what are the different types of solar power?
by admin on Monday, September 13th, 2010 | 6 Comments
Science assignment. If you could also add the link to the website for my bibliography that would be awesome too = ) thanks.
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i don’t know i didn’t even know there were different types of solar. or are you just playing with me?
Solar thermal is where solar collectors are solar power is used to heat something, usually water or air. Most are plate collectors where pipes welded to a metal plate painted black heat the water contained within. There are many variations such as evacuated tube where the pipe containing the medium to be heated sits in the center of a glass tube where the air had been pumped out essentially forming a thermos to keep the heat from escaping. There are also heliostat designs where mirrors track the sun and focus the energy onto a boiler to get steam for power generation. You’ll often hear of passive and active designs, passive designs are based on the heated medium rising for circulation whereas active means a pump is used to circulate the medium.
Solar Photovoltaic is where the photons striking a semiconductor frees an electron producing a current. As a given semiconductor will only absorb photons of a very specific frequency, strategies such as multilayer, organic dyes and quantum dots are used to attempt to harvest more than just one frequency. Both organic dyes and quantum dots absorb one frequency of light and re-emit the energy in another frequency. There are also subcategories such as amorphous where the semiconductors do not have a crystal structure (less efficient but much less expensive to fabricate) and thin film where the semiconductors are a very thin layer on a flexible plastic substrate. They are also talking about architectural solar where the semiconductors are incorporated into architectural features such as roof shingles and paint.
Wind power is from thermal gradients in the atmosphere which are due to solar thermal effects.
Hydro power is from the evaporation of water by the sun and the subsequent precipitation of the water at a higher elevation.
Biomass is solar energy collected via photosynthesis and stored chemically.
Fossil fuels are solar energy collected via photosynthesis and stored chemically but over millions of years.
There are several different types. One specific kind is known as a heliostat. That’s a solar tower that produces energy from the rising heat. Another type of solar panel is the parabolic kind. If you want to know more, then look here at this site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_panel
John W’s answer is excellent, so I won’t repeat, just summarize.
1) Solar Thermal – collects heat
1a) solar air heating – heats air in a box and blows the hot air into a building to warm.
1b) solar water heating – heats water that can be used for domestic hot water, i.e. showers and laundry, as well as heating the house with radiant floors or forced hot air.
2) solar electricity – photovoltaic panels (PV) generate electricity
If you want to learn more about different types of solar power, go to http://www.altestore.com/store/Books-Classes-Educational-Videos/Educational-Videos/c1138/ and watch some of the free videos, or here http://www.altestore.com/howto/to read some more articles.
By the way, I have good news for you. With the rising cost of electrical bills, there are many different ways for alternative homemade energy so that you can provide your own electricity. The 2 ways that I highly recommend is through DIY solar energy and wind energy. Such renewable sources are economical and environmentally friendly to tap on.
For the DIY solar energy, you can easily install a solar panel to obtain the energy to power your household needs. And such homemade energy solution is not difficult to build. In fact, you can find the materials in any hardware store down the streets. They are inexpensive also; you can easily buy them for less than $200.
An alternative homemade energy that you can consider during cloudy days is the wind energy. During days like this, your DIY solar energy would not be able to provide you with much energy. And you can consider building your very own windmills in your backyard. And the cost of building a windmill is even cheaper than the solar panels. And with the right guide, you can easily build both and get started with generating your own electricity.
Such DIY solar energy and windmills are easy ways for you to tap on the natural resources. In fact, you can play your part in saving mother Earth by not using too much coal energy. Such homemade energy is the best method for you to save money.
In fact, if you are good at generating homemade energy with DIY solar energy and windmills, you can even generate extra energy which will flow back into the grid. And your electrical company is actually obliged to pay you for generating extra energy for them!
Now you can build your own home-made wind generator or solar powered panels following a simple step-by-step guide with everyday materials and save hundreds of dollars on monthly power bills and help the environment.
For More Information Visit:-
http://offto.net/solardiy
I’ll add another important point, call it 1c), to Amy’s answer. That is concentrating solar thermal for electricity production.
The heliostat based system was mentioned in the first answer; that’s one type. These are large facilities like Solar One and Two that use acres of heliostats to focus sunlight on a boiler at the top of the tower to generate steam to drive a turbine.
Another is the parabolic dish with a Stirling engine. These are smaller systems that produce a few 10′s of kilowatts and exhibit very high conversion efficiency. Megawatts are produced by replicating the system over a large area. Two recent contracts let by Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric will deploy these systems in the Mojave desert.
A recent innovation is the Solar Updraft Tower which does not use heliostats but instead a large covered collection area where air is heated that then rises in tower with a wind turbine in it.