WooAw I can get this thing working using Sunlight!

Broad Overview:

Today you might be enjoying the warm heat on a cold winter night, or the air conditioner on the hot summer afternoon. Running these machines consume ALOT of resources. In fact if the consumption stays the same as the current rate Planet Earth’s natural resources will all be depleted in less than 100 years. Yes our beloved planet. It is hard to imagine life without some of the advanced technology that we have today. Some even say that technology is killing children’s minds and taking away their imagination but besides that fact technology is also depleting all of the natural resources of this planet. The more advancements in technology the more resources used up.

Well hearing that you could say that earth is pretty much screwed in the next century. It might be a little too early to say that, with all the minds out in the word someone may have a great idea that saves us. Meanwhile one of the earliest steps to reach that point is now come to be known as Solar Energy.

What is Solar Energy?

Solar Energy is the energy created by the Sun. It is light and heat. The Sun, along with secondary solar powered resources: wind and wave power, create the majority of renewable energy on Earth. Humans today have found out many ways to harness solar energy, though the efficiency of how well this will affect humankind is questionable. Methods such as solar panels , solar thermals, concentrated solar power, solar nanowires, and photovolatics all help capture the Sun’s energy. Why is this method a good way to elaborate on? Because the sun shines everyday (unless its raining) it takes little resources to capture sunlight and turn it into usable energy.

If you are interested…

Solar panels (a great way to generate electricity on a small scale): a bunch of photovolatic cells assembled together into one object.

Solar thermals:  electric power plants generate heat using lenses and reflectors to concentrate the sun’s energy. Because the heat can be stored, these plants are useful because they can generate power whenever it is needed (ex. emergency power outage).

Concentrated solar power (CSP): Systems that use mirrors and lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight.

Solar Nanowires: Nanowires are made of gallium arsenide and indium gallium phosphide, which are more efficient than silicon.

nanowires

Photovolatics: is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into electrical current.

 

Solar Energy Experiment:

Last week in class we were introduced to a few methods of solar energy. Tom Vales introduced to us 3 devices created that took use of light energy to work.

Stirling engine:

The Stirling engine is a compression and expansion of the vapor inside.

“1. Heat is added to the gas inside the heated cylinder (left), causing pressure to build. This forces the piston to move down. This is the part of the Stirling cycle that does the work.

2. The left piston moves up while the right piston moves down. This pushes the hot gas into the cooled cylinder, which quickly cools the gas to the temperature of the cooling source, lowering its pressure. This makes it easier to compress the gas in the next part of the cycle.

3. The piston in the cooled cylinder starts to compress the gas. Heat generated by this compression is removed by the cooling source.

4. The right piston moves up while the left piston moves down. This forces the gas into the heated cylinder, where it quickly heats up, building pressure, at which point the cycle repeats.”

taken from http://auto.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine1.htm

Peltier Device:

Also known as a thermoelectric converter. When one leg of this device is placed in a cup of cold water and one leg is placed in a cup of hot water, some of the thermal energy from the hot water is converted into work by the converter and the fan turns. If the hot and cold water are mixed together in a large container the fan doesn’t turn. The Seebeck effect is when two different metals with ends at two different temperatures produce an electric current that makes the fan turn. It was stated in class that this device was an expensive device to build.

Mendocino Solar Motor:

This motor is made up of four solar panels attached to a block in the middle of a shaft. The motor is also made to float by some magnets (for a better idea refer to image below). When light is shined onto the solar panels the device starts to turn. This device is a cool device however Tom Vales stated that it wasn’t used for anything yet just simply a good demonstration of solar energy.

 

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine1.htm
http://www.ap.smu.ca/demos/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=161&Itemid=85
http://www.chessplayingrobot.com/id4.html
http://www.solardev.com/SEIA-makingelec.php
http://news.discovery.com/tech/five-ways-harness-solar.html

What Is Solar Energy