people to start using solar energy more and to stop relying upon energy sources that will soon be extinct.