Knowing the solar energy by the Department of Energy: It 'a little' cloudy
Interest in solar energy as a source of energy rises and goes hand in hand with tax credits to fuel growth. Because I'm a guy close to my heart, I visited the site of the Energy Information Administration Energy Kid to learn more.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA), which was created by Congress in 1977, is a statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. "Our mission is toPolicy-neutral data, forecasts and analysis to promote sound policy making, efficient markets and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. "
Side Kid Energy begins in a friendly in a way that even I could understand:
The sun has produced energy for billions of years. Solar energy is the sun's rays (solar radiation) that reach the earth.
Part of this solar energy is converted into heat which is used to heatWater and indoor environments.
So far, so good.
Solar energy can be converted into electricity in two ways:
Photovoltaic (PV devices) or "solar cells" - change sunlight directly into electricity. Photovoltaic systems are often in remote places that are not connected to the network. They are also used to power watches, calculators, and lighted road signs. Solar Power Plants - indirectly generate electricity when the heat from solar thermal collectors, heatLiquid, the steam is used to power the generator produces. Of the 15 known solar units that generate electricity in the United States at the end of 2006, 10 of them in California and five in Arizona. No statistics collected on solar plants that produce less than 1 megawatt of electricity, so it may be too small solar systems in a number of other states.
In childlike wonder, have pressed to learn high-energy efficiency, renewable solar energy can helpReduction of fossil fuel generated electricity (half of them by burning coal, which in turn creates 104 tonnes of mercury per year, we are pleased to breathe, eat and drink comes from).
So I dug in photovoltaics. Without warning or adequate disclosure, Energy sent me back to college page boy for my doctoral work in electronics. (Boys: Seriously, do you really think your child is suitable for children site?)
With quick Googling, I found a university student writing onlineDay and night for four weeks, got my doctorate, and now expect that this child-friendly explanation of solar energy.
We are light on the three types of photovoltaic and solar shine.
Photovoltaics
Photovoltaics is the conversion of sunlight into electricity. A photovoltaic cell, commonly called a solar cell or photovoltaic technology to convert solar energy directly into electrical energy. The solar cell is a nonmechanical deviceusually silicon alloy.
Sunlight photons. Photons have energy. The solar cell is absorbed by photons and popped some of them. Others jump through as basketballs or photons absorbed as electrons out of place ghosts.The fail. The electrons are the things that electricity. The bubble on the surface of the motion of electrons in the solar system cell.This surface creates an imbalance. If you connect a wire from the solar cell to an external battery,create a flow path follow.That the electrons in the battery.
A single solar cell will turn on your computer and your curiosity, but not much more. A 1 or 2 watts, you need to connect a group together for some real juice flows. This is like an array, and can contain as many cells as you can afford. Definitely a case, the more you spend, the more you save.
And 'stick where the sun do not shine Thurs
The sunlight is constant - the clouds and fogare not. Climatic conditions have a strong impact the amount of solar energy through a photovoltaic system and, in turn, its performance. Newest technology photovoltaic modules are about 10 percent efficient at converting sunlight. Further research will be conducted to increase this efficiency to 20 percent.
AC / DC conversion
The battery stores direct current (DC). You need to alternating current (AC) flowing through the lights. Solid-state devices called invertersconvert the direct current into alternating current. Problem solved.
Summary solar energy: photovoltaic or solar cells absorb the slings and arrows of outrageous photons from the sun, the electrons on the surface of cells where you save by flowing through a wire to a battery to push. You break from the inverter to the battery to make energy available. But at 10% efficiency, suck big in dimly lit areas constantly, blackened like Sweden in November to January, when they are almostout and the way the lighting with candles and lamps required IKEA fat emphasis.
Next, children (and I consider it friendly):
Solar Thermal
Solar thermal uses the sun to a fluid that is found in water and converts it to heat the steam. The steam drives a turbine driving a generator that creates electricity conventional. Production of solar thermal works essentially the same as generation from fossil fuels, but instead of steamproduced during combustion of fossil fuels, the steam is produced by the heat collected from sunlight. Technologies using solar thermal concentrator systems due to the high temperatures needed to heat the liquid.
In short, replace fossil fuels with solar energy systems generate electricity to operate.
The three main types of solar thermal systems are:
Parabolic Solar dish Solar Tower
Parabolic
The most common type of solar energyThe parabolic trough system used in the largest solar power plant in the world in the Mojave Desert at Kramer Junction, California. This institution has since 1980 and is responsible for the majority of electricity produced from solar energy industry is run today.
A parabola is U-shaped The parabolic trough is like a magnifying glass: it takes sunlight and focus it on a point to warm it. The site is located on a tower, surrounded by all parabolic. It heatsPlace up to 400 degrees Celsius. The parable can follow the movement of the sun during the day, to get the most sunlight.
A body that is heated, is filled with liquid. This fluid flows to heat water and generate steam. The steam drives a turbine driving a generator that creates electricity conventional. The liquid cools slightly and is at the point of the tower to be heated to 400 degrees returned.
The plant is normally designed to operate at full power withThe only solar energy, like solar energy sufficient. However, all plants are hybrid solar / fossil, a fossil-fired capacity that can be integrated with solar activity during periods of low solar energy should be. This defeats the purpose of producing renewable energy, but I think that scientists know what they're doing.
Solar Dishes
A solar dish / engine system utilizes concentrating solar collectors that track the sun on two axes, concentrating the energy in the focal pointthe shell (the box-like, protruding from the center of it), because there is always facing the sun.
Solar concentration ratio of the plate is much higher than through solar, typically over 2,000, with a working fluid temperature over 750 degrees centigrade. The production equipment used solar energy with a plate at the focal point of the dish can be mounted so that it is also suitable for remote operations or, as in the parabolic trough, the energy can be collected from a number ofElectricity installations and converted to a central point.
The engine in an engine solar dish / converts heat into mechanical energy by compression of the equipment when it is cold, the compressed half of work, and then expanding the fluid through a turbine or a piston to produce work. The engine is mated to an electric generator to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy.
Solar Power Tower
A tower or central receiver generates solar energyElectricity from sunlight by focusing concentrated solar energy on a tower mounted heat exchanger (receiver).
This system uses hundreds of thousands of flat sun-tracking heliostats notes mirror to reflect and concentrate solar energy on a central receiver tower. The energy can be up to 1,500 times the energy that is concentrated in the sun. Energy losses from thermal energy transport are minimized solar energy is directly transferred by reflection fromThe heliostats to a single receiver, rather than through a medium of transmission of a moving location, as with parabolic mirrors. Power towers must be large to be economic. This is a promising technology for large grid connected systems. Although power towers in the early stages of development are compared with the parabolic technology, a series of tests around the world have built.
What have we learned today
We have learned that solar energy canused to heat water and interior spaces.
Later, we learned that the solar energy to generate electricity with photovoltaic cells and solar thermal systems can be transformed. The photovoltaic cells to take into photons, electrons move aside. The electrons, searching for a new home, travel to the ground via a connection to their new country called battery. Solar thermal, concentrating the sunlight, heat a fluid and the liquid water into steam that drives a turbine, and that is the turbine enginerun an electric generator.
And most importantly, we learned that no matter what you are anything like the children, who designed the label. I think we need to force the Department of Commerce's call for truth-in-Labeling Act with the Department of Energy Kids page, one of the most famous sites in the human race as a kid-unfriendly. I'm going downtown and I am entitled to a refund of my expensive online courses for PhD-files I had onlyKids understand that as energy.
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