Sustainable Energy Gets A Face Lift All Thanks To Solar Renewal Energy!

Since we are at the brink of losing all the natural non-renewable resources, the world is suddenly abuzz with a keyword – solar renewal energy. The benefits of trapping the sun’s energy and converting into various forms of energy are humongous. Hence, researches are continuously working for the advancement in solar technology.

Let us try to understand through examples, how countries and communities are gearing up to make better use of solar energy.

Andasol plant 1 and Solnova plant in Spain have parabolic trough systems, which concentrate Sun’s rays on pipes containing synthetic oil, which can be heated up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit. This heated oil is used to directly drive steam turbines or heat salts to a molten state. These salts can store the heat for many hours which implies that even after the Sun goes down, the solar renewal energy can be still used for various purposes. This technology is the latest in the solar renewal energy harnessing field and is called molten salt technology. These plants provide 50 megawatts of power. Similarly Solúcar solar farm in Spain employs mirrors called heliostats to harness solar renewal energy. It focuses the solar radiation to drive steam turbines and generate electricity.

Hence, Spain produces 3.65 gigawatts of power from solar renewal energy, second to Germany. United States is now replicating their parabolic technology in California, Nevada, Phoenix, Colorado, Texas and Florida.

The deserts have been pivotal in generation of electricity because more and more solar plants are being set up in arid and semi arid regions. Researchers at German Aerospace Center have found out that a few thousand square kilometers of solar thermal power plants teamed with the latest infrastructure of high voltage direct transmission lines can provide electricity to the whole of Europe.

However, concerns are being raised about the water requirement by these plants, uncertain costs, long construction time, corrosive and abrasive nature of the salt used etc.

Another breakthrough in utilization of solar renewal energy has been the invention of spray on solar cells, which harness the sun’s infrared rays even on a cloudy day. Researchers at MIT have used solar renewal energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. When these gases are recombined in a fuel cell, it gives carbon-free electricity.
With these advancements our dependence on non renewable resources will become minimal thus promoting sustainable development. Our Planet will become cleaner, greener and better by efficient usage of its resources and meeting our consumption needs by solar renewal energy and its various alternative resources counterparts.

Solar Renewal Energy – Taking The Burdon Off New Renewable Resources

The advent of solar renewal energy has lifted a great burden off the non-renewable resources like coal, fossil fuel, natural gases etc. Many scientific breakthroughs have come up in recent times and photovoltaic or solar cells, solar collectors have been a notable invention in that arena.

Single crystal silicon solar cells convert solar radiation to electric power. Solar cells are made up of semiconductor material so that when sunlight strikes it, a part of its wavelength is absorbed by the semiconductor material. This absorbed energy gives rise to free electrons and the applied built in electric field makes these electrons flow in a particular direction. Current is nothing but the flow of electrons. So this current along with the built in electric field forms the power produced by the solar cell.

Solar cells are used in powering space vehicles like satellites, telescopes and rovers etc. The international space station has incorporated an array of 250,000 solar cells for power generation. They are used in solar vehicles. They are arranged to form panels and are widely used in solar power plants too.

Researchers at University of Notre Dame have come up with nano solar cell which is cheaper and more efficient. Sharp, a company dedicated to solar renewal energy has come up with a triple junction solar cell with world’s highest conversion efficiency. The unfathomable solar renewal energy utilization is escalating new heights every day.
Solar renewal energy is harnessed by solar collectors which produce heat energy from solar radiation. It is broadly categorized into three parts:

1. Parabolic trough system where the receiver is heated up to 400° C to produce steam for generating electricity.
2. Power tower system where reflected rays of the sun heat the receiver above 1000° C.
3. Parabolic dish systems are the most efficient heating receiver up to 1000° C.

Application of solar collectors include solar water heating systems which can be used for swimming pool heating, underfloor heating, space heating and cooling.

Formation of fossil fuels occurs due to trapped solar energy so the European Science Foundation (ESF) have taken it upon themselves on generating clean fuels from solar renewal energy directly by using photovoltaic technology.
The future prospects of harnessing solar renewal energy are bright and we are just getting started but we are still a long way from using the solar renewal energy to the hilt. Nonetheless, the sun is definitely the next big thing all over again!

Solar Renewal Energy – A Brand New Beginning!

Energy is the biggest necessity of humankind and our consumption rate is exponentially increasing with each passing day. We need it for transportation, cooking, electricity, manufacturing etc. We humans are so dependent on non-renewable sources of energy that when they vanish from the face of the earth, we will have nothing left to fall back on. This is where alternative renewable energy sources come into the scene and ruling the charts is solar renewal energy.

It is a sad scenario that the best sources of energy: solar energy, hydro energy , geothermal energy, wind energy and biomass energy are not utilized to their full potential and more than 85% of the world’s energy still comes from non renewable sources. Sun is the best natural source of energy and all the crucial processes like photosynthesis, transpiration, water cycle occur due to solar energy. So harnessing this energy can help us save the non-renewable resources from extinction.

What is solar renewal energy? We get this energy by harnessing sun’s radiations via different solar technologies like photovoltaic cells, solar panels, day lighting systems, solar thermal collectors, greenhouses etc. Solar air conditioning, solar chimney, solar heating, solar powered desalination unit, solar furnace, solar cooker, solar pond, solar power generation, solar powered vehicle all require solar renewal energy.

Even the GPS enabled facilities like automotive navigation system, vehicle-tracking system we use, are all thanks to solar renewal energy because the geostationary satellites use solar powered batteries.

Solar renewal energy is green, clean, and free, which is why more and more countries want to incorporate this. Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, USA, Canada, and Korea have set up solar power plants for power generation. Many developing countries are also following the lead and setting up solar power plants. People are setting up thermal collectors in their house to use this solar renewal energy. There are companies providing solar heating systems in houses for rent. There are solar streetlights, solar lanterns, and solar inverters being used by people.

The good news is that since more and more people are becoming aware of the various advantages of solar renewal energy, history of the 1970s energy crisis will not repeat itself. Quite many programs and products have been developed for encouraging solar energy utilization.

The simple fact is that we will only head towards a better future by saving natural non-renewable resources for the next generations to come. With solar renewal energy, a sustainable solar powered world is no longer a distant dream.