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Ancient Greeks and Romans saw great benefit in what we now refer to as passive solar design - the use of architecture to make use of the sun’s capacity to light and heat indoor spaces.
Romans advanced the art by covering south facing building openings with glass or mica to hold in the heat of the winter sun. Through calculated use of the solar energy, Greeks and Romans offset the need to burn wood that was often in short supply.
Auguste Mouchout, was the inventor of the first active solar motor. In 1861, Mouchout developed a steam engine powered entirely by the sun. But its high costs coupled with the falling price of English coal doomed his invention to become a footnote in energy history.
Solar Energy In Europe
Nevertheless, solar energy continued to intrigue and attract European scientists through the 19th century. Scientists developed large cone-shaped collectors that could boil ammonia to perform work like locomotion and refrigeration. France and England briefly hoped that solar energy could power their growing operations in the sunny colonies of Africa and East Asia.
Solar Energy In The United States
In the United States, Swedish-born John Ericsson led efforts to harness solar power. He designed the “parabolic trough collector,” a technology which functions more than a hundred years later on the same basic design.
In 1953, Bell Laboratories (now AT&T labs) scientists Gerald Pearson, Daryl Chapin and Calvin Fuller developed the first silicon solar cell capable of generating a measurable electric current.
In 1956, solar photovoltaic (PV) cells were far from economically practical.
Electricity from solar cells ran about $300 per watt. The “Space Race” of the 1950s and 60s gave modest opportunity for progress in solar, as satellites and crafts used solar paneling for electricity.
The hope in the 1970s was that through massive investment in subsidies and research, solar photovoltaic costs could drop precipitously and eventually become competitive with fossil fuels.
By the 1990s, the reality was that costs of solar energy had dropped as predicted, but costs of fossil fuels had also dropped—solar was competing with a falling baseline.
However, huge PV market growth in Japan and Germany from the 1990s to the present has reenergized the solar industry. Meanwhile, solar thermal water heating is an increasingly cost-effective means of lowering gas and electricity demand.
As you’ve seen, technologies have changed and improved for decades. Still, the basics of solar thermal and photovoltaic have remained the same.
Efficient use of energy and its conservation / consumption assumes even greater importance in view of the fact that one unit of energy saved at the consumption of level reduces the need for fresh capacity creation by 2.5 times to 3 times.
Such saving through efficient use of energy can be achieved at less than one-fifth the cost of fresh capacity creation. Energy efficiency would, therefore, significantly supplement our efforts to meet power requirement, apart from reducing fossil fuel consumption.
Therefore, a realistic assessment of energy and peak power requirements is vital for planning and operation of the electricity system. In many developing and under-developed countries, there is a huge power shortage and many countries are facing severe power deficit and energy shortage.
The shortfall is so significant that one cannot ignore the power supply position from the perspective of development. Therefore, the growth and economic development of any country is dependent upon availability of power.
The increasing demand for power has led to considerable fossil fuels burning which has in turn had an adverse impact on environment. In order top avoid this, conservation of energy would contribute to a fast economic development of any country.
Therefore, we should implement some energy conservation tips in Industrial Sector, Domestic Sector, Agricultural Sector etc. such as regular energy audits should be undertaken, regular maintenance in plant should be followed so as to ensure “Zero Leak” philosophy particularly in the areas of steam and utilities so that loss of energy could be totally eliminated.
All oil leakages must be plugged. Leakage of one drop of oil per second amounts to a loss of over 2000 liters / year. Filter oil in stages. Impurities in oil affect combustion. Pre-heat the oil. For proper combustion, oil should be at right viscosity at the burner tip.
Provide heat capacity.
Therefore, conservation of energy is an important element of energy. The energy conservation reduces the energy consumption and energy demand per capita and thus offsets the growth in energy supply needed to keep up with population growth. This reduces the rise in energy costs and can reduce the need for new power plants and energy imports.
The reduced energy demand can provide more flexibility in choosing the most preferred methods of energy production. Further, by reducing emissions, conservation of energy is an important part of lessening climate change.
Energy conservation facilitates the replacement of non-renewable resources with renewable energy. Energy /conservation is often the most economical solution to energy shortages and is a more environmentally benign alternative to increased energy production.
There are many potential applications of solar energy, to both save money and to help the environment. Items such as solar street lights, solar inverters, and portable emergency lighting for example.
Solar Street Light
Solar Street Light System is a system, comprising of a compact fluorescent lamp, lead acid battery, PV module’s, electronics inter connecting wires or cables, module mounting hardware & a battery box. The Street Light works on 12V, 75 Am Battery backup, which is charged by two Solar Photo-voltaic Panels of 37 Watts each. It can work for three sunless days, and operates automatically from dusk to dawn. A maximum distance of 15 meters between two street lights should be maintained.
Solar Street Light is protected from the battery over charging and over discharging, and from over load. These indications are provided on the battery box itself. The battery box is painted on the outside with corrosion resistance paint and on the inside by acid resistance paint. The street Light requires practically zero maintenance.
Solar Inverter
The Solar Inverter comes with the choice of charging of batteries by both solar as well as mains utility (Hybrid Version), with automatic change over from mains to battery and from battery to mains like a regular inverter. It employs an inverter circuitry, two-level battery charging from mains, Solar Charge Controller and fast change over mechanism during power failure and resumption. The unit comes with built-in protection against dangerously high mains voltages up to 400V, thereby protecting the precious electrical load connected.
Portable Emergency Light & Mini Lantern
This portable device uses the solar energy for indoor and outdoor lighting. The sun’s rays are absorbed by a solar photo-voltaic panel which converts light energy into electricity, which is then stored in the battery box. In the evening or night, the lantern can be switched on and used as required. The consumed energy is again recharged the following day. Thus the Lantern is a self-operating and reliable unit with no recurring fuel cost.
Is solar power more expensive compared to conventional energy? No! Solar power is not expensive and is much more cost effective in the long term.
In the last 15 to 20 years cost of solar modules has now come down sharply to $4 per watt from a high of $20 per watt in 1985. This would continue to reduce and would be one of the major factors which would facilitate the take off.
However, in terms of solar energy there is no level playing field as in the case of conventional energy. The total fiscal funding for all the renewable energy sector put together is less than Rs 600 crores. This has to be changed for making it more feasible and popular.
Today one of the main deterrents in switching on to solar energy is the initial capital cost that has to be put in by the consumer.
There should be some mechanism where instead of paying for example Rs 15,000 at one go for a solar power system for electrification of a house one can pay in installments as a monthly or quarterly bill as in the case of conventional energy.
After the cost is retrieved in a stipulated time frame, the customer owns it and would get free power for more than 30 years. Also, the banks should be mandated to give loans for solar power equipments for end user as part of priority lending sector.
These factors would definitely improve the current scenario and help us meet the target.
India has cutting edge technology, global quality and competitiveness in the global perspective. India has implemented silicon nitride coating process on multi crystalline cells which enables production of solar cells with highest efficiency in terms of mass scale production.
The clear proof of our competitiveness and acceptability in the global market is the fact that 55 per cent of our total sales is from exports (Rs 137 crores) out of which 95 per cent is from developed countries like US and Europe.
Thus the facts show that India has the biggest potential with regards to the consumption and application of solar energy.
For common man, the solar energy can emerge as a panacea for households facing huge power bills.
Generating electricity from solar means les consumption of fossil fuels, reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emission from local power plants. By switching over to solar power, we will be doing our duty to combat global; warming, and reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign energy sources.
Solar Photovoltaic Energy Benefits
It operates on the freely available solar energy thus saving the expenditure on electricity and fossil fuels.
No fear of power cuts
It is trouble free, pollution free and noise free, has a long life and is reliable.
Easy to handle and operate
Negligible cost of operation and maintenance.
Benefits Of Using A Solar Cooker
In an age where domestic fuel costs are rising each year, the solar cooker is a real boon.
Reasonably priced, easy to use and completely trouble free, the solar cooker is an ideal supplement to the conventional cooking appliances.
Can be used almost throughout the year
No fuel required for cooking.
All items can be cooked except the fried and chapattis.
Cooking is safe and clean.
Solar cooking is entirely non-polluting and has no ill effects on health.
Food cooked in solar cooker tastes better, is more nutritious and healthy.
No need to keep close watch during cooking as the process is slow.
Cooking time is around 1.30 to 2.30 hours.
Food remains hot as long as the glass assembly is not opened.
Three LPG cylinders can be saved annually as a result of solar cooking.
Operation and maintenance cost is almost negligible.
Benefits On Account Of Solar Desalination System
We can get distilled water.
The cost of works out to be an economical proposition.
High efficiency FTL can reduce energy consumption by atleast 10%;
Lighting contributes to a substantial amount to peak electric loads.
The efficient lighting technologies can easily substitute conventional inefficient technologies.
The potential for reduction in energy consumption and peak load reduction is very high.
The economics are attractive.
We know today that there are multiple uses of solar energy. We use the solar energy every day in many different ways.
When we hang laundry outside to dry in the sun, we are using the solar heat to do work, drying our clothes. Plants use the solar light to make food. Animals eat plants for food. And as we learned, decaying plants hundreds of millions of years ago produced the coal, oil and natural gas that we use today.
Very often there is confusion about the various methods used to harness solar energy.
Energy from the sun can be categorized in two ways – one is in the form of heat (or thermal energy) and the other is in the form of light energy.
Solar thermal technologies uses the solar heat energy to heat substances (such as water or air) for applications such as space heating, pool heating and water heating for homes and businesses. There are a variety of products on the market that uses solar thermal energy.
Often the produces used for this application are called solar thermal collectors and can be mounted on the roof of a building or in some other sunny locations.
The solar heat can also be used to produce electricity on a large utility scale by converting the solar energy into mechanical energy.
So, fossil fuels is actually solar energy stored millions and millions of years ago.
Indirectly, the sun or other are responsible for all our energy.
Even nuclear energy comes from a star because the uranium atomsused in nuclear energy were created in the fury of a nova – a star exploding.
Solar energy has a variety of uses. These include running a remote home, water heating, solar energy centres and efficient fuel. Solar cookers are an excellent way to indicate that we are using direct solar energy.
Solar Lanterns used by us are indicative factors that we are using solar energy.
Solar energy is consumed in the form of our using solar street lights. We have been using solar energy in the form of solar domestic lights.
By using solar power for water heating, we can have an almost zero cost swimming pool or hot water supply. Solar panels are installed on the roof and a duct is installed.
A transfer fluis is run along the duct from the panels to water and the heat energy is exchanged between the two.
So, instead of having high electric bills due to keeping our pool warm during the winter months or if it is cold all year around, we have ben trying solar powered heated systems.
Sun is the source of all energies in this planet earth. This energy which is endowed by the sun is known as solar energy. This energy sparks off weather, climate and virtually all life on earth.
The most of the available flow of renewable energy comes from the heat and light. Also, solar based resources like those of wind and wave power, biomass and hydroelectricity also are the causes for renewable energy.
The energy of the sun is harnessed by the solar energy technologies for practical ends. Ever since the Greeks, Native Americans and Chinese were into being, the solar technologies were made use of.
It helped them in warming their buildings by orienting them towards the sun. Heating, electricity, lighting and even flight are some of the gifts endowed by modern solar technologies. Solar power is made use synonymously with solar energy.
It refers to the conversion of sunlight into electricity. With the help of photovoltaic effect, this is made possible.
Else, it can be done by heating a transfer fluid to generate steam to function the generator. Solar photovoltaic generate 0.04% of the world’s total energy usage in 2004. Our earth gets 174 peta watts of incoming solar radiation that is also known as insolation at the upper atmosphere.
Six percent of the insolation is reflected and 16 percent is taken in or absorbed. Clouds, dust and pollutants are such average atmospheric conditions that further diminish insolation traveling through the atmosphere by 20 percent due to reflection and 3 percent via absorption.
These conditions diminish the quantity of energy reaching the surface of the earth.
Also, they diffuse approximately twenty percent of the incoming light and filter portions of its spectrum. Approximately half of the insolation after going through the atmosphere is in the visible electromagnetic spectrum with the other half mostly in the infrared spectrum.
With the help of atmospheric convection, the absorption of solar energy affects the water cycle and winds. They get affected also because of the evaporation and condensation of water vapor. Sunlight is taken in by the oceans, plants and land masses after reaching the surfaces.
The thermohaline cycle is driven by the energy captured in the oceans.
Thus, solar energy is the driving force behind the ocean currents like those of thermohaline cycle and wind driven currents such as Gulf Stream. Besides, all the food we eat, wood we build with, and fossil fuels we make use are products of photosynthesis. For further information, you can check websites pertinent to solar energy.
