Solar Energy Technological Innovations

 Technological innovations for solar energy supply lots of uses such as heating, light, warm water, electrical power, as well as cooling - all of these by only using the suns energy. 
 We can find a range of technologies that were developed to make the most of solar energy.

 Listed here are a couple of examples:

Photovoltaic or PV (solar cell) Devices

 Solar cells transform sunshine directly into electrical energy.
 Solar cells are typically utilized to power calculators and timepieces. The products utilized are made from semiconductors - very same products used in computer chips. When sunshine is taken in by these materials, the solar energy bumps electrons loose from other atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through the product to produce electricity. This procedure of converting light (photons) to electricity (voltage) is termed the photovoltaic (PV) effect.

 The common number of cells for solar cell segments are 40 - these segments are mainly mounted in PV arrays which may determine approximately several meters. These flat-plate PV arrays are usually mounted at a  angle facing south, or might also be attached to a tracking gadget that follows sunlight throughout the day. A number of PV arrays suffice to power a household - for bigger complex, countless arrays may be utilized to create a single PV system.

Solar Hot Water

 The shallow part of a river is usually hotter compared with its deeper areas. This really is because sunshine can hit all-time low of the shallow areas while it's not practical for deeper waters. It is nature's way of solar water heating. For that reason, the sunlight could be used to heat water used  in buildings and swimming pools.

 Solar water furnace has two parts: a solar collector and a tank. Flat-plate collector is easily the most typical collector.
 Placed on the roofing system, it consists of a slim, smooth, rectangle-shaped box having a clear cover that faces sunlight. Tubes are diminished within the box which carries the fluid to become heated up through the sun. These types of tubes will probably be attached to the absorber plate that are normally shaded dark to take in more heat. Heat will build up in the collector and that will heat up the water within the tubes.

 The storage tank, then holds the hot fluid. It could be simply a modified water heater, but it's normally bigger and very well-insulated. A few devices will run the water inside arrays of tubes within the container to really make it even warmer.

 It may be either an active or passive process, the most frequently made use of are active systems. Passive systems depend on gravity and also the tendency of water to rise if warmed: active systems counts on pumps to obtain the water shifting.

Solar Electricity

 This is brand-new generation of power plant that made use of sunlight as a source of heat. Three primary kinds of concentrating solar power systems are: parabolic-trough, dish/engine, and power tower.

 Parabolic-trough systems focus solar energy through a long rectangle-shaped U-shaped mirrors. A lot of these mirrors ought to be facing the sun's rays. Since of this, the oil is heated inside the pipeline. The hot oil then is utilized to boil water in a traditional steam generator to create electrical energy.

 A dish/engine system uses mirrors that is somewhat just like a huge dish antenna. The dish-shaped surface collects and concentrates the sun's heat to a receiver, which takes in the heat and moves it to fluid inside engine. The expansion of the fluid will move the piston with the engine and convey mechanical power. The mechanical power is then utilized to run an electrical generator or alternator to generate electrical power.

 A solar power tower system uses a large field of mirrors to focus sunshine onto the the top of a tower, where a device sits.

Wave Energy

Wave energy is a renewable source of energy. This energy is caused largely by wind blowing on the ocean surface. Wave power plants are plants designed to use wave power to generate electricity. To use wave energy we must choose the location where the waves are sufficiently frequent and shave enough strength.

  The energy of the wave decreases rapidly with depth of the wave, and thus at the depth of 50 m is only 2% of the energy just below the surface. Wave power is estimated to be 2 × 109 kW, which corresponds to a power of 10 kW at 1m of wavy lines. This power varies depending on the geographic location, from 3 kW / m in the Mediterranean up to 90 kW / m in the North Atlantic. Wave energy is a renewable energy source. It varies over time (more and bigger waves are there in the winter) and has a random character.

  Wave height is the highest during the winter, which coincides with the time of the high electricity consumption. The kinetic energy of the waves can start effectively transforming into electrical energy when the wave height is greater than 1 meter. Due to the natural resources of the waves, a high level of technological development, the large energy requirements and environmental conscience, the furthest in development of commercial power of waves came highly industrialized countries like the United Kingdom, Japan, Scandinavia and Australia.

  Today there are basically three known ways of using wave energy if categorized according to the method by which they accept waves. These are over buoys, floating piston and pendulum or spatula.

  Advantages of building power plants on the open seas are:

- better utilization of wave potential higher-potential area for field power, and those with higher total power for a given geographic location
- ability to supply offshore facilities
-ability to supply various types of sensors as autonomous energy system

  Objective shortcomings of floating objects are their reliability due to corrosion and mechanical unpredictable environment.

  Pacing device. The device works on principle that the kinetic energy of the wave motion transforms into a work of stop plate and the hydraulic pump which drives a generator.

  Buoys. The power of these devices can range up to 50 kW, but the advantage is the possibility to take a large number of the particular area, which is offset by small individual forces. Such devices are especially interesting for active ocean sensors as beacons, bait fish, sonar, communications repeaters etc.

  Advantages of building power plants near the coast compared to floating systems are the following:

    - lighter construction because they use classical construction equipment
     -easier maintenance of the plant because they are not required divers and boats
     -easier and faster control and replacement of defective parts
     -can serve as a breakwater

Renewable Energy Sources

 Renewable energy sources can be divided into two main groups: those are traditional renewable energy sources such as biomass and large hydro power plants, and "new renewable energy sources" such as solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, etc.
  According to collected data renewable energy sources provide about 18% of world energy, but much of the energy is produced in the traditional way, use of biomass for cooking and heating from 13 from 18%.

  From large hydro plants we receive around three percent. So when we exclude traditional renewable energy sources we can assume that the "new energy sources" produced only 2.4% of total global consumption.
  From these 3% goes to water heating, 0.8% in electricity production and 0.3% of bio fuels.
  It is believed that this share should be increased because the amount of non-renewable energy resources is rapidly dwindling, and their negative impact has significantly increased in recent decades.

  Sun delivers 15,000 times more energy than mankind can now spend, but nevertheless still a large number of people freezes and have not enough energy for their homes. Here we see that it is time to start to better exploit renewable energy sources.
  When we consider renewable energy sources their development is important for many reasons, and one of them relates to a major role in reducing carbon emissions.

    Geothermal Energy

  Geothermal energy is a form of energy that involves the use of heat inside the Earth. This type of energy can be used directly and indirectly. The use of geothermal energy can be varied for the application for the spa, to heat homes and greenhouses.

    Tidal Energy

  Tidal energy comes from the gravitational force of the Sun and the Moon. It is known that this type of energy can come from the area where is the big difference between high and low tide. The principle of operation is similar to that of a hydroelectric power plant. The main problem is stated in fickle tides and a small number of places that could be suitable for the use of this form of energy.

    Wave Energy

  Wave energy occurs in the form of transformed sun energy that creates constant winds in some areas. These winds then lead to permanent waves in some areas. Energy use in this way is not ideal. The main problem lies in the fact that this type of power should be built on the open sea, as the waves near the shore are weak. Price of this type of buildings is high, not to mention the problem of transferring the energy.