Project 4 Solar Energy

Solar energy: is the energy that is derived from the
suns rays. The heat and light provided by the sun is
"collected" or harnessed by solar panels and converted
into a useful form of energy.

Subtopic

Passive solar energy --> which is solar power in
its most archaic and practical form

Active solar energy--> is energy that uses photovoltaic technology.
Purpose: to harness energy from the sun and then use special semiconductors to convert it to usable energy.

-Heat various substances
-redirected to maximize the growth of plants
-convert to electricicty
-natural lighting purposes so electricity can be saved
-traditional energy production

-solar energy technologies still remain costly alternative
to the use of readily available fossil fuel technologies
-solar installation where space is short and expensive
(such as inner cities)
-pollution can degrade the efficiency of photovoltaic cells
-clouds can reduce the energy of the suns rays
-during the night, expensive solar equipment will be useless
-location of solar panels can affect the performance, due to
obstructions from the surrounding buildings of landscapes
Advantages
-Solar energy is not geographically limited
-solar energy panels can be harnessed almost anywhere
without causing pollution
-no limits in terms of its applciations
-solar energy seems to be a solution for main sources of
renewable energy
-newer technologies enable us to store the solar electricity we harness through the use of solar power battery chargers
-some very poor villages in Africa use inexpensive solar collection devices for cooking and heating of water

-Two basic problems limiting the use of solar power
include energy intensity and cost of the technology
-for centralized collections of solar energy, large land
areas need to be covered with solar collectors in order
to gather sunlight
-focusing the energy to produce higher temperatures
leads to more energy loss, since efficient energy collection
systiems run at temperatures closer to the temperature of
the environment around the collector
-solar energy technology is relatively expensive compared
to coal-fired power plants
-it will probably take government regulation to force higher
efficiency standards on the building industry
-solar collectors in space propose rough factors of the
increase of energy intensity offset by inefficiencies in
transmitting the energy to the ground, with the use of
antennas.