Solar Energy Facts and advantages

Residential Solar Panels – Getting popular

2010-08-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

Residential Solar panels are getting extremely popular among consumers as they seem to be the most practical solution to most people with heavy electricity bills and people who need to heat up their houses due to the cold. If you are getting an enviable amount of sunshine outside and feel that you can help in capturing that and converting it into useful energy, you must look into getting residential solar panels as they are really helpful in saving our continually degrading environment and also us human beings ourselves. Another major contributing factor in helping people to decide to switch to solar energy advantages is the fact that gas prices are on a huge upward curve and are continuing to spiral upwards. Also, of course, is the realization of the fact that our reserves of coal and petroleum and other fossil fuels can only last for the next 40 – 50 years or so. After that, people will have to probably make use of other sources of energy such as renewable sources of energy or install a vast number of nuclear reactors. Residential solar panels are becoming popular as a result of the above reasons and because there are now many places that use solar energy. Photovoltaic cells are also becoming popular and I have talked about them in some of my previous posts where I have mentioned how they are really effective in converting solar energy to electrical energy which can basically be used to convert to almost all other forms of energy to be used in our daily household appliances.
Of course, there are bigger versions of a large number of photovoltaic cells joined together which can make huge panels ready to power entire cities and populations and help them generate electricity and meet their other energy needs. Mojave Desert is one such example of a place which powers entire cities with the help of solar energy. It is located in California. This can be implemented on a much smaller scale by using residential solar panels which makes use of the free solar energy and convert it to useful electrical energy.
Photovoltaic cells technology has, in fact, been termed as the fastest growing technology in the whole world. This makes it an exciting field of opportunity for many people and also a field that is starting to generate a lot of jobs and solar energy scholarships. Also, the fact that renewable sources of energy are the future generation's fuel makes it an exciting opportunity as a career for students to pursue and become successful in it. Of course, the race is on for finding technology to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic cells. It is currently not very high and constant changes in technology and research has made it possible for the efficiency to increase in the future as it has been increasing since the past decade. Along with that, many governments recognize the need for people to generate their own electricity and offer many incentives for those that do. Incentives come in the form of tax benefits and lesser tariffs. Also, annual green summits held every year between many countries has prompted world leaders from other countries to take action in their respective countries so that the whole world can unite in saving the planet.
It is not very difficult to set up your own residential solar panels. People have been doing that with the help of plenty of Do it Yourself solar power kits available online and at other places such as solar companies available locally in your area. Even if you do not generate a lot of power, you are doing your little bit to help in saving the environment and it provides satisfaction to you. You also save a lot of money on energy costs such as electricity bills and gas bills as well.
The biggest solar energy advantage, of course, is that it is possible to combine residential solar panels with the traditional power generators that you have been using all this while and thus have a back up ready in case there is some problem with your residential solar panels. Another reason why you may want to do this is when there are certain cloudy or rainy days and during the night when there is no sunlight shining on the residential solar panels. Even if you do not live an area where there is not a lot of sunshine received, you can still generate electricity from solar energy in little amounts that can go a long way in the future in helping cutting down on the costs involved. It is of course always advantageous to consider residential solar panels before you are constructing the house but it is not a problem to do it later as well but it helps if you do it earlier in that it helps in saving future hassles on wiring placements etc. which are very important to set up effectively.
Just think of it this way if you are still debating whether or not to get residential solar panels installed in your house. What sort of a world do you want your children or grandchildren to grow up in. Do you want them to grow up in a world where the whole world is filled with pollution with some of the most beautiful species of flora and fauna that you have grown up watching and admiring, disappearing? I don't think so. You probably want a better world for them. If you are thinking of just your place and thinking that no improvements are necessary, think of other places and countries where it is necessary for these changes to take place and help in making a difference.
So make sure that you set up residential solar panels in your house or at least consider setting them up so that you can help not only yourself but the whole world and other people and living beings who live on our beautiful green planet. I hope you enjoyed these solar energy fun facts.
For a greener future,
Andy.

Carbon Di Oxide Emissions – Some facts and statistics

2010-08-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

We have all been talking about solar energy and the various solar energy advantages. But we know that one of the single reasons why many people are looking to switch to solar energy or other renewable sources of energy is because of the heavy carbon di oxide emissions. So here are some facts and statistics about carbon di oxide and why it is needed along with harmful to us human beings and the planet if produced in excess.

The basic physical state of carbon di oxide is as a gas. But, there are also liquid and solid forms of carbon di oxide. Carbon di oxide turns solid when the temperature drops below -78 C. It is also called as "dry ice" in this solid form.

Carbon di oxide emissions are also considered vital for the life cycle as not only human beings but also plants and trees depend heavily on it for respiration and for other purposes such as metabolism.

Human beings do activities that release carbon di oxide in many ways. It can be from something as respiration to soft drinks that humans drink such as coke or beer. The fizz that is produced upon opening a soda bottle is due to the carbon di oxide. Other places where carbon di oxide is used a lot is in fire extinguishers. It is also used a lot in baking powder especially when many baked products are required to be fluffy and tasty to eat.
Carbon di oxide is also used to prepare coffee. The caffeine in coffee is prepared with applications from carbon di oxide. If you have seen many of these performances on stage, you will see the white smoke kind of substances rising at the bottom. That is also with the help of carbon di oxide although from the solid form called as "dry ice".

Now let's get to the carbon di oxide emissions part and how it affects our environment. If you consider the distribution of various gases in our atmosphere, you will notice that Nitrogen gas is way ahead with about 70% in the air and Oxygen comes in at second with around 21%. After that and rising everyday due to various are the carbon di oxide emissions although it does not occupy a significant percentage in the composition of gases. However, carbon di oxide plays an extremely vital role in plants in that they use it for important processes such as photosynthesis and respiration.

Photosynthesis is where solar energy is used as a catalyst in a chemical reaction which is used to convert carbon di oxide and other gases from the atmosphere to glucose which is basically nothing but energy which the plants use to survive.
According to Wikipedia, "the general equation for photosynthesis is 2n CO₂ + 2n H₂O + photons → 2(CH₂O)_n + n O₂ + 2n A"

Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities
As humans have been advancing in technology and other fields of manufacturing over the past couple of centuries starting from the Industrial Revolution in the 18^th Century, there has been a lot of carbon di oxide emissions because of them. This has resulted in the percentage of carbon di oxide emissions in the air increasing at an alarming rate. It has been scientifically proven that the concentration of carbon di oxide has risen from 280 ppm in 1850 to 364 ppm in 1997. This may not sound like much, but it is indeed a huge amount of increase especially when considered from the point of view of a environmentalist. Also, the fact that it has not increased by as much from the past thousands of years as fast as it has been increasing in the past couple of decades shows that it is indeed due to human activities.
Fossil fuels, are a huge contributing factor to carbon di oxide emissions and this has further been affected by other factors such as deforestration and heavy automobile usage by human beings. The production of various factories and other similar factors has made it a very threatening factor for the environment and for the planet as well. More than 1/4^th of the carbon di oxide concentrations today are due to human activities.

The effects of carbon dioxide emissions – The green house effect
Near the troposphere part of our atmosphere, there are greenhouse gases whose main function is to capture the heat from the sun so that the earth is kept warm during the night times. This is called as the greenhouse effect and and an exaggeration results in global warming which as we all know is a serious problem for most humans. It is also important as if not because of the greenhouse effect, we would all be in ice right now i.e. life would not have been possible. The more the gases such as CFC (Chloro Fluoro Carbons) and Carbon Dioxide are emitted, the more it will result in the earth getting unusually warmed up thus causing a huge problem for the planet Earth.

This is the basic summary of what solar energy advantages if properly made use of, can help us humans by helping in getting rid of these harmful gases such as carbon di oxide and other gases such as methane which are equally if not, more harmful. Using renewable energy sources in an efficient manner can significantly help in cutting the costs for purchasing automobiles such as cars and motor vehicles. This is especially important in developing countries such as China and India which are increasing their carbon di oxide emissions at a really alarming rate which does not look healthy as well as the people there are getting richer and are buying more expensive vehicles which emit a lot of greenhouse gases thus contributing in the degradation of the environment. The United States also, of course has the highest per capita carbon di oxide emission which is pretty bad news. So switch to solar energy and make a difference.
To a greener future,
Andy.

Pool Solar Heater – An efficient way to keep your pool heated

2010-08-23T10:24:00.000-07:00

All over Canada and the United States, "pool solar heaters" are taking big strides into becoming one of the most commonly used types of heaters especially when it comes to heating swimming pools with the help of solar energy. It is an amazing way to cut your bills since pools can be really big money crunchers since a lot of money is already spent on maintenance of the swimming pool. So if you can instead save on the heating of the pool, then you have a great way to cut an enormous amount of costs. The whole environment can be protected because traditional pool heating equipment are huge energy consumers. Besides, you can also continue swimming for a long time without having to worry about spending a lot of money. In Canada and the United States, for example, many swimming pools use pool solar heaters, it is a very economic choice and is now starting to become very widely available for commercial use. For most pool owners, it is an economically sound choice as it helps in saving money that is otherwise spent on electricity for generating the heat. Also the various equipment is also widely available these days especially since the demand for them is so high. In this post, I will talk about everything you need to know about "pool solar heaters" and how you can very easily set up and get build one of your own and further save money.

According to Natural Resources America, solar heating equipment are the most sold items when people are shopping for pool heating equipment.

Did you know that you could save more than 5-10 tonnes of carbon di oxide emissions by simply changing to solar pool heaters each swimming season. To give you a rough idea of how much this actually is, think of it in this way. Your car emits that much amount of carbon di oxide every year upon use.

The principle behind pool solar heaters
Outdoor swimming pools are very commonly used along with solar heaters for the simple reason that they take lesser heat to be generated. Anyway, solar heating panels receive the heat from the sun and preheat the pool to about 10-15 degrees higher than the air temperature. The cool water that is brought into the pool makes up for this and the pool pump pumps the cold water into the pool. When the water goes through the panels, it gets heated and goes back to the pool. As with other solar energy equipment and one of the biggest solar energy advantages, the pool solar heater can be used along with the traditional electric or natural gas pool heaters. While most people swim on only on sunny days, some may choose to swim on cloudy or rainy days and in those cases, the traditional heaters can be used instead.

The cost of these heaters
Pool solar heaters can cost money in any range depending on the size of the swimming pool that you are planning to heat up. But regardless of how much you pay, you can make up for it within a few years. The best part is that these pool solar heaters have an incredibly long lifespans and warranty periods ranging from 10 – 20 years of lifespan. Regarding the actual cost, a typical 20 by 30 square feet pool can cost about $3000 for solar heating equipment. Of course, if you are planning to assemble it yourself, you can further cut down costs significantly and have everything you invested in paid back to you within as short as a year. I would highly recommend that you get yourself a DIY (Do it yourself) solar panel kit and build it yourself as they are extremely effective and save money in the process. If you can get a solar professional to have the inspection done for you, you can further be confident about the whole process.

Different types of pool solar heaters:

Unglazed:

Unglazed solar panels are built specifically with pool heating in mind. They come in various sizes and the lengths vary from 8 feet to 12 feet. The material with which this is made is a special type of plastic. Sometimes advanced rubber can also be used. Care should be taken that the panel does not get damaged due to UV Rays or pool chemicals such as chlorine. This should be checked upon before purchase. As I said before, warranties are normally pretty long and can sometimes be for as much as 15 years and sometimes even lifetime warranties.
Glazed Collectors
The glazed solar panels are normally not used for heating pools with solar energy. They are also pretty expensive when compared to the unglazed ones and can be very resistant to chemicals used in the pool and UV rays from the sun.

Indoor Pools
Indoor pools have an advantage when compared to outdoor swimming pools in that they prevent the escape of vapour that comes out of hot water into the air thus helping in preventing heat loss. Furthermore, they can be positioned in such a way that the sun reaches them in a particular direction so that energy from the sun is heavily optimized for best performance. However, the drawback is that direct sunlight shining on a pool helps out a lot by increasing the temperature of the pool.

Pool Solar heaters can also be used for other purposes such as heating water in hot tubs.
These, in turn use glazed panels as opposed to the unglazed panels used for heating pools. However, it is always best to talk to a solar energy professional or a pool professional to properly get advice about which sort of panels you can use and which is the best in a case specific situation.

There are various resources and videos online which can help you to properly set up solar pool heaters in your house thus saving money and the environment at the same time. So try to get pool solar heaters and let me know about your experiences.

To a greener future,

Andy.

Generating and using wind power at home

2010-08-20T20:33:00.000-07:00

Use Wind Power at Home

The wind, just like solar energy and other renewable sources of energy is clean and if used efficiently, can generate immense amounts of power and also save a lot of energy. Let's take a look at how you can generate wind power at home by using mini wind mills or mini wind turbines. Especially if you live in a very windy area, it is very probable that you can easily produce wind power at home and save a lot of money.

Wind turbines or wind mills vary greatly in size. Some of the larger wind turbines can generate hundreds of megawatts (MW) of electricity which is enough to power thousands of people's energy needs. Smaller wind turbines produce electricity somewhere in the range of a couple of hundred kW and are the perfect ones to be installed in residential areas. So if you are looking to "produce wind power home" , then the smaller wind turbines are something you should definitely consider.

If you are considering installing a wind power system at home, then compare the place you live in with this checklist:

Is your house in an area where there are sufficient winds?
Is there enough space for setting up wind turbines?
Check with your city's laws to see if you have permission to set up these wind turbines.
Are your electricity bills very high?

If everything in the above checklist is satisfied, then it means that you can definitely set up wind power systems at home. Also, to keep in mind is that this is a long term investment and you may need to spend quite a bit of money initially. But, you can be assured that in a few years or even months, if you use do it yourself guides, you will make up for what you spent initially on buying these wind power at home systems.

Is the wind you are getting enough?

This is an important question to consider as you would have to have a steady amount of wind blowing at the wind mills to actually generate useful energy. Average annual wind speeds of around 4 – 5 m/s are needed for a small wind turbine to generate enough electricity to recover your initial investments.

You can check at your local weather station to see if your area actually receives the kind of wind speeds that are actually required. Also, the freer the area you are planning to install the wind turbines is, the better since you do not want obstructions such as neighbouring houses or trees.

Ideal locations would be the prairies which is flat and is deal for the wind power home systems to be set up on the ground. If you are unsure of whether the place where you stay is good for generating electricity from wind energy or not, you should definitely use wind power evaluation systems. These are also called as anemometer and they could definitely prove to be extremely useful for you to find out if your property is right or not for wind energy.
Irrespective of whether you use wind resource evaluation systems or not, you should definitely check out whether or not your house and property gets the right amount of wind energy area or not. It also helps a lot if you have an approximation of how much wind speeds you actually receive. Keep in mind that your wind turbines are probably going to be installed on top of a tower and that it is most useful if you can get an approximate idea of how much wind speeds you receive up there.

Some things to keep in mind:

Consult your neighbours to see that they have no problems with you setting up these wind turbines in your house.
Set it up at an area that is totally free of obstructions such as trees and buildings. Preferably at locations with wide empty space.
Your government's laws about setting up these wind turbines.

How the wind turbines function?

The two types of wind turbines, horizontal axis and vertical axis turbines both function differently. Vertical axis turbines function in whichever place the wind is blowing. But horizontal axis turbines get pointed to the direction of the wind with the help of tail vanes.

Components Used:

The blades with surfaces that are aerodynamically designed.
An adjustor to make sure that the speeds of the generator and the blades are made to be equal.
Tail vanes, which I mentioned earlier, to orient the wind turbines in the direction in which the wind is blowing.

Specifications for Wind towers:

Towers need to be a minimum of about 80 – 100 feet high. This is necessary to make sure that an optimum amount of wind is used to rotate the blades. If it is not of this size, enough power will not be generated. Furthermore, you need to ground the tower to protect it from lightning.

Also, the power generated is in DC current mode. The various appliances in your house use AC current and so, you need an inverter to convert the electricity. This is in short, how you can build a wind turbine and use it to generate electricity. However, you must also keep in mind the other charges that are involved in setting up wind power home solar systems, such as taxes and payment for labour etc. So make sure that you make a sound decision on whether or not to set up wind power home turbines or not.

Although you can definitely set up wind turbines on rooftops, it is not totally safe since the vibrations can cause structural damage within the building. Also, safety concerns that need to be noted are things such as maximum wind speeds. There is something called "survival speeds" which is the maximum speed that the turbines can rotate at. But do not worry as internal mechanisms make sure that it does not rotate above these speeds. But just make sure that your "wind power home" systems have this feature installed in them.

To a greener future,

Andy.

Green Computers - Are they finally here?

2010-08-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

Computers have become an integral part of our lives and have dominated many areas of our lives. In almost all areas of our lives, there is some sort of a computer or a miniaturized version of a computer making things easier for us. But does mother nature like us for using computers so much? With the introduction of "green computers", she definitely might as these computers that make use of renewable energy sources are immense energy savers and help to save our planet.

Here's the single biggest problem that has plagued all big computer businesses so far. Due to the fact that most computers have short life spans and do not go on to function for a long time, it has become increasingly common for us to dispose off our laptops into landfills where it can take as long as thousands of years to finally degrade into soil. From an environmentalist's point of view, this is not acceptable at all.

For a long time, many computer companies introduced "recyclable" computers to the market and tried to make it possible for consumers to dispose their electronic goods as recyclable materials that were also termed "green computing". And that started the whole "green computers" revolution.

The whole idea behind "green computers" is to make sure that factors like efficiency, recyclability and manufacturing from recycled products are ensured.

Processors – Big energy consuming monsters?

You may have experienced the vast amount of heat your computer generates when you use it for a long time. This is mainly from the processors which require a lot of energy to work efficiently. However, Steve Job's and the engineers at his company, Apple introduced revolutionary processors that consumed not only less energy but also generated less heat. This is what efficiency effectively means. If a processor generates insane amounts of heat, that is because it is very inefficient. Furthermore, there has been the calculation that for every 15-20 MB of data that you move on your hard disk, you actually use up upto a pound of coal. This is a lot of energy consumption and if true, is not at all good news for mother Nature. What this means is that you will be spending more money to maintain a computer than to buy a brand new one.

There has been a lot of innovation in the area of microchips that get used in microprocessors. For years, scientists have been trying to find a creative way to reduce the amount of heat that a processor generates. Yes, you can use coolers. But they once again use energy. It looks like companies like Apple, Sun MicroSystems and a certain Transmeta did a good job of trying to reduce this inefficiency in computers.

Along with processors and the CPU's, other important parts of a computer such as the monitor and power supplies use up a lot of power. Laptop's are slightly better off since they have limited battery power. This makes it possible for the user to put it in hibernation or sleep modes which makes it consumer significantly lesser power.

There have been other inventions such as quantum computing which makes it possible for significant reductions in power consumed by a computer. But they are confined to the doors of the laboratory and are not yet available commercially. Also, of course, is the possibility of using renewable sources of energy such as solar energy so that we do not pollute the environment by using coal. But having an efficient computer is a very good option as well.

Electronic waste is hazardous

The thing with "green computers" is that by using them, we can significantly reduce the amount of toxic and hazardous waste that is thrown out every year. Almost 75% of all hazardous materials is made of electronic substances. The elements used in manufacturing computers such as silicon andmercury and selenium and cadmium are all very harmful and do not decompose easily. Plus, there is the release of greenhouse gases that further causes harm. With the introduction of "green computers", these sort of harmful components will not be used and will be greener.

Changing the Obsoleteness of Tech Products and Computers

One of the biggest problems with buying that fancy, bright gadget about which "everyone is talking about" is that after 5 years or so, it will be considered ancient and obsolete. So that is when you would feel like throwing it away since it is no longer of any use to you. Future "green computers" will eliminate this problem. They will build computers that can successfully be upgraded in the future without having to throw it away to buy a new one.
Some companies such as Dell recover products annually for reusing them and recycling them.
For example, Dell recalled as much as 36 million kilos of dell computers last year in an effort to help save the environment. Companies which manufacture green computers will do more of this in the future. HP is also another company which made headlines by recycling old computers and cutting huge amount of costs last year.

Upgrade, do not buy new ones
One of the best ways to make sure that your computer lasts for a long time is to upgrade it
every year or so. Things such as more disk space and more RAM and better processors can all be bought individually and installed manually on the computer very easily and by yourself by following some guides on the internet. Also, one other thing that you may have noticed is that you do not always use up your CPU's full processing capacity if you are using basic applications such as computer games or AutoCAD etc. Green computers will make sure that such unwanted power will be reduced and be increased power whenever needed. Something like "overclocking" comes to mind when we talk about this. Also, there has been talk about the usage of technology such as "thin clients" and "dumb terminals" which are beyond the scope of this blog post.

So where exactly does the green computer stand?
The above is but a vague prediction of how a green computer in the future may look like. There have been plenty of research and advancement done in this field and it could mean that one day, computers can become totally green.

We all wait for that day.

To a greener future,

Andy.

Solar Power Lights – Natural Lighting to your House

2010-08-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

"Solar Powered Lights" are one among the best innovations made in the renewable energy industry. They are extremely effective not only because they are efficient but also because they have very low maintenance and operating costs. So if you are looking for either becoming self-sufficient in energy or to start to use green products, then you have come to the right place. Now is the right time to start taking steps to creating your own renewable energy source that can churn out a lot of energy and power to meet all your energy needs. One of the huge parts of your monthly electricity bill is the part that comes due to lighting. Having Solar Power Lights is a great first step to take to try and save our planet and also save some money in the process.

In this blog post, I will write about the various ways by which you can utilize solar power lights efficiently. I will also tell you about where you can buy new ones or build some Do it Yourself Solar Power Lights using some guides on the internet.

Indoor Solar Power Lights

Now, when many people hear about solar powered lights, they shake their heads and say that these lights cannot be used indoors because they need constant exposure to the sun to produce light. This, however, is far from the truth. Indoor solar power lights work as efficiently as outdoor ones and can even be used during the night when there is no sun shining. Think of all the electrical energy you can save by simply getting one of these.

How do these Solar Power Lights work?

The best part about these lights is that they are like smart gadgets. They can sort of think on their own and as long as you have a place where there is plenty of sunshine. They use the solar energy during the day when the sun is shining and then store it up so that you can have lighting during the night. Neat, isn't it?

Here's what they are made of:

A photo resistor – This is what your bed lamp has. It basically detects darkness so that it knows when to start letting out light.
Solar Cell – I have talked about how these work and how useful they are in some of my previous posts. They are small and generate just about enough energy to make good lights during the night.
NiCad Battery packs – One of these battery sets will definitely come in very handy.
Controller boards – A small one will do.
LED's – Light Emitting Diodes
A design of your own – You can choose to make your own lamp shade kind of thing or whatever design you choose. Put your "creative" cap on!

These are the basic components that you will require to make a small and simple solar power lights.

If you are not very experienced in using electrical equipment such as LED's and photo resistors, then you can consult someone to put all these components together for you. But, regardless of that, here is how solar power lights basically function.

You need to mount the solar cells on top of a plastic case such that it can face the sun during the mornings. You can use a 4 by 4 solar cell array for the most effective use. The photo resistor also goes and sits very close to the solar cells so that the lighting can automatically be activated during the night. The LED's and the NiCad batteries go on the other side of the module as the solar cells. You can check if the LED works before you assemble it. Do this by covering the light sensors. You will see the LED light up.

How do they turn on during the night?

This is a good question and something that you need to properly understand. It is the photo resistor that turns the LED on during the night. It is important to make sure that your whole set up is installed properly and to make sure that the photo resistors work properly.

However, since you are using a single solar cell, you should keep in mind that you cannot expect to generate too much electricity and at most, you can probably get very little lighting. However you can a group of these to generate a kind of trail rather than use them as a single lamp.

Use them inside or outside?

If you used the above guide to set up your own solar powered lights, then it would be ideal for use in your garden or in the yard. Basically, I am not saying that you cannot or should not use them inside. You can definitely use them inside as well. But you would need to keep it outside to let the solar cell do the work and soak up all of the solar power energy and then bring it back inside so that the photo resistor can switch the light on during the night. They would be best used outside in the yard or the garden.

You can also get a little innovative and set up plenty of solar cells together so that you can generate more energy from the sun because of a larger surface area. Furthermore, you can buy your own solar powered lights from various stores available locally and online at various websites. You can also find used solar cells put on sale at eBay for really cheap. This can really eliminate the need for the other traditional garden lighting that you have been using so far and also if you are willing to spend the time, replace your indoor lighting as well, partly at least if not fully.

The best solar energy advantage is that these solar power lights can last for a long time without any problems and also have large warranty periods. So check them out.

Hoping for a greener future,

Andy.

Solar Power Electricity – Renewable Energy Jobs

2010-08-13T20:47:00.000-07:00

We have talked a lot about the various ways by which you can install solar panels on your own house. I have also written many blog posts myself giving tips about "solar power electricity" and other things installations such as wind power at home. But one of the most important things that makes so many people think very seriously about solar power electricity is because of the exciting career opportunities that it has to offer. Just like other "renewable energy jobs", solar energy has a lot to offer for freshly graduated college graduates and also can help people from various industries such as engineers and scientists in various fields.

The predicted growth rates for the "renewable energy jobs" are very high and are expected to match that of other technologies such as that of "fuel cells" and the petroleum industry as it stands today. Because of these continuously changing standards and expectations from this industry, this industry is expected to generate a lot of jobs in the market. The fact that "photovoltaic cells industry" is predicted to be one of the fastest growing technology in the whole world makes renewable energy jobs easily a very promising and exciting industry to look forward to. Also, the various solar power electricity such as being a clean and reliable energy source helps the industry further. The awareness being brought about about these sources of energy makes it further widespread.

The demands that this industry places on the workforce requires the use of skilled professional who are simply way too small a group in the existing workforce that works at the industry today. Also, skilled training will be required to train the workforce and to make them understand about the industry tha they are working in and what al they need to understand about the ins and outs of this job. Also, the young college graduate could find "renewable energy jobs" a good place to work at considering not only the various solar power electricity but also because of the fact that unlike other traditional jobs, this is still an emerging field that is looking for skilled workers and hence there is lesser competition and scope for improvement for the young graduate. Thus, getting specialists who can do the work that is required effortlessly is a primary and prioritized agenda for the employers of the companies in the solar energy industry. This is the reason why there has been a lot of programs by "solar energy companies" that address this issue and recognize the need to resolve it efficiently.

The requirements these renewable energy jobs

To work in the solar energy industry or any renewable energy industry for that matter, you require a regular degree and preferably have taken up professional examinations in various sciences. Also, an orientation towards business courses or knowledge of the industry is considered to be an advantage. Engineers are also preferred because this field comes very much in the studies of electronic engineers and engineers in other fields as well. Applicants who have gone on to get their masters degree or doctorate degrees in particular fields of specialized engineering such as in electrical engineering is also very helpful for employers to find the perfect match for the vacant job and the applicant's qualifications.

However, during recent times, there has been the growth of an increasing number of colleges in the United States and other places which offer courses specifically related to "renewable energy jobs". This is another perfect example of "solar power electricity" being made good use of. These courses are being offered in both the master's degrees as well as the undergraduate or bachelor's degrees both of which specialize in solar energy technology such as Photovoltaic cells and other renewable energy sources.

Germany and Australia however are miles ahead of other countries in offering education specifically for renewable energy jobs. Germany is different though because it is the world leader in photovoltaic cells industry and is aeons ahead of other countries in terms of the solar energy industry. Germany also has the world's largest installation of "solar power installations" and aims to install power stations of much higher capacity next year. Germany alone generates more than 10,000 jobs every year and increasing in the field of solar energy advantages renewable energy jobs.

Australia, too, offers highly specialized courses for solar energy and for renewable energy jobs. The colleges in Australia offers courses which are nationally and internationally recognized as valuable certificates. It highly specializes in offering energy efficient building designs that make proper use of "solar power electricity".

Opportunities for people of all types of skills
While college graduates are the most preferred in the renewable energy jobs offered, like every other industry, the solar energy industry also hires people with lesser expertise for lesser paid jobs. Workers, labourers, lab assistants, caretakers are some of the other types of people who are required in large numbers by this industry. This number is expected to further increase in the coming years and even more in the space of a couple of decades. Labourers are very much essential because of the nature of this industry where there will be a costumers requiring help with installation. Of course, skilled labourers are always highly sought after and there is a big difference between just normal labourers and skilled labourers with the latter in high demand.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the renewable energy jobs in the coming years are expected to blossom a lot and increase to a large extent leading to further expansion of the industry. This is not only the "solar power electricity" industry but also other renewable energy sources industry such as wind energy and geothermal energy and even tidal energy and hydro power installations for that matter. So whether, you are a newly graduated college aspirant or a person in the top of a company with sufficient management experience, it is time for you to get excited about this industry and get yourself a piece of the pie.

To a greener future,

Andy.

solar power electricity Renewable energy jobs

Different ways to Save on Electricity Bills

2010-08-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

There are plenty of websites online which offer different guides to cut on your electricity bills and "save on electricity". There have been a lot of people looking for practical solutions to save on electricity. Some of the various solar energy advantages is that you can cut your energy bills every month. In fact, it has become quite a common thing for various businesses to try and cut on their costs. For businesses, this does not only involve making better deals with their buyers and competitors but also making sure that internal costs are also cut upon. It is important to make sure that this happens as internal costs such as cost for maintenance and pay for employees are some of the most significant costs for many large businesses. Also, most people who own swimming pools also try to makes sure that they cut down on those costs as well. If you are looking for online resources where you can get an approximate idea of how much money you can actually "save on electricity", head over to findsolar.com for a free calclulator that even takes into account various tax benefits offered by the government for people who generate their own power with the help of renewable sources of energy such as solar energy.

The calculator is mainly for US and Canadian states. People from other countries can look up on the various benefits provided and manually arrive at how much you they can actually "save on electricity". At the end of the session with the calculator, you will get a full report saying exactly how much electricity you can actually save.
Anyway, there are plenty of ways using solar energy that you can cut on your electricity bills. One such easy way is to cut on your heating. According to statistics provided by the Energy Department in the United States, it has been proved that heating accounts for almost as much as 25% of the total energy needs. So setting up your own solar heating panels is not a very tough job to do. Once you have successfully done that, all you would really have to do is to spend a little bit every now and then on maintenance and that is the only money you will be saving. Although, you may have to shell out a little bit of money initially to spend on these solar panels or photovoltaic cells or whatever that is that you are planning to get, once you have spent a couple of years using these solar energy equipment and solar panels, you will actually save up a lot of money which can be as much as hundreds of dollars every month.
Another way to "save on electricity" would be to get your own small scale version of windmills. This, of course, depends heavily on whether or not you live in a place where there is heavy sunshine and heavy wind. But the latter is extremely important if you are planning to set up a mini-windmill. But the former, that is to save on electricity with solar energy, it is preferred but not completely necessary to have bright and intense sunshine every day. Using other renewable sources of energy also helps. These are some of the short and simple ways that you can save on electricity bills every month.

Solar Hot Water Panels – A brief buying guide

2010-08-09T22:17:00.000-07:00

Cheap Solar Panels or Used Solar Panels– Where to find them?

2010-08-06T21:03:00.000-07:00

Many people these days are seeking to get the best out of their hard earned dollars and of course, no one likes to see their money go to waste. So, this blog post is on cheap solar panels and how you can go about finding them. The trick to finding cheap products, whether it is cheap solar panels or any other product, for that matter is to know where to look for them. Well, one of the best ways to find cheap solar panels is to get yourself used solar panels about which I will soon talk about. Of course there are also plenty of new solar panels that are available cheap online. But what I will tell you below is how I went about finding cheap solar panels and may or may not work for you. So, heed my advice and good luck on finding the purchase that fits you the best.

1. Head over to your city's popular "stuff on sale" place
One of the best ways to find cheap solar panels is to begin by looking around in your own neighbourhood if anyone is planning to put up their panels on sale. The best way to do this is to head to either popular local website where people put up advertisements about various items that they have on sale or to check by asking people around. For example, I live in Canada and kijiji is the popular classified ads website here. That's where I was able to find very cheap solar panels. Similarly, you can head over to craigslist or eBay to find cheap deals online. One of the best advantages is that you can save a lot of money on delivery services and other things such as taxes and insurance by doing it this way since you are getting stuff locally and not shipping great distances for this item. Also, you can drive over to pick it up and reduce chances of damage when the item is being packed for delivery.

2. The easy and better option, Do it Yourself

There are plenty of guides and ebooks online that can tell you how you can easily build solar panels of your own by purchasing some of the component parts and assembling them together to build your own solar panels. This is one of the cheapest solar panels that you can get since you are saving money by not buying the end products which normally always tend to be more expensive. Some such examples of Do it yourself build cheap solar panels can be found on the homepage of this blog – Solar Energy Advantages

3. How to find new solar panels that are very cheap?
The advantage with buying new products is that you get something really important; warranty. I actually learnt this the hard way. I bought a cycle from one of those thrift stores and it soon became a problem as it had faulty brakes. So I had to go all out and spend a lot of money to get a new bike. Similar to this, you get warrant for a couple of years when you buy new cheap solar panels. Since it is solar panels that we are dealing with, the warranty can be for as long as 20 years. But of course, the draw back is that they are expensive.
Here's one trick to successfully find the cheapes new solar panels. Do not buy from retailers. Retailers can be a big rip off as they are looking to make profits as well and hence they overprice the product. So head over directly to the manufacturer's website and either contact them or just order it directly from them to find a cheap deal. Also, of course make sure that you are buying from credible manufacturers and not from people who are just pure scam. Also make sure that the warranty is genuine. Also, auction sites would definitely be the way to go and are a great way to find cheap solar panels.

4. Used Cheap Solar Panels

Used Solar Panels are a great way to cut costs. But it is always useful to talk to the person who is selling the various parts face to face. This will help a lot as it will make sure that you know exactly what kind of product you are buying and will give you an idea about its productivity and usefulness.

There are some factors that you would need to consider when buying used solar panels, first and foremost is whether it is too old to use. Age is a really important factor if amorphous or crystalline silicon is not used in building the solar panel. If the above type of silicon is used, then there need not be any sort of worry with regard to age as it does not really matter even if it is really old as it can still be really efficient.

Another important factor to be considered is to actually test the used solar panel before sealing the deal with the person who sold the cheap solar panel to you. It is important to make sure that there is a steady flow of current and that there are no problems or fluctuations which may happen due to rust or other forms of damage such as corrosion.

The best place to find cheap solar panels is of course, the one place where you can buy a lot of stuff for cheap – eBay.

If you have never used eBay before, then don't worry. It is really simple to use. Simply head to www.ebay.com. You will get redirected to your local website of eBay and then you can click on register as a new user and register by providing all your details by filling up all the forms available on the website. Once you have done that, all you need to do is to go through ebay where they have a lot of guides which explain in simple terms how to get familiar with the interface and start using it immediately. Search for something like "cheap solar panels" or "used solar panels" and try to find people who have put them up for auction locally where you live. This is how I got to find very cheap deals. eBay is definitely the way to go.

I hope you were able to find the cheap solar panels that you were looking for and hope that you found that it works for you properly. Whether it is new or used solar panels, it is important to make sure that they actually work out for you.

For a greener planet,

Andy.

Green products – Can they help Save the earth?

2010-08-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

We have been reading newspaper articles and news flashes in various websites for a long time about the earth warming up and how it is affecting us humans and other living things on earth such as trees and other animals very badly. Various organizations such as "Greenpeace" have been very active in getting people to take steps (such as using green products) to make sure that the earth will not end up in a situation where our children and grandchildren are not jeopardized by the effect of pollution and using fossil fuels such as carbon dioxide and methane and chloro fluoro carbons (CFC's) that we are releasing in tonnes into the air. Due to global warming, the earth is getting really hot although it is not something that we feel as in the way you feel a change from winter to summer. This is also known as global warming and there is sufficient evidence provided by scientists to prove that this is indeed being caused by various human activities such as massive deforestration and the heavy use of automobiles. According to various statistics available on Wikipedia, there is sufficient proof to say that most of the pollution is coming from the developed countries. Very much at the top of the list when it comes to carbon di oxide emissions every year is the United States. China comes in at first for total carbon dioxide emitted where as the US is way ahead of everyone else when it comes to per capita emission of carbon di oxide. Furthermore, this is an issue that needs to be addressed especially in rapidly growing developing countries because other developing countries such as India is moving up the list very fast to catch up with China and the US as more manufacturing is taking place in that country.

Do we as citizens really want to leave the future citizens of our planet such as our children and great grandchildren with an unhealthy environment to live in? That would be indeed be called irresponsible and it is us who would be blamed. It is time that we all took up the cause of saving our already degrading environment and do something to help save all the trees who have been providing us with the healthy oxygen that is very much necessary for us human beings to survive for hundreds of years. Because of our actions, it is not only us who are getting affected but also other living beings such as trees or all the innocent animals on this planet that are being affected by the emission of harmful gases such as carbon di oxide and methane.

So what steps can we take to stop the spread of pollution and deforestration? Well, there are many answers to that question and one of them is to start using green products. What are green products and how can they help us in saving our environment? Well, I aim to answer that question as best as I can in this blog post.

We need to take certain steps to make sure that the earth does not lose all the green and beautiful trees that populate this entire planet and have been here for a much much longer time than the humans. The first thing that comes to mind whenever someone mentions green products is "vegetarianism". There have been plenty of claims and and plenty of research done on vegetaraians and it has been proved over and over again that vegetarians are not only one of the healthiest and fittest people on this planet but also the fact that being vegetarian actually helps our planet and trees and all our natural resources to flourish. This is indeed great news for people looking to understand what term "green products" mean. The reason why you are actually helping the environment by being vegetarian is because of this:

When you are eating products that comes from different trees and plant products such as vegetables and fruits, you are saving the animals from being butchered and eaten but also you are helping in reducing the amount of carbon di oxide presence in the atmosphere by consuming natural products.

Furthermore, you are making it possible for most animals to survive for a longer time thus helping in maintaining ecological balance in today's depleting animal kingdom. Also, there has been the fact that people in developing countries such as India and China are increasingly starting to become meat eaters as a result of the people there becoming richer. Thus, it is important to spread the awareness about green products properly. Now, keep in mind that I am not suggesting that you should totally abandon meat and start eating vegetables only. Being a meat eater myself, I would find that tough too. But you can help by reducing the amount of meat that you consume and replace it with "greener" substitutes instead. Besides meat products contain various diseases in them that can play a role in damaging the body too. Consuming green products will also solve the obesity problem which currently plagues most parts of North America. So try to do your best. Let's move on to see what else you can do save our "green" and blue planet.

I have been talking a lot about solar energy advantages in this blog. The great thing about solar energy is that it can help save a lot of money. You can use solar heaters to heat up your air and water. In fact, solar heaters are one of the most widely used applications of solar energy so far. Although solar panels made up of a lot of solar cells or photovoltaic cells are also becoming very popular, solar heaters are the most practical solutions to meeting the energy needs in an average household. This is because when air or water gets heated with the help of electricity, it consumes a lot of power and this can be eliminated by the use of solar water heaters or just solar heaters. So make sure you start using more green products and make use of solar energy advantages.

To a greener future,

Andy.

Solar Power Electricity – Solar Panel Batteries

2010-08-02T18:09:00.000-07:00

There are many advantages about solar energy that makes it one of the most desired source of renewable energy available for commercial use in the whole world today. One such advantage of solar power electricity is that you can use solar panels made up of photovoltaic cells to generate electrical energy and then use it for other purposes such as storing electrical energy by using solar panel batteries. Because of the awareness that has been circulated among the people about global warming and the various problems that using fossil fuels poses to human beings and our planet, there has been a lot of interest expressed in solar panel batteries that make proper use of solar power electricity. A solar battery is a clean energy source and does not emit harmful gases such as carbon dioxide and methane etc.

Also, the advantage with solar energy is that in case of days when the sun is not shining not so bright, or during the night when the sun is not shining at all, you can use your traditional and normal source of energy to generate the electric power. In this way, you are not actually losing anything at all. You are actually using solar energy when you can and the sun is shining and during other times you can use power from your utility company just like any one else. Solar panel batteries can actually save up a lot of power that would have otherwise been tonnes of coal burnt up. So the efficiency of solar cells or photovoltaic cells is not so high unfortunately and there has been a lot of innovation and research being put into this by a lot of scientists in this field to try and increase the efficiency of these solar cells.
Furthermore, the operating costs or maintenance costs of these photovoltaic cells is very low. Basically what this means is that once you do the initial investment to get solar panel batteries set up in your home, all that is left to do is for you to wait for the next decade or so and just receive the profit that it generates from the free energy. Photovoltaic cells use the highly popular element that is used in most conductors today, silicon. This just totally revolutionizes the way electrical energy has been produced in the past and does make it an attractive source of renewable energy for people to install in their houses.
Basically, there are two plates in a typical solar cell or a solar panel battery. One of the plates is made up of a mix of silicon and phosophorus and the other is made up of a mix of silicon and boron. This is because silicon has 4 valence electrons and boron has 3 and phosphorus has 5 valence electrons. Hence the when the 2 elements are brought together, one of the plates has a lack of electrons and the other has one electron extra. For electricity to flow, this is what is required. You need a deficit of electrons and extra electrons. Then the two plates can be brought together or can be connected with a wire to make a simple circuit.
Many such cells when combined together make a panel or a grid. In this way, the photons from light is made use of in an efficient manner to generate electricity that can be used to power homes. One problem that people face, however, with these photovoltaic cells is the fact that the current generated is actually in DC mode whereas the various household appliances make use of AC (Alternating current) current. Therefore, one drawback is that you need to get yourself an inverter which can convert the incoming DC current into AC Current thus making sure that everything in the house runs properly.
The difference between a solar panel battery and the regular alkaline battery that we use is that a solar panel battery typically consists of a number of solar battery elements which are supported on a base plate. Thus, when the light strikes the individual solar panel batteries, the energy of the light makes little or no contribution for the photoelectric conversion is actually used to heat up the individual solar energy elements. Normally amorphous or crystalline silicon is used in the construction of these solar cells and there is the presence of at least one PIN junction. P-N junctions are also exposed to the incident light thus generating electron hole pairs. The P in P-N stands for P-type Semiconductor and the N stands for N-type semiconductor. They are basically electron "holes" (or the lack of electrons) and excess electrons respectively. In this way, solar panel batteries produce electricity.
Solar panel batteries have a variety of applications in the practical world. They are used as a substitute for the dry batteries and have been used in a lot electrical equipment. Some places where these types of solar panel batteries or solar cells would be really valuable would be in a satellite high up in the air where there are no power lines or anything of that sort to power it up. Another place where it can be practically used is in places where there is very low power consumption. An example of this could include the watches that we wear on our wrists or even other things that we use such as calculators. The advantage with these small gadgets is that you do not even really need the sun to power them. If you are sitting on a table, for example, and need to use your calculator, even bringing them closer to the table lamp that you are using will do the trick. These too can have the batteries as a separate option to be used in cases when there is not sufficient light available. These solar panel batteries typically have really long lives ranging from 15 – 20 years compared to other batteries and are really economically sound option as well. Large scale photovoltaic cells are heavily used too. They are used a lot in Germany, which is the leader in solar energy development along with other renewable sources of energy followed closely by the United States and Japan. This makes solar panel batteries a really good solar power electricity.
To a greener future,
Andy.

Solar Energy History – A Brief Overview

2010-07-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

Solar energy history is immense. Contrary to popular belief, the uses of solar energy have been used from a very long time in the past and not just in the 21^st century. Although the useful properties of the sun were studied by ancient astronomers from almost 2000 years back by ancient Indian astronomers, actual serious developments that could be used for useful purposes happened only in the 19^th century around the time when the Industrial Revolution started to take shape. Once people in the 19^th century realized that coal and petroleum resources would not last for a very long time, various efforts were made to try and produce energy from other sources which led to the development of solar energy as a source of energy which could be used for producing useful energy that could be used for day-to-day purposes.

Various efforts were made by scientists back in the 19^th century to try and make use of the energy from the sun and use its heat for useful purposes. Perhaps one of the earliest of such efforts was made by Auguste Mouchout, a French scientist who built a device that use the sun's heat to power a steam engine which helped to make ice. This was considered to be a breakthrough in the solar energy field by many people at that time. This was probably one of the first dates in solar energy history that can be considered pretty significant.

Now we have all seen what an important role electricity plays in our lives. Recently, there has been significant development in this field and there has been plenty of research done in this area. Perhaps one of the earliest attempts to convert this solar energy into electricity was made by Charles Fritz. In 1883, he built a solar cell that had a really good conversion rate of about 1%. Considering the fact that even the most modern photovoltaic cells cannot achieve effeciencies of more than 50%, 1% at such a long time back in solar energy history is indeed significant.

Mean while throughout the 1880's, there was constant research being conducted in the field of solar energy with more solar steam engines that were similar to the original model developed by Auguste Mouchout being developed by different scientists with constant improvements in the effeiceincies being made. There were various efforts made by people like Aubrey Eneas and Henry Willsie to try and develop solar energy companies that however did not become very successful due to various reasons.

Frank Shuman, another enterpreuner who saw the enormous potential in the solar energy field formed a company named Sun Power Co. Which was built over an area of more than 10,000 square feet to try and produce enough power to generate useful electricity. This proved to be only partly successful but had to be shut down because of the large costs involved. This was, however, in the early part of the 20^th century when the major part of the solar energy history was being developed.

It was in 1954 that the first major breakthrough was made in this field. Thanks to the development of silicon and other semi-conductors, Bell Laboratories became the first company to construct solar panels which had efficiency rates of as much as 6%. This subsequently led to the development of commercial solar cells which were pretty expensive and used in smaller devices such as calculators and watches. In the 1950's and the 1960's, these solar cells were developed on a bigger scale and were used in satellites to generate electricity for use inside the satellites. After that the solar energy history has literally snowballed into becoming one of the largest and most widely used industries in the world.

Recently, there has been the development and research involved in the solar energy field thereby encouraging many scientists to pursue this actively. More and more efficiency is being achieved in the photovoltaic cells these days making it possible for people to set up solar panels in their houses. Many countries and governments have also begun to use solar powered devices to generate electricity and provide tax incentives for those that do use solar energy to satisfy their energy needs.

This was a brief summary on solar energy history
and how solar energy has evolved into the energy source that it is today.

Cheers,

Andy.

Solar Energy Grants – How you can Save a LOT of Money

2010-07-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

Solar Energy Grants are said to be the driving force behind the reason why a lot of people have decided to set up solar panels or solar powered electricity systems in their houses. This innovative idea by various governments has helped save not only a lot of money but also our environment. This is because it helps and encourages more and more people to start using renewable sources of energy which in turns prevents tonnes of carbon dioxide which is emitted by cars, vehicles and industries every year. So what are these solar energy grants and how will they help you save money? Read on to find out how.

Before I do that, let me explain to you as to what exactly these solar energy grants
are and how they can actually help you save a lot of money. In the US, ever since President Obama came to power, there has been a lot of money spent in the renewable energy sector which amounts to billions of dollars. This has resulted in the realization by the government that the renewable sources of energy such as solar energy are extremely important for us and that the government must do all it can to try and encourage its usage. Therefore, this resulted in the relaxation in a lot of rules by the government for those individuals who do use these types of energy for generating their own energy and power supplies at home.

One of the main areas where these solar energy grants exclusively focus on is the energy taxes that a imposed on people who generate their own power. Keep in mind that this is not only for individuals but also for large businesses and corporations. Well, this is very helpful because corporations and businesses are always looking to save money and are constantly trying to please shareholders by making profits. Now, the taxes that are imposed on these corporations is a lot more than that imposed on individuals and this encourages these companies to look for ways to cut down on their costs. Since energy costs constitute a large part of the overall costs that a company spends every quarter, even a little money saved can turn out to be big. This is where renewable sources of energy such as solar energy and the solar energy grants come into picture. Unlike the typical citizen or individual who is always short of money to make a large investment, large companies always have a lot of money to spend and would not mind spending on solar energy especially if it promises returns.

However, keep in mind that solar energy is not the only source of energy for which grants are available. There are also plenty of other sources such as wind energy and geothermal energy which can be equally helpful in saving a lot of money for you as an individual or a business. The best part is yet to come. Because of the nature of the industry, you can be almost certain when you say that this will investment will pay off in the future. This is because solar energy is expected to be the source of energy that will fulfil all our energy needs in the future and therefore, the situation can only get better.

This is because the government will only make improvements and increase its spending on solar energy grants and try to make it possible for more and more people to start using it. Therefore, this means that you will have a big lead and advantage over everyone else when you set up your own solar panels and solar powered appliances in your house.

So make use of these various tax incentives and other benefits that you can get thanks to the various solar energy grants provided by your government and save money. Check with your city to see if you can get better deals and perhaps, more incentives.

Solar Energy Facts for Kids

2010-07-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of information on the internet about solar energy these days especially since it has become so relevant for all of us because of it is being considered as a natural replacement for other renewable sources of energy which is predicted to get exhausted soon. However, this information is pretty complex and has a lot of information that many people will probably not understand. Besides, there is a need for our children to learn about these facts because they are the future citizens of this world and they need to understand what is happening around them so that they can grow up to understand the importance of solar energy and implement it in their world for future generations. So in this blog post, I aim to write about the same information in simpler terms. Here are some solar energy facts for kids –

We all know about the different energy sources in the world today. From heat to electricity, we are able to survive in the world today thanks to the energy sources that nature provided for us which we used to form other sources of artificial energy such as electricity. Solar energy is considered to be one of the primary sources of energy because of which other forms of energy on the earth exist. Because of the latest innovations in this field, solar energy can now directly be used to convert to electricity and can also be used for a variety of applications such as for cooking food and heating water etc. This is considered to be a very useful energy source since the sun is expected to keep shining for another few millions of years which is more than enough for humanity. This is one of the main solar energy facts for kids.

All living beings directly or indirectly depend on solar energy to survive. Plants, for example, use a process called photosynthesis to convert the solar energy into useful forms of chemical energy that it then uses for survival. And since we also depend on plants for food, we also indirectly depend on the sun for food. This is another important solar energy facts for kids.

Various other applications exist for humans each of which is potentially useful in one way or the other for us. Examples include using solar energy for production for electricity and to heat water. Electricity is something that all humans completely depend on for survival and using a naturally available free-of-cost energy source such as the sun which means lesser taxes and free energy for all of us. Many governments in different countries have recognized this and have set up large solar power plants which are now generating a lot of electricity for all of us. Mojave desert is one such primary example. I guess that is the main solar energy facts for kids example that can be given.

So I hope you found it useful to read about these solar energy facts for kids.

Cheers,

Andy.

Solar Energy Science Projects – Some Interesting Ideas

2010-07-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

Solar Energy Science Projects are becoming something of a hit recently. This is due to the fact that many people are now starting to recognize the true potential of renewable sources of energy such as wind energy and solar energy. Therefore, as science students are the ones that are most involved in most science projects and are involved in research and development for science projects, it is not a surprise that they would consider solar energy as a wonderful idea for demonstrating its various uses in a science project. In this blog post, I will some of the interesting things that you can pursue for your science projects related to the solar energy field.

There are many solar energy science projects that you can consider. For example, recently there have been a lot of developments and research in the field that has resulted in the generation of plenty of ideas and inventions that have transformed the lives of many scientists and brought them fame. But, here's the fact that many people are yet to realize. This is that most of these inventions can now be used now with really very few tools and skills required. Basically all you need is some websites or guides that give out a DIY (Do it Yourself) guide that you can use to get the solar energy project that you need. Here are a couple of ideas as to what you can do.

Solar Cooker – This has become very popular in developing countries recently. According to Yahoo and other news reporting services, many villagers in places like India have started to make use of solar cookers to cook their food. Its popularity is due to the ease with which you can cook different varieties of food. Basically all you need is the classic lens-to-concentrate-solar-power idea. With the help of a powerful lens, you can concentrate the solar energy to an appliance which will convert this radiation to useful energy. There have been cases where enough temperatures have been reached such that rice can be cooked and enough to properly boil water etc. These are pretty impressive temperatures especially considering the fact that the solar cooker is a pretty small device. So here's what you need for this solar energy science project: 1. A lens that is powerful enough. 2. A box that is coated with black colour both on the inside and the outside (this is to get attract the heat towards the solar cooker). 3. A glass panel that covers the aforementioned box so that heat can be trapped thus increasing the efficiency of the appliance (this makes use of the greenhouse effect). So, now that you know what you need go ahead and build a solar cooker for your solar energy science project.
Solar Powered Car – Yes, this sounds pretty complicated and yes, it does sound pretty tough to do. But guess what, once you get this done, you will be really proud of yourself when you actually see your vehicle moving. If you are looking for a solar energy science project that can be completed very quickly and easily, then perhaps this is not for you. But what you do need to build a solar car is a panel of solar photovoltaic cells and of course, a car or a vehicle that it can be powered with. The working of this is beyond the scope of this article and I will cover it in a future post.
Solar Water Heater – This is probably one of the easiest "solar energy science projects" that can be accomplished in the shortest time possible. This is what I built for a couple of science fair and I put in a couple of tweaks in order to make it innovative and different from that of others. But what it involves is exposing a solar panel to the sun so that it can trap the heat from the sun which in turn heats up the water as well. So here's a list of what you need for a solar water heater: 1. A glass panel that is covered by glass at the top which is placed directly exposed to the sun. 3. Pipes that run across the length of the panel and these pipes should be long and coated with black colour.
Solar Pool Heater – Although this may not be the best science project since you need a pool for demonstrating its uses, it can prove to be very useful because of the amount of energy it can save. The working of these solar pool heaters is the same as for the described solar water heater described above except in a much larger scale.
Solar Powered Electricity - This is a very innovative idea that has been developed very recently by scientists and holds the distinction of being the most fast advancing technology in the world today. Photovoltaic cells are the brain child of various scientists and is a true example of how much mankind has advanced over the years. Therefore, this is one of the solar energy science projects that you do not want to miss out on. You should definitely consider doing this if you have the time as it can be achieved and is being all over the world by many countries in order to save a lot of money and pollution from non renewable energy sources. All you need for accomplishing this is a solar panel which can generate electricity with the help of solar cells or photovoltaic cells. The complete working of this appliance is beyond the scope of this post but you can check out some of the other blog posts in this blog to learn more about it. You can also choose to follow DIY projects such as Earth 4 energy for finding a quick solution for this. Head to the homepage of this blog to learn more.

I hope that one of these ideas helped you find the best science project that you have worked on so far. There are plenty of different ideas other than the ones mentioned above that can be used for a successful solar energy science project. But depending on the time and the amount of work you are ready to put in, you can choose the solar energy science project that works the best for you.

Cheers,

Andy.

Solar Power Electricity – Some other Solar Energy Benefits

2010-07-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

I have talked many times previously in this blog about the various "solar energy benefits". One of the biggest solar power electricity advantages is that you get to help the environment a lot. Our planet is suffering a lot in terms of problems such as global warming and other problems such as deforestration etc. Deforestration is indeed a serious problem and is a big problem because trees are cut down to help meet our electricity needs. But of course this problem can be eliminated by using solar energy to meet our electricity needs. Anyway, I will address the issue of deforestration in another post. Of course one of the biggest solar energy advantage is that you get to save a lot of money on this. So anyone looking to save money either on their electricity bills or just on other things such as taxes etc. can benefit tremendously with the usage of renewable sources of energy and taking advantage of natural resources that are abundantly available. Also, it is a really interesting project to work on especially if you are looking to engage in some interesting activities or just do something useful in your spare time or give back to society something useful. Anyway, now that we have addressed the "why" of solar energy, now it is time to address the "how" of solar energy benefits.

The energy that all other energy sources are derived from

Of course, please do not misread the title. When I say "all other energy sources are derived from", I am referring to all the other energy sources that we use on earth. Other stars are self-sufficient and do not depend on the sun to generate energy. Of course, no offense to any of you for underestimating your obvious knowledge about this. J. However, there is indeed one exception to this rule. This exception is geothermal energy. This energy comes from the core of the earth and is independent of solar energy since the planets were formed millions of years ago. All other sources of energy on the earth such as chemical energy, energy in plants, mechanical energy etc. directly or indirectly. For example, all living beings on earth depend on the sun for survival and for satisfying basic living being's needs. The energy that we get for moving our hands and other parts or muscular energy comes from food which indirectly comes from other living beings which in turn make use of solar energy for survival. In this way, every source of energy is in some form or the other dependent on the sun. Another exception to this rule again is nuclear energy which comes from the atoms and is independent of the sun completely. I need to check this up properly before i state anything. So do not cite my source.
One of the most exciting areas of growth in solar energy and a big solar power electricity advantage is the technology of photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic cells technology has been termed as the fastest growing technology in the whole world. This is great news indeed for all the countries and the governments looking to set up solar power plants or solar power installations utilizing solar energy benefits to meet their electricity needs.
This is very similar to the solar panels that some people have in their houses except that it generates electricity on a much larger scale. But Photovoltaic cells or PV's are used in both cases.
It is a known fact that most people in the united States and other countries in Europe make the most efficient use of solar energy to support more than upto 20% of their energy needs with the help of these solar power installations thus helping by saving a significant amount of money. Therefore, since the sun shines very abundantly in most places in the world, it is not exactly very tough to make use of this energy and convert it to other useful forms of energy. Therefore, anyone looking to cut their electricity bills need to consider solar power electricity very seriously. This makes it a very nice are for research and development as well.

How much money can I save with solar power electricity?

This is one of the most commonly asked questions when it comes to people who are considering whether or not to set up and install solar panels in their houses. But this is sort of a tough question to answer as it depends on a lot of independent factors. One of those factors is how much space you have available to set up these solar panels. Space is important as the more space you have, the more solar panels you can set up and the more electricity you can produce and the more heated water you can have. Of course, the initial payment for these may look a little intimidating. But let me tell you that many people including myself have overcome this initial investment after a couple of years. As a matter of fact, you also start to make money after a certain point of time. You should look at it as an investment rather than as "solar power electricity cost".

The other advantage with solar power electricity is that you use this solar power along with the traditional energy sources that you already have. The way this works is that there are times when you cannot make use of solar energy such as during night times or during cloudy or rainy days. In such cases, you can set it up in such a way that traditional energy sources can be used when there is no opportunity for solar power to be produced. Even something as little as 15% to 20% of savings on your monthly electricity bill can go a long way in saving money for you. So go make the switch to solar by using the various solar power electricity advantages and save money for not only yourself but also help your planet and your future generations.
To a greener future,
Andy.

Solar Power Kits – How to generate your own electricity

2010-07-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

Solar Power Kits are basically Do it Yourself kits which could be used to do a lot of things including generating your own electricity using solar energy advantages to power your own house or even for other simpler purposes such as using simple single solar cells instead of a battery for your calculator or your wrist watch. These solar power kits are extremely valuable in today's world where there is an urgent need for people to get away from the rising energy crisis. Also, since in most places bright and intense sunshine is received almost everyday, these solar power kits can make use of these solar energy advantages by getting useful energy for you to use in your house. Unlike popular rumour and talk, solar power kits are not all that tough to build. Even someone who is not all that experienced in building things can get this done really well. All it takes a little bit of time and dedication to the work and you may have solved the problem of energy needs and also saved a lto of money in the process. Read this brief blog post to learn more about how you can do this effectively without complicating things a lot.
There are different types of solar power kits which make use of solar energy advantages in different ways. There are some solar power kits in which all you have to do is utilize the assembled parts to put two and two together to make an effective solar power panel or whatever it is that you are planning to build. There are others where everything is already assembled and you just have to use it. However, these tend to be more expensive and just like in the case of computers, it is better if you assemble your own solar power kits. If you want to make more electricity and use it effectively, it is highly recommended that you use solar power kits that are built by yourself.

Making your own Solar Panels

Solar Power Panels are one of the easiest equipment to design using pre assembled solar power kits. Since Solar Panels are in so much demand today and so many companies prepare solar panels by themselves and sell it commercially to people. This would definitely be a credible option. These are also, however easy to assemble by yourself. All you would have to do is to get small power generating single solar cells and combine them using some sort of soldering process to hold the cells together which would in turn prepare the solar panel that you seek. You can then use some sort of a container to make sure that the cells stay in place and also to serve as a platform at the base. Then you would need to get properly conducting wiring to make sure that electricity flows smoothly and use that to connect your components together. There you go, now you are all set to generate your own electricity with the help of solar panels that you prepared. And guess what, they make use of solar energy advantages and hence you are producing practically pollution free energy which does not release harmful gases that pollute the environment.

How to build the Solar Power Kit

Once you have made your solar panel and prepared it for building as described in the step above, the next step is to assemble it and build it together. Some of the things you would need are silicon PV modules, charge controllers, Sealed batteries, and sine wave inverters. Wiring, hardware for mounting and fusing equipment between the components are some of the other things you would need in addition to the electrical equipment required above. The silicon PV modules can be around 32 Watt amorphous silicon PV module with about 12 Volts and the charge controllers capable of handling current of about 6 amp. The sealed batteries can have a capacity of about 92 Amp-hour and the sine wave inverters about 800 Watts. The wiring is extremely important as it is considered vital for you to determine which parts of your house the wiring goes to in order to power the correct parts of the house.

The Location of Your Solar Power Kit

It is important to remember that the Solar Power kits that you assembled are placed in a location where sufficient sunlight is received. This is the reason why most people decide to put it up in places where the most sunshine is received such as the roof top. Also, it is incredibly advantageous if you can build this at places when you are planning to build your house rather than after, because it will help put the wiring at the right parts of the house. For all practical purposes, this should not take more than a week or so especially if you know what you are doing.

Power Generation

One problem that you may encounter is that you would require inverters to convert the DC power that you get from your solar panels to AC power which your household appliances use. Once you have done that, you can be convinced that your solar power kit is ready and you can start using it effectively to start using solar energy to power your homes. They are helpful in that they help in reducing your electricity bills.

In conclusion, I can say that while solar power kits can be obtained if you are willing to put in the hard work necessary and spend some time on it, the toughest part is connecting it to the household applicances. One problem as I mentioned before is that the electricity produced in "DC" mode and the appliances inside the houses make use of AC. Therefore, it is important to make sure that you plan ahead and use solar power kits to your benefit. Also, consider the help you are offering to society and the environment. You are helping in making a big difference which also makes you feel really good. Feel free to comment below in case you have any questions.

For a greener planet,

Andy.

How Solar Panels Generate Electricity?

2010-07-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

In whatever way electricity is generated, the principle behind how it works is the same. Electricity is a phenomenon that occurs due to the flow of electrons. When it comes to "how solar panels generate electricity", we should once again think of the same principle and apply it here as well. The basic reason due to which there is the flow of electrons is because of the energy that the photons contain in them.

To further enhance your understanding of how solar panels generate electricity, I have compiled here facts from various resources on the internet to help you understand the facts better. Let us first start with the material that is used in these solar panels. These panels are made from a variety of materials among which silicon is the basic element used. For those interested in details, there are actually different types of silicon that is used. Those include amorphous silicon, poly crystalline silicon and mono crystalline silicon. Silicon in its bare form i.e. in the form of the basic element becomes the perfect material to conduct or transmit electrons through it. However, sometimes impurities are added on purpose to enhance this transmission of electrons.

To go even deeper into the chemical nature of the silicon atom and to learn why it is the ideal element for solar panels to generate electricity, read on. There are basically four types of orbitals viz. s, p, d, and f type orbitals. The number of electrons that fill up these orbitals determine the chemical nature of the atom and hence, also whether the atom or the compound eventually formed from the atom is able to transmit electrons effectively or not. Bands are in turn made up of orbitals and it is because of silicon's electron distribution in the bands that makes it so good for use in solar panels. They carry four electrons in their outer bands thus leaving empty space for four more to come and sit in to the empty shells. Remember from the basic atomic laws in chemistry that atoms don't like to leave empty spaces lying around. The aim of every atom that exists is to fill up its empty shells or bands with electrons and hence become stable. Silicon needs four more electrons to do that. The thing that is special about silicon is that it can either give away its four electrons and have completely full inner shells thus becoming stable or gain four electrons. However the compound Si2 is the ideal compound for stabilization as the two silicon atoms can share the four electrons from the other and hence creating a strong sigma bond. Keep in mind, however, that this compound is not polar and hence there are no distribution of charges across the 2 atoms that just combined to form a molecule. Since this bond between the two silicon atoms is so strong, it can last for years to come. Hence, this molecule is used to form the basic structures in solar panels.

However, there is a drawback to this situation. We know that for electricity to flow we need opposite charges to attract and repel the negative electron charge. So the scientists who were conducting research on this found out a way to induce this charge without having to sacrifice the use of silicon. If we go just next to silicon in the periodic table, we will find phosphorus. This element has 5 electrons sitting in its outermost band. It is willing to give them away in order to become stable.

That's why in order to "generate electricity from solar panels", we need to combine the two of them. In that case, we will have 9 electrons shared between the 2 atoms with both atoms stable because they have filled up shells and one free electron lying around for free.
However in order to make this free electron in the above molecule to flow across, we need an opposite charge. So, in that case, if we look at the opposite side of silicon as magnesium in the periodic table, we will find another element with 3 electrons in its outer shell, Boron. This combination between Silicon and Boron will be the positive charge because of the "lack of electrons" and the former, the negative charge because of the excess electron. These 2 combinations form the opposite panels which are joined together in the case of a solar panel in order for it to effectively generate electricity and are both connected to conducting wires to transport or transmit these electrons thus generating electricity.

Now that we have studied the material that is required to make solar panels generate electricity, it is time to consider the sun's rays that are falling on these particles which help in generating electricity utilizing the solar energy advantages. Going into quantum theory, we understand that the light from sun's rays are both particles and waves. The particle part is called as the photon and that's the part we are interested in. With so many photons in a small thin ray of sunlight, when the sun's rays fall on the PV (Photovoltaic) plate, there is a lot of energy coming from the sun and hitting the silicon phosphorus combination.

Because this results in excitation of the one free electron that is left free in the combination, it gets released from the compound and is now "free". However, the silicon boron plate is longing for an electron and sees the opportunity with the single free electron and grabs it. It attracts the free electron to itself and thus the flow of electrons is created. This is in a detailed way "how solar panels generate electricity". The energy generated from this single cell ( a cell is the combination of the two types of plates. ) is enough for nothing. Thus a lot of such cells can be combined huge amounts of electricity.

To give you an idea of how much electricity is generated from a single solar cell, think of your solar powered wrist watch or a simple calculator. That can be powered by this type of solar photovoltaic cell.

Effeciency is a big problem in the solar photovoltaic cells and is one of the factors that scientists are trying to improve upon when it comes to answering the question of "how solar powers generate electricity".

Hoping for a greener future,

Andy.

Photovoltaic cells – The science behind it

2010-07-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

Photovoltaic cells or PV's as they are also known are one of the smartest inventions of the 21^st century that has enabled people to make use of solar energy advantages and convert it into electrical energy which can in turn be converted into other sources of energy. Photovoltaic cells basically turn the energy from the sun by receiving the photons (light particles) and converting them into direct current electricity. Many materials go into the preparation of photovoltaic cells and the most common materials that are used include different types of silicon such as monocrystalline silicon and polycrystalline silicon. Other materials included are cadmium telluride and copper indium sulfenide. The research that goes into enhancing the technology for photovoltaic cells has been given a big boost thanks to the increasing demand for solar energy products. Many countries have made solar energy producing power plants an important part of their agenda and has made it an important factor to improve researching facilities that goes into the production of efficient photovoltaic cells.

The production of Photovoltaic cells has been growing at a stunning rate of 20% each year and photovoltaic cells have the privilege have the privilege of being called as the "fastest growing technology of the world". Most solar power stations today have capacities that range from 10-60 MW. Many of the new solar PV's have are expected to have capacities of more than 120 MW. When the technology of photovoltaic cells first came out, the manufacturing costs were incredibly huge. Thanks to the global awareness that has been circulating about the prevention of global warming and other similar problems that the whole world is facing, many countries now offer financial incentives for those who get solar energy panels installed in their houses for generating their own energy to support the needs for various equipment that they use in their homes such as electrical appliances and lighting etc. However, the average American household does tend to use a lot of the solar energy that they get from solar panels that they put up at their house for heating purposes as it is ideal for solar energy to convert cold water into hot water or cold air into hot air thus providing enough heat to keep the house warm or the water warm.

To talk scientifically and technically to explain the phenomena of the photoelectric effect, the various "electrons" get knocked into a higher state thanks to the incoming photons which has energy in it thus resulting in the generation of electricity. This is because electricity is generated by the movement of electrons. Thus the electrons that get pushed into a higher energy state get excited and result in the creation of electricity. Solar photovoltaic cells use sun light to produce direct current which is basically the type of current that is used to power equipment or recharge batteries. These solar photovoltaic cells find their practical usage in plenty of solar cars and other solar powered equipment such as satellites which are located at ideal places to use the solar energy to produce electricity. However, we know that most household appliances use AC to power the equipment used. Therefore, in such cases, inverters can be used to convert the DC produced by the photovoltaic cells into AC thus being able to power the entire house if used in a residential complex.

To enable large scale usage of photovoltaic cells that make use of the various solar energy advantages, many of these single photovoltaic cells can be combined together to form what we know as solar panels or modules. The basic structure consists of these photovoltaic cells being placed behind strong glass sheets in order to protect them from damage.
The worldwide usage of these photovoltaic cells is enormous and was close to 6 Giga Watts Peak in 2009. However, it shows that there is room for improvement in other countries, especially developing countries as 90% of this worldwide usage came from only three countries, namely, USA, Japan and Germany with Germany having the highest number of "solar photovoltaic cells" installation. Germany, so far, holds the record for having the highest electricity generating solar PV installation. It set up a 3,800 MW PV installation in 2009. The United States comes in at a distant second with about 500 MW installed in 2009. The difference, as you can see, is huge.

Another big solar energy advantage is that comes from utilizing these solar energy modules is the fact that it totally boosts the country's economy. This is a result of the enormous number of jobs that the industry can create and has created. Germany is the perfect example for this with over 10,000 jobs generated in the installation and production of these monolithic Solar PV panels. It is also the fastest growing solar energy market in the whole world. This is really great for the country as the amount of fossil fuel reserves are depleting as the years are passing and as opposed to that, the demand for solar energy and other sources of renewable energy is really increasing at a rapid rate.

One of the places where these photovoltaic cells are used a lot is in the power plants. At a close second comes the many buildings that can use anything varying from solar powered roofs to solar installations that are less than a couple of 100 square feet large in area.
Solar PV's are also used a lot in transport although this market is yet to evolve and become more efficient. Since the area required to power a car with the help of solar energy advantages is quite large, the car can become quite bulky which is contradictory to the normal styles of cars these days which are usually found to be tiny, slim, sleek and well, just "modern".

I hope that this "photovoltaic cells" post helped you in understanding more about them and consider getting some for your own house to generate what little electricity you can. Also consider my "solar energy advantages" posts found in this blog to learn more about making your own solar panels.

To a greener future,

Andy.

Different Renewable Energy Sources

2010-07-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

I have been writing a lot about solar energy advantages in my previous posts in this blog. We all know that solar energy is one of the best sources of renewable energy available out there. It generates a lot of energy and of course, we know that the sun shines at almost all places on earth except for the poles, of course and hence making it a really attractive source of energy to try and capture to be used efficiently. Unfortunately, one of the solar energy disadvantages is of course, the word "efficiency". Scientists are in a race to try and invent technology that will increase the efficiency of solar energy equipment including photovoltaic cells. But what about the other sources of renewable energy and how well do they convert into electrical energy. What is the availability of these other renewable sources of energy? Is it practical to even consider them as options for converting it into other sources of energy such as electricity? Find out by reading this blog post on the different types of renewable energy.
You may be surprised to know about the extremely high potential of some of the other renewable sources of energy such as Geothermal Energy. I, for one, had always thought that solar energy was, by far, the most practical source of renewable energy that could be converted into other sources of energy such as electrical energy. In one of my previous post, I had written about Mojave Desert, largest solar power installations in the world. The Mojave Desert which uses Solar Energy Generation Systems has a combined electrical capacity of 354 MW (megawatts). This is an immense amount of power and satisfies the energy needs of more than 500,000 people in the United States. If that is not whopping enough to think about, wait till you hear this. The Geysers Geothermal Power plants which has a combined rated capacity of more than 750 MW has more than 22 power plants in it. It is located in California and currently meets the electricity energy needs of more than a thumping 1.1 million people. This is an immense amount of power and is indeed for the environment as all it makes use of is the thermal power or the heat coming out from the core of the earth. However, equipment that makes use of solar energy still remains to be one of the most widely distributed equipment in the world and outcompetes other sources of energy by a pretty big margin. Wind Energy comes at a pretty close second.
One of the countries which meets about 20% of its automotive fuel needs through renewable energy sources is Brazil. It makes use of ethanol that is extracted from sugar canes and other sources and uses the latest technology to generate electricity from that. Ethanol fuel is also used a lot in large powers in the United States.
Let's take a look at what exactly the definition of renewable energy sources is. According to Wikipedia, "Renewable energy is derived from natural processes that are replenished constantly. In its various forms, it derives directly from the sun, or from heat generated deep within the earth. Included in the definition is electricity and heat generated from solar, wind, ocean, hydropower, biomass, geothermal resources, and biofuels and hydrogen derived from renewable resources."
Alright, so lets take a look at each of these renewable energy sources in detail.

Wind Energy: Although the energy generated from wind may not sound like much because it feels like part of everyday life, (at least that's how I used to think) wind energy is capable of generating immense amounts of power sufficient to meet the energy needs of a lot of people. Wind energy is used to rotate turbines
which in turn generate electricity with the help of the standard turbine technology used to generate electricity. Wind farms are places where a lot of wind mills are set up to generate electricity. These wind farms are typically located at high altitudes and basically areas such as the prairies where the wind is really strong. Offshore resources are also used a lot for setting up wind farms as they also receive as much as 90% more wind than land. Wind energy is clean, renewable and does not produce harmful gases such as methane or carbon-di-oxide.
Geothermal Energy: I already mentioned this kind of energy when I was talking about the Geysers and how much energy they are capable of producing. This is another popular renewable energy source that basically uses the heat or the thermal power coming from the core of the earth to convert it into electricity. Geothermal energy is generally converted into electricity using 3 types of power plants – dry steam, flash and binary. Although the initial costs for setting up geothermal power plants can be quite high, the operating costs are really low hence resulting in low energy costs.
Hydropower: Typically set up in places where there is a large flow of water such as waterfalls and rivers, hydropower generates huge amounts of power as it makes use of the kinetic energy of water. Hydropower is also available in other forms such as tidal power and ocean energy. Normally, huge hydro power stations are built along with big dams.
Biomass: Biomass is the energy that is derived from plants. Plants use a process called photosynthesis to convert energy from the sun into chemical energy. Thus energy from the sun is stored in plants as chemical energy. This energy gets released when the plants are burned. This is basically, the principle upon which biomass works.
Solar Energy: This is basically what
this blog is all about and you can find out more information about solar energy by going around in this blog. It is one of the widely used renewable sources of energy all over the world. You too should learn how to make use by browsing through the various solar energy facts available in this blog.

The above are basically the different types of renewable energy that are available and are widely used. Other sources include biofuel and using ethanol as fuel etc. Many countries and their governments are making use of these renewable sources of energy by setting up big power plants. Learn how you too can help by building your own solar panels and making use of the various solar energy advantages.

Mojave Desert – Largest Solar Power Installation in the World

2010-07-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

Since we have been talking about various solar energy advantages, I thought I would give you a detailed summary about some of the largest solar power installations in the world and how they generate a lot of electricity that is enough to support entire cities. Mojave Desert, which is located in certain parts of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, south western Utah and North western Arizona gets its name after Mohave tribe of native Americans. It is best known because of the large number of solar power plants which generates collectively over 354 megawatts (MW). There are several power plants in the Mojave Desert built from as long back as the 80's. According to Wikipedia, there are currently about nine solar power plants in the Desert. These power plants are also called as SEGS which stands for Solar Energy Generation Systems. The federal government of the United States plans to build more solar power plants in the desert among which is the Nevada Solar One solar plant which is expected to have a capacity of 64 MW. Mojave desert is one of the most ideal places for solar power generation as the solar radiation at this desert is among one of the best that is available in the US.

The south western part of the US receives some of the best amounts of solar radiation in the whole world and hence it is considered to be an ideal location for setting up power plants. It is said that the Mojave Desert receives up to twice the sunlight than other regions of the country. Therefore it is naturally an attractive place for setting up renewable sources of energy such as the solar plant which unlike non renewable sources or traditional sources of energy do not burn and pollute the air and consume only sunlight which is abundantly available unlike other fuels.

There are many incalculable factors when it comes to estimating the uses and benefits of fossil fuels. While the advantages are obvious (can be used to drive cars, and other automobiles), there are other factors such as pollution related health problems, degradation of the environment etc. that cannot be calculated exactly and is therefore, one cannot truly estimate the costs involved when it comes to non- renewable sources of energy. Also coming into the picture is factors related to buying fuel from other countries which can also turn out to be quite expensive. However, this is different with renewable sources of energy, especially solar energy because of the materials that are required to build set up this installation. This is because you are mainly using readily available materials that are available easily. This is indeed a big solar energy advantage.

Solar power towers typically use several tracking mirrors that are positioned at different angles to try and catch the sun's rays from practically any location in the sky it is at. These tracking mirrors are also called as heliostats. An example of such solar power towers is the solar one and solar two. They have the capacity to produce as much as 10 MW of power. One characteristic feature of the Solar Two was that it used molten salt to capture the son's energy and power. The hot salt could be used whenever needed to generate electricity. Astonishingly, it operated through clouds and even throughout the night. Solar two was later used as a telescope by the Californian Government.

Solar Energy Generation Systems (SEGS) – I told you about these earlier. These are the systems that are used primarily in the Mojave Desert. Here's some details regarding what they are used for and the future prospects for these systems. These SEG's were built by a company called as the Liz Industries which hails from Israel and were built in the 1980's. They generate a staggering 350 MW of power and are today used to meet the electricity needs of more than a staggering 500,000 people.

Trough Systems are normally parabolical in shape and this enables them to focus the sun's rays onto the grid or the panel at roughly 60 times the initial intensity of the sun. Now that is one place where you would not want to be standing at as that is an incredible amount of heat. These systems also have another unique feature. They use synthetic oil instead of the normally used water for circulating around the pipes inside the solar panels. This reaches temperatures of almost 750 F and is very hot once it comes out from the pipes. The hot oil is then sent to a generator or a generating station where an exchanger is typically used to convert it into electricity which is produced at the end by using the conventional steam turbines.

The Nellis Solar Power Plant, the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility and the Nevada Solar One are some of the very well known upcoming projects that is being considered by the Us Department of Energy. So now that you have learnt about some of the biggest solar energy advantages which is being utilized on a large scale all over the world. Many countries across the world are starting to utilize the solar energy to produce electricity on a large scale these days. In fact, it is vital that fast developing countries such as India and China make use of renewable sources of energy as they are going to become one of the biggest emitters of carbon di oxide, carbon mono oxide, sulphur di oxide and other similar harmful gases in the future. This could even facilitate the forming of really big holes in the ozone layer as well. This can be a big problem for humanity.

Make use of the solar energy advantages now and build a solar power system in your house immediately to start saving thousands of dollars in the future. Avail of various tax incentives offered by the government and save even more money.

To a greener future,

Andy.

Home Solar Power Systems – Are they easy to build?

2010-07-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of talk about home solar power systems from as the past couple of decades especially after all the growth and development that the solar energy area has been undergoing in the past decade or so. Further, immense advancements in technology has further made it possible for home owners and scientists to look at from a commercial and practical point of view and consider it as a serious competitor for other traditional energy sources. Also, solar energy has also taken big strides in the renewable sources of energy field and is way ahead of other renewable sources of energy when it comes to converting natural sources into useful energy such as electricity. The thing about electricity and the reason why many scientists get excited over converting renewable sources of energy is that it is very versatile and flexible. What I mean to say is that electricity can be converted to almost any other form of energy that we practically use in our day to day life. This is also one of the other solar energy advantages as it makes sure that all the solar energy is being efficiently converted into electrical energy. The other advantage with electricity is that it is efficient. In fact, that is one of its single highest advantages. Because it is efficient, the energy can be used in almost every way without losing a lot of energy. Anyway, now lets move back to the original topic of home solar power systems and look at the options that a prospective buyer has of getting one or buying one or installing everything by himself in his house.

I digressed a bit from the main point that I was going to talk about. This can happen to me from time to time and you may have noticed it if you have been reading the posts in my blog for quite a long time. Anyway, once again, getting back to "home solar power systems"...

Let's look at some of the advantages of home solar power. As each day and each month passes, many governments across the world are realizing the various advantages that generating useful energy out of solar energy has to both the people in the respective countries and to themselves as a huge money saver. Even the private sector is getting very actively involved and is viewing it as a huge money making opportunity. Any time that the private sector gets involved so actively, you know that there are profits involved. Also, with today's energy crisis turning out to be pretty bad, it does not come as a surprise that solar energy and other renewable sources of energy are being looked upon as possible solutions to this problem. Of course, fossil fuels need not be mentioned as being sources of pollution and being perfectly capable of harming the environment and our planet. Here's a fact if you have not heard about it before. Every hour, if all the energy that the earth receives is effectively used, then it will be enough to meet the energy needs of the whole population of the earth for an entire year. For those wanting facts, every day, one square feet of area on the earth receives as much as a thousand watts of energy. Photovoltaic cells or PV's or solar cells as they are known can be used in a large scale to convert this solar energy to electricity. The Mojave Desert is one of the perfect examples of the ways this energy can be used. It is located in California and meets the energy needs of 500,000 people by using solar energy.

Solar panels are basically made up a lot of solar cells and are designed to generate electrical energy from solar energy and are basically made up of a lot of individual solar cells or photovoltaic cells are they are also called. Ideally, they would have to be placed at places where the sun shines all day. Also, it would be even better if it could somehow be made sure that it is angled in such a way that when the sun is the brightest or the most intense, the solar panel receives all of the sun's rays in an efficient manner. As I had described before in one of my previous posts about the working of photovoltaic cells, silicon receives these rays and there are two plates of silicon-phosphorus and phosophorus-born which make sure that the electricity is conducted with a smooth flow of electrons. You have to make sure that you need other essential equipment such as charge controllers preferable around 6 amps and battery tanks to store power. The solar panel is built in such a way that this energy is stored properly when there is excess electrical energy generated.

The best part about home solar power systems is that if you happen to make extra power with the help of your solar panel, you can sell that power to your local utility company for money. This is also called as "net metering" and is basically the process where in government recognize people who generate their own power and seek to reward them by offering various financial incentives and tax incentives. You would have to pay lesser money in taxes than most other people. In "net metering" basically what happens is that your electric meter runs back and forth depending on how much extra energy or power you have generated.

Regarding the costs, the main factor that you would have to be worried about with home solar power systems is that the initial costs can be quite formidable. But it helps if you consult professionals such as solar professionals or professionals from your utility company to see if your house is fit to be used for generating power with solar energy. But, rest assured that you will definitely recover any costs that you may have gone through initially, in the long run when the home solar power system starts churning out some serious power for you sitting on the rooftop of your house.

To a greener future,

Andy.

Solar Energy Facts

2010-07-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

Since we are talking about the various advantages offered by solar energy, I thought I would write about some interesting solar energy facts that many people may be interested in knowing not.

This may further help in making you decide as to whether or not you should get solar panels installed in your house or not. If you would like to check out the various solar energy advantages that I wrote about in my previous posts, click on the link to check it out.

What can you do with Solar Energy?

Because the utilization of solar energy does not release harmful gases such as sulphur-di-oxide or carbon-di-oxide, solar energy is good for the environment.
Solar energy has a wide range of applications. Before the photovoltaic cell was invented, people used to dry their wet clothes by hanging them out in the sun. But, the photovoltaic cell is probably one of the best inventions that has completely taken the whole solar energy industry to a completely higher level. Other than that applications include the heating of water, generating electricity etc.
Many outdoor swimming pools are warmed with the help of solar energy. That is one of the best uses. Also, one of the other most popular uses is probably the calculators which have for long been making use of solar energy. Many other small appliances similar to the calculator use solar energy instead of batteries. It is also used for lighting purposes as well.
There has also been the ingenious invention of solar cookers which is basically a black box accompanied with a magnifying lens and coated with black colour on the inside so that the heat stays in and does not get reflected off. These sort of cookers are known to be very useful and have produced enough heat to cook rice and boil water and recently, even more than that.
This is probably one industry that economists would love to study since the demand supply curve for this is way too steep. There are more people wanting these solar power products than there are manufacturers who are supplying these. This is also true not just for solar energy but also for renewable energy sources. Hence it is a big industry and the "industry of the future".

Solar Energy Facts – Measuring Units and Conversion

Solar Energy is measured as Solar Power times the rate of conversion. Thus for all practical purposes, the basic unit used is kilowatt-hour. This is used rather than Joules because "Joules" is way too small a unit for all practical purposes when measuring solar energy.
To give you an idea of how much a kilowatt-hour is worth, think of a 60 watt or 100 watt bulb and dive 1000 by that to get the number of hours that bulb will burn for.
According to US Energy Information Administration's Statistics, "in 2008, the annual energy consumption by an average American household was 11,040kWh which is approximately 920kWh every month. Tennessee had the highest annual consumption at 15,624 kWh and Maine the lowest at 6,252 kWh."
To get an idea of the amount of energy used for lighting, here's what EIA had to say,

"EIA estimates that in 2007, about 526 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity were used for lighting by the residential and commercial sectors. This was equal to about 19% of the total electricity consumed by both of those sectors and 14% of total U.S. electricity consumption.

Residential lighting consumption was about 215 billion kWh, equal to about 15% of all residential electricity consumption. About 311 billion kWh was consumed for lighting by the commercial sector, which includes commercial and institutional buildings and public street and highway lighting, equal to 23% of commercial sector electricity consumption."

Solar Energy systems Facts:

A solar system that one typically gets for residential purposes usually consists of solar panels, batteries, inverters, wiring and deep cycle battery tanks etc.
If you want to know, how much does a home solar system panel cost? Then the answer would be anywhere between $5000 - $6000.
For an approximately, 1 kilowatt-hour home solar panel, you would require probably around 100 square feet area for setting it up.
The optimum time for direct sun shine on the panels would be from 10 AM – 2 PM. When the sun is shining outside, your hot water is practically free. And it can store up the energy for using it later on when you use it on cloudy days or during the night.
The warranty that these solar panels come for is normally very high. They are available for almost around 20 years.
It would be a good idea to have battery backup and you can go about in life just as normal since you can use everything just as normal for 24 hours a day even its bad weather outside.

Information about our Sun:

Sun rays travel at the speed of light (approximately 3 * 10^8 meters per second) and reaches our earth in a little less than 8 minutes.

Sun made life possible on the earth and it is because of that we have other energy sources that we use now such as coal and petroleum.

Miscellaneous Interesting Solar Energy Facts

Various ancient Indian astronomers scientists like Da Vinci and Gallileo studied the sun and predicted the uses of solar energy in the future.
The earth receives enough solar energy in a year to meet all the energy needs for the whole world in an entire year. Unfortunately, it is not being utilized efficiently.
Various solar powered aircrafts have broken world records for flying large distances using just solar energy.
Scientists are predicting solar flares from the sun spots in 2013 that could possibly cause a huge blackout and inflict heavy damages on the countries and their government. The earth's magnetic field is heavily influenced by that of the solar flares and studying space weather is becoming as important as predicting our daily weather. Scientists are predicting that any big disturbances in solar flares can cost a lot of money as the earth's entire magnetic field is affected by this. Our telecommunication and communication systems depend on the earth's magnetic field.
It is predicted that coal and petroleum will last for only the next 40 years or so. After that we will all be using renewable sources of energy.

DIY Solar Pool Heater – 7 important things you absolutely must know

2010-07-05T21:40:00.000-07:00

"Solar pool Heater" is a very good project to work on and until a few months back, I myself was very much involved in trying to build a do it yourself (DIY) solar pool heater. I finally succeeded in doing so and thought I would share some of the tips that I learnt along the way so that you could get install your own solar pool heater without any fuss. Also, if you are making use of all the various solar energy advantages, then you also probably know about other things such as installing your own solar panels or getting a solar heater that can generate heat for your house. Now, as the title promises, here is a list of 10 things that you must know before installing a DIY solar pool heater by looking up various guides online.

Outdoor swimming pools are better places to install solar heaters at – There is a very important reason why this is an important fact that you must consider for installing your own solar pool heaters. The heat generated by the sun warms the water that is directly exposed to it and helps a lot in generating extra heat that can save you a few valuable watts of energy that is otherwise being generated either by your solar pool heater or by traditional heating sources. However, indoor swimming pools can also be heated by solar pool heaters except that they need to be oriented towards the direction and need an outside generator to get the heat for you thus making it less efficient.
Use it along with traditional sources of heating – This is also important since there will be certain days in the year when either the sun will not be shining bright enough or the sun is just being a b&**% and hiding behind the clouds. On such days, your solar pool heater alone cannot generate all the heat needed and you will need your traditional heater to provide backup. But of course if you live in places such as a desert where there is no chance of this happening or other places where there is constant bright sunshine and no real need of traditional heaters, then it is even better since you are generating energy off of a free source, the sun. You, of course, are the best judge of this.
You are helping in creating a clean and healthy environment - This is indeed an important thing you must know since you need to be not only confident of opting for solar pool heaters but also proud of the fact that you are actually reducing the burning of tonnes of carbon dioxide every year and controlling all the pollution from affecting the various living beings of the earth such as trees and us human beings ourselves. You are also helping your own grandchildren and children grow up in a healthy pollution-free environment.
View it as a long term investment – Yes, when you first look at the initial amount of money that you have to put in to get your own solar pool heater,, it could be a little mind boggling (however, considering you are following a DIY guide online like the one found in the homepage of this blog, "Solar energy advantages" then you are actually saving a lot of money). But you need to cheer up and look at this as a long term investment just like you would when you make financial long term investments such as buying stocks and shares that pay off after a couple of years. You will easily recover your initial investment in a couple of years at the most.
How solar pool heaters work – These solar pool heaters work based on a very simple principle. There are solar panels that get the heat from sun which get preheated to about 10-15 degrees higher than air temperature. Here's a simple way to make you understand how a basic "solar pool heater" works. It uses a pipe which is coated with black colour that is long enough such that if you laid it out, it would cover half of the entire pool that you are planning to heat up. This pipe is laid out open to the sun and water is pumped through this. The water then gets heated due to exposure to the sun and due to the way that the black colour in the pipe attracts heat. The water from the pool gets recirculated back and in the process, again gets heated.
What you get if you get solar pool heating systems from companies instead of doing it yourself – Here's what the companies set up for you if you pay them for it. Instead of the set up that was described above, you will get a system wherein the same pipe is placed in a glass panel. This glass panel heats up the water inside the pipe and thus further heating up the water which can be used for your swimming pool. For this, you get charged $3000 although you get other things such as professional consulting to check if your swimming pool is actually good enough to set up solar pool heaters in.
Different types of collectors – This is another important thing that you will need to know if you are setting up your own solar pool heater. There are two types of collectors, "glazed" and "unglazed". The unglazed collectors are typically used for solar pool heaters and are the type of collectors that you will be using for do-it-yourself pool solar heating systems. The glazed collectors are typically used for smaller versions such as for hot tubs etc.

So I hope that the above information helped you in making a decision on building your own solar pool heaters. Make sure that you have checked out the various websites online for do it yourself guides and other important tips such as the ones in this blog post.

For a greener future,

Andy.
"Solar pool heater"

Solar Energy Disadvantages

2010-07-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

In my previous post on solar energy advantages, I talked about the various advantages that getting a solar panel of your own on your roof top can be helpful for you and why you should consider it a responsibility of yours in order to help not only our environment but also other people living in this planet and our own children and the future citizens of this world. In this post, I will list some of the disadvantages of utilizing solar energy. Although there are some good reasons that may make you decide against installing solar panel despite the many advantages, I want to remind you about one of the biggest solar energy advantage.

It is the fact that you can use solar energy panels in combination with your traditional energy provider that you have been getting for all these years. That way, you can use solar power during the day time when the sun is out and during the night time, you can switch back to the normal electricity that you were originally using. That way, you are helping as much as you can by installing solar panels and it will also help you save up a lot of money as well.
Okay, for those of you planning to install solar panels, you should probably be warned of the following disadvantages.

First and foremost, the initial cost of setting up a solar panel can be quite high and hence, you may have to shell out quite a bit of money to make sure you get the best tools and equipments to use for setting up your solar panels. Sometimes, some of the semi-conducting materials that you are supposed to use to make up the main part of the solar panel can set you back by quite a bit of money as they are pretty expensive. This tends to discourage a lot of people but what they and you, the "the prospective buyer" have to understand is that it is not difficult to make up for what you have spent because the money you have used up goes "practically
maintenance free" for a long time in the future. This, as a matter of fact can save you a lot of money rather than set you back. Consider this as an investment that will get you returns in the long term if not immediately just like financial investments give you returns over the period of a few years.
One question that most people planning to get solar energy panels for their homes ask is how they can get energy during the night time or on days when it is extremely cloudy or rainy. Here's a fact for all of you wondering about this. There is something called "net-metering" that can adjust your electricity meters such that you get charged for the exact amount you use and for making sure that any excess energy you produce can earn you money. Here's what awea.org has to say about this –

"Net-metering" is a simplified method of metering the energy consumed and produced at a home or business that has its own renewable energy generator, such as a wind turbine. Under net metering, excess electricity produced by the wind turbine will spin the existing home or business electricity meter backwards, effectively banking the electricity until it is needed by the customer. This provides the customer with full retail value for all the electricity produced. Under existing federal law (PURPA, Section 210) utility customers can use the electricity they generate with a wind turbine to supply their own lights and appliances, offsetting electricity they would otherwise have to purchase from the utility at the retail price.

But if the customer produces any excess electricity (beyond what is needed to meet the customer's own needs) and net metering is not allowed, the utility purchases that excess electricity at the wholesale or 'avoided cost' price, which is much lower than the retail price. The excess energy is metered using an additional meter that must be installed at the customer's expense. Net metering simplifies this arrangement by allowing the customer to use any excess electricity to offset electricity used at other times during the billing period. In other words, the customer is billed only for the net energy consumed during the billing period."
Another could-be problem is that if you need enough electrical energy to power your entire house, you will need a large area for installing solar panels. One possible solution that many people employ is to use the energy only for heating purposes or for other similar purposes instead of using it for electricity. But of course, if you have a big enough house or a big enough terrace, then there are no problems whatsoever as you can fill it up with plenty of solar panels that can generate plenty of electricity for you.
There is another problem that many people report and that is that solar photovoltaic cells depend on the location of the sun for maximum efficiency. But this problem can be overcome in many ways. One of the simplest and easiest ways is to get some special mirrors which can be placed in the appropriate positions so that they can reflect the sun's rays irrespective of what position the sun is in onto the panel and hence still be as effective. This has been the solution that has been suggested to most people having this problem and it has also worked for most of them.
There are also reports on TV Channels such as Discovery Channel and other news channels about solar powered cars. As optimum as this is, it can get quite bulky. We know that most youth today and most people who commute in cars desire to have the sleekest and the most efficient of cars. And because of that, this would probably not work out as the best car that has been built.

I hope that the above list of disadvantages did not discourage you from installing solar powered panels in your house. Just remember the fact
that there are a lot more advantages than disadvantages of installing solar paneles.

To a greener future,
Andy.

Solar Energy Advantages – Why you need solar panels on your rooftop

2010-07-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

We all know about the damage that carbon-di-oxide emissions from factories or from our own cars is causing to the environment. Many of us here are aware of this and want to help as well but are not really aware of how to do so. In this post, I will outline some of the many advantages of getting a solar panel of your own. This will help you make a decision on whether it is worth investing your time and money in or not.

Here are some Solar Energy Advantages:

1. An amazing investement which saves you a lot of money in the long-term future.Although you may have to initially invest quite a bit of money in getting various tools and utilities to build the solar panel in the roof of your house, in a period of one or two months you will have recovered the money back by saving on electricity and water bills and after that, since there are no taxes on using energy from the sun, it is FREE. (Grab it while you can.)If you use a lot of electricity, then the time for you to get back your money may be longer. But regardless of how much electricity you use, you will get back what you invested in at some point of time or the other.Depending on where you live, many governments offer financial benefits and bonuses for those who make use of the solar energy advantages.You can also actually make money regularly with this. If you generate more energy than what you use up you can probably sell it for various companies for profit. Thus, you can also view this as a money making venture.

2. One of the best "solar energy advantages" is that you save a heck of a lot of money on your electricity bill.Since you can convert the solar energy into electricity using photovoltaic cells or with the solar panel cells, you can use the electricity generated to charge up your electric car which saves you a lot of money in terms of petrol or diesel.A properly set up photovoltaic cell and solar energy batteries on your rooftop has been shown to produce more energy for an average American Household. This is really good news for those you planning to make use of the solar energy advantages.It is unaffected by how or when the prices of gasoline increases.The savings can help you buy your dream house or go on the dream tour in the many years to come. YOU are saving money on your own health too and helping the planet and your neighbours at the same time.

3. Renewable Source of Energy - Probably one of the biggest advantages of using solar energy is that it is clean, environment friendly and sustainable, thereby, helping in protecting our “once green” planet which is now starting to get seriously affected because of us human beings’ activities. Using petrol or diesel or any form of traditional fuels releases various poisonous gases such as sulphur-di-oxide, carbon-di-oxide, nitrogen oxide, chloro-fluoro-carbons (CFC’s) which are indeed extremely harmful to the environment and indirectly to the people as well. Since the number of cars manufactured is ever increasing and so is the number of manufacturing industries, there are no signs of this stopping. Hence it has become very important for us citizens to try and help our children and grand children enjoy nature just like we did when we were young. The many advantages of using solar energy helps in this matter. Because of the above advantages, by using solar energy you are not contributing to other global problems such as acid rain or global warming.Solar energy can be used everywhere as the sun rises and sets in almost all parts of the world. Thus there is no headache of transporting fuels or getting rid of radioactive waste as is in the case of nuclear reactors.

4. Flexible as you can also use traditional sources of energy in combination with the renewable sources - Solar cells are very versatile and flexible. Sometimes, you may find that it is cloudy or rainy or that the sun is not out to generate the heat for you. During such times, you can use something called “net-metering” to either use the stored up energy or you can switch back to traditional sources of energy. However, an efficient solar photovoltaic cell can store up enough energy to use even during the night. You can set up solar panels that need not necessarily rely on power grids or electric generators or any such thing at all. It can operate completely independent of power lines and is therefore the ideal source of energy to use in places where you may go to holiday like at a summer cottage thus again saving you money. By using solar energy advantages, you are also helping your own government and country as they need not have to import electricity or gasoline from other countries thus helping in creating a sustainable future.

5. Maintenance free - Once the solar panels have been properly installed using proper instructions, there are no maintenance requirements necessary all. It will function for years and years to come thus providing plenty of electricity to you and also saving you a lot of money. Say bye to monthly bills by getting a solar panel of your own. They function by themselves emitting almost zero noise and have no wierd smelly parts that can cause any sort of discomfort to any one. Once you learn how to set-up a solar panel the easy way, you can set up many more as and when you want depending on your family’s needs thus proving to be an exciting potential.

I hope that the above listed solar energy advantages convinced and inspired you to start thinking of solar energy seriously and try and get solar panels in your house as well. Any questions, feel free to comment below.

To your success,

Andy.

Welcome to my Solar Energy Advantages blog

2010-06-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to my blog,

I have been a proponent of saving our planet from the after effects of human activities that has left many living beings including us human beings ourselves in danger. I have long been a proponent of organizations which are doing all human beings in the world a favour by engaging in such activities which can help reduce the damage that we are inflicting even by doing simple things such as using our refrigerator or driving the car to another place, etc. Therefore, I have created this blog to make an active effort on my part to make people understand the need for using renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar energy advantages etc. which can go a long way in helping our environment, our trees, our planet, and of course ourselves.

In this blog, I plan to write about the various renewable sources of energy available to human beings and about how the solar energy can be utilized effectively in every single home by spending very less time and money thus creating a huge profit for you. Check out the links for the various posts in this blog and help make a difference in this world and help the future citizens, which includes your own children or grandchildren have a good future for themselves by making good and responsible use of the environment and check out some of the guides available in this blog to learn how you can make a difference. So I am going to stop with this introduction to my blog. So, help create a safer, cleaner and healthier planet by bringing into practice the guides and the tools mentioned in this blog. I will be focussing mainly on the advantages offered by solar energy. Hope you enjoy reading my posts.

To your success,

Andy Jerald.