Solar Electric Energy – Concentrating Solar Energy
Solar electric energy is electric power generation from sunlight. It could be direct to PV – Photovoltaic, or it could be indirect. An instance of the indirect type is concentration of solar power, where the energy of the sun is concentrated to boil water used to generate power. In 2008, solar energy was potentially capable of providing more than a thousand times the total the entire global energy consumption; however, only a minute percentage of this number was produced in that year. If the use of solar energy continues to increase every three years or less, it won’t be long and it will become a major source of energy in this century.
Before now, photovoltaic was used to power mini and medium-sized applications, from a single solar cell-powered calculator to homes far from the grid using the photovoltaic array. The installation costs of solar energy systems can be enormous; however, the learning curve has caused this cost to decrease progressively. A good number of developing countries are now building solar plants to take the place of other energy generation sources.
Solar radiation is irregular, and as a result, the generation of solar electric power is either combined with storage or other sources of energy to ensure uninterrupted power supply; however, this is for small distributed consumers or producers, this is made transparent to the consumer via net metering. But on a massive scale, combined power generation has been shown using a combination of wind, hydro, biomass and solar power generation. The end product of this technique is complete renewable energy.
Concentrating Solar Energy
The commonly deployed are the solar trough. Concentrating solar energy systems use mirrors or lenses as well as tracking systems to concentrate a massive portion of sunlight into a mini beam. Subsequently, the focused heat is used as a source of heat for a traditional power plant. There are different types of concentrating technologies. The highly developed among them include the parabolic trough, the Stirling dish and the linear fresnel reflector. Varieties of methodologies are employed in tracking the sun and concentrating light. In all the techniques, the concentrated sunlight heats the working fluid, which is subsequently used to generate power or store energy.
Presently, many states and even the federal government and other relevant agencies are giving financial incentives towards solar electric energy system installation. The incentives are targeted at raising demand for solar photovoltaic so that there will be competition between this technique and the conventional energy generation methods.
Another means to raise demand of photovoltaic method of power generation is to tap into the green purchasing power of educational institutions such as colleges and universities. It has been shown that this has high influential prospects in speeding up a positive chain-effect in renewable worldwide.
Today, electric solar energy has increasingly gained popular use at residential homes; also, some of these solar energy generators and users are even making extra income by selling off the excess generated power to the power companies.
Island Energy Systems Tour – Off Grid Solar Electric « YUG.com
23 Responses to “Island Energy Systems Tour – Off Grid Solar Electric”. cristoretornebiblia says: April 21, 2010 at 8:26 am. You know a lot about Electronics? Have you used an Osc…
How To Start A Home Based Solar Energy Business « YUG.com
We provide U.S. homeowners the option to rent a solar electric system. We also offer entrepreneurs a no cost method to build their own solar energy business. To learn more about our gras…
Facts about Solar Energy and Solar Power Plants
Residential solar energy system can turn your electric meter backwards. Given that you are connected on a power-grid, the excess energy that your solar energy
system produc…
Mail this post