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Posts tagged Solar Energy
More Efficient Solar Panels – Turning Wasted Heat Into Renewable Power
Nov 21st
The photovoltaic cells used in solar panels turn the sun’s light into useful, renewable energy. Most people may not know this but there has always been one major concern about photovoltaic technology–it becomes less efficient when heated up. Photovoltaic cells can only use a certain portion of the light spectrum from the sun, so the rest of the sun’s energy winds up producing excess heat–which until now was wasted.
Now, new technological devices may be able to use the heat that the solar panels produce to create more green electricity. This new technology could possible make solar panels significantly more efficient. Where as photovoltaic technology is less effective at high temperatures, the new heat-conversion process is actually more effective at high temperatures.
While solar systems work effectively for their purposes, they could be a whole lot more effective. Over 50 percent of the solar energy that first hits the photovoltaic cells is lost in the current process due to inherent inefficiencies in the cells and rising temperatures in solar panels as they are being used. “Solar panels get very hot and their efficiency goes down,” said Charles Stafford, associate professor of physics at the University of Arizona. “You could harvest some of that heat and use it to generate additional electricity while simultaneously cooling the panel and making its own photovoltaic process more efficient.”
The semiconducting material silicon is used in the majority of photovoltaic cells. However, silicon solar cells typically cease producing electricity once they have reached about 100 degrees Celsius. New semiconducting materials like gallium nitride have been shown to work at temperatures far higher than this.
In addition to making solar systems more effective, this new technology could also be applied in factories, transportation, power plants, and more–all of which produce large amounts of wasted heat that could be converted into energy.
Is It Finally Time For Alternative Power Sources?
Nov 18th
With the situation in the major oil producing countries being what it is and with our own situation after the big BP oil spill, people are finally getting more serious about alternative power sources. Rather than just large companies trying to find alternative sources, the little person out here in the world is looking for a way to get off the grid. Smaller, start-up companies really have a good chance to show what they think will work. Individuals will want to invest what extra money they might have in finding a safer and more environmentally friendly way to produce power for our homes, our companies and our automobiles.
Solar energy is the most often Googled source of alternative power. Most people don’t know that solar energy also includes wind power, biomass, and hydro power. The energy of the sun can be used to cook, light our homes, heat and cool our homes and other things. This is already being done successfully. Today on television I saw a commercial for a home generator that will power your electrical appliances during a storm. This was not a gas powered generator but one powered by solar power. The large solar panel sits beside the generator and faces the sun. The solar panel soaks up the energy that the sun produces and then feeds it into the generator to run the appliances. This is something very new that is being offered for homes and individuals are likely to take a chance a purchase one. If it works as well as it is supposed to work, larger companies will pour money into investigating and building affordable solar powered energy for homes.
It is important to know that solar energy is a very viable alternative and not some fad. It already has a history. Prior to electricity, people used coal and wood to produce fire and fire to produce light. Also oils were burned to produce light in lamps. People also used gas to produce lights on the street and in the homes. But even before that, people used biomass; wood, dung, and peat; to produce light and heat for their homes. Fossil fuels aren’t the only way people produced energy before the modern age. Holland is well known for the use of wind mills to drain and use their land. The wind mills produced energy for them to use and they were hooked up to some earlier motors to produce energy to run them. Of course, none of this type of energy can be stored but solar power can be.
Today you can purchase a small solar powered battery charger for your cell phone. You can leave the charger in the car window while you are at work and then recharge your cell phone on the way home. Solar heated water has been accessible since the ancient Greeks. The Greeks also managed to trap heat from the sun in their homes and use it for heat. The Greeks were also the first to build greenhouses and trap solar power to grow exotic plants, vegetables and fruit.
Solar power is, indeed, the wave of the future.