Solar EnergyBy: Mary Erikson

What is solar energy?

Renewable energy source radiated from the sun, harnessed and transferred into useable energy.

Types of Solar Energy

Passive Solar

Concentrating Solar Power

Photovoltaic (PV)

Hot Water Solar

Solar Process (commercial)

Passive Solar

When the design of the building is centralized around taking full advantage of of all types of solar energy given off in the daylight.

Passive Solar

Windows are mostly facing the south side- this is because it receives the most sunlight during the day

Passive Solar

Can save up to 30% on heating and cooling bills on average

5% for energy cost for lighting

Would have to spend roughly 15% more per sq ft with passive solar energy construction

Long term pay off

Henry P. Glass Home

Northshore (Chicago) 1948

Concentrated Solar Energy

Concentrating Solar

Industrial

Uses thousands of U-shaped mirrors to concentrate sun’s rays to a 550 foot receiver where it harnesses that heat to heat a fluid that then heats the water and turns into steam to turn the turbine

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/multimedia/video_csp.html

Photovoltaic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8_NdUb8sjc

Primary domestic electricity use for heating and cooling

Technology used for solar energy cars however not realistic

Solar Water Heating

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI8vj2ibh9I

Expensive compared to natural gas

Solar Process Heat

Heating and cooling for large commercial and industrial buildings

Can use same technologies in addition to these (PV, passive solar)

3 Main Uses- Space heat

Water Systems

Solar Cooling(TACS)

Space heat

Pro’s and Con’s?Pro’s

Renewable

Ability to harness energy in regions that are not linked to a national grid

No direct pollution (only from manufacturing of product)

Can be very effective in certain spots on the globe (near equator)

Eventually will pay for itself after a number of years

Little maintenance after it is installed

Con’s Expensive to install

Unrealistic to be able to meet the needs of the world’s energy consumption

Can’t transfer energy efficiently (must be used on spot)

Low efficiency rate (15-25%)

Needs a lot of solar panels to create sufficient energy (takes up lots of land)

Needs sunlight (can’t produce energy during night time)

What’s wrong? Due to the low efficiency rate and the energy

consumed by the cables when transferring it, it is unrealistic to be able to transfer solar energy anywhere further than 2 miles from the source.

To meet current US electricity needs with the current technology we would need to use a piece of land as big as New Hampshire and Rhode Island combined. This would also have to be in a desert like location where there is a plethora of sun.

Prices are still uncompetitive with those of fossil fuels

Progress?

All sectors of Solar Energy experienced grown from 2011 to 2012 with instillations up 76% in one year

In past 3 years cost of solar energy has dropped over 70%

On Oct 22, 2013 a $60 million support innovative solar energy research and development in part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan. This is efforts to drive down solar energy costs even further

What to do… Solar power’s main use should be domestic,

not transportation or industrial use.

By year 2020 have 10% of US domestic electricity demand be solar energy.

5% total energy demand to come from solar by year 2050

Increase the efficiency of the solar panels to 30-40% production as well as finding a better way to transfer the energy opposed to energy-dissipating cables and improve the battery technology

THE END

Sources

http://www.nrel.gov/learning/re_solar_process.html

http://www.nrel.gov/learning/re_solar.html

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/energy-overview/solar/

http://energy.gov/articles/energy-department-announces-60-million-drive-affordable-efficient-solar-power

http://energy.gov/articles/top-6-things-you-didnt-know-about-solar-energy