Sweden – The Ripasso Dish Solar Generators
The dish combines a parabolic mirror with a Stirling engine. The Stirling engine ,originally developed in 1816 , “is a closed-cycle regenerative heat engine that uses an enclosed gas to drive pistons and turn a flywheel.” The dish continuously turns to absorbs solar energy captured from the sun which the hot point powers the Stirling engine, and electricity is produced.
The Ripasso Dish can generate 75 to 85 zero-emission megawatt hours of electricity a year, or enough to power 24 typical homes in the UK. Which is more efficient in comparison to the same amount of electricity used by burning coal that releases about 81 metric tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, as mentioned The Guardian and Ecowatch.com.
Haiti – Field Ready’s Solar Powered 3D-Printer
Field Ready is trying to use a solar powered 3D-printer to make a whole range of simple, life-saving medical supplies at a fraction of the cost. Normally thee 3-D Printers are battery r generator run but connect the solar panels allow the printer to function despite natural disasters that normally happen disaster prone countries such as Haiti. Below is a video that further explains the work that Field Ready is doing.
Netherlands – SolaRoad’s Solar Road
SolaRoad, has developed the world’s first “solar road,” has defied expectations and has generated about 3,000 kWh of power according to EcoWatch.com, This power is enough to provide a single-person household with electricity for a year. Considering it’s only a 230-feet bike path, the potential for this technology could be big, kind of like photovoltaic technology itself.
The solar road consists of a cycle path with two lanes, one of which is connected to the national grid. The lanes are made of slabs of concrete with an integrated layer of crystalline silicon solar cells and has a top layer of translucent, tempered safety glass (~1cm thick). The crystalline silicon solar cells is made of two semiconductors, “p” and “n”. As explained by phys.org
“The movement of electrons across the p-n junction creates a built-in electric field that is always present across the cell. When photons from the sun strike the solar cell, there is a release of electrons from the junction back to the n-type semiconductor and holes back to the p-type semiconductor. The resulting separation and consequently fluctuation of positive and negative charges across the junction creates a potential difference or voltage .”
http://phys.org/news/2014-11-solaroad-world-solar-path-netherlands.html#jCp
http://www.geek.com/science/most-efficient-solar-energy-dish-in-the-world-uses-engine-developed-in-1816-1622697/
http://ecowatch.com/2015/05/20/solar-innovations-revolutionizing-world/