Heating Homes with Solar Air Collectors (DIY) Solar air heating comes in many different varieties and is surprisingly very efficient!
One manner of heating air with the sun is by using collector plates which absorb the radiating heat from our star, heats the air inside of the collector, and uses this air to heat a closed space. As the website Easy Green Living describes, you can either buy a system or you can build one yourself! This is an extremely simple technology to implement and this article is going to show you how to build one for yourself! The benefits of this technology are impressive: Cheaper or near non-existent heating billsIf the grid goes out you still have heatVery simple to build with little to no upkeep neededPossible to fit directly into existing central air systems Solar hot air collector plates come in two types: Passive Direct Gain or Active Direct Gain. Passive Direct Gain. My Worries Regarding Solar Power : Futurology. Flat plate vs. evacuated tube collectors - Energy Matters Australia.
Solar hot water has come a long way in the last decade, particularly with the introduction of evacuated tube collectors that are rapidly becoming the preferred option over flat plate systems.
If you're not sure of the difference between the two in terms of how they work, read our brief guide to solar hot water systems. The latest is certainly not always the greatest, so which is actually better - a flat plate solar hot water system or one that uses evacuated tube collectors? While evacuated tube technology is more of an investment, the benefits certainly outweigh the cost. Any additional cost may also be offset by solar hot water rebates! Evacuated tube collector based systems: Capture sunlight better as they have a greater surface area exposed to the sun at any time Are more efficient in transferring heat - up to 163% demonstrated in Australian conditions!
Collector efficiency comparisons Sydney, New South Wales Melbourne, Victoria Brisbane, Queensland Adelaide, South Australia. Solar Powered Stirling Engine Technology Breaks Efficiency Records. The dish modules convert sunlight in most climates, however they have proven to be most effective in hot and dry climates, where the system converts one third of the solar energy into electricity.
This type of technology has shown to have quite a number of advantages over other types of solar power sources, however Ripasso Energy reports that there is not much commercial development. The energy solution presented by the company does not require central turbines or DC/AC converters. This allows a step-by-step implementation with generation starting from the first functional unit. This technology combines both low environmental impact and low Levelized Cost of Energy, making it very compatitive with all alternative electrical enetgy technologies. Considering that recent reports and negotiations point towards the need to reduce carbon emissions, the Ripasso Energy Stirling Dish might just provide the solution. The company first power plant is under construction in South Africa. World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center Berlin jointly announced today having achieved a new world record for the conversion of sunlight into electricity using a new solar cell structure with four solar subcells.
Surpassing competition after only over three years of research, and entering the roadmap at world class level, a new record efficiency of 44.7% was measured at a concentration of 297 suns. This indicates that 44.7% of the solar spectrum's energy, from ultraviolet through to the infrared, is converted into electrical energy. New technique for turning sunshine and water into hydrogen fuel. A new technique developed by a University of Colorado Boulder team converts sunshine and water directly into usable fuel.
The technique involves concentrating sunlight in a solar tower to achieve temperatures high enough to drive chemical reactions that split water into its constituent oxygen and hydrogen molecules. In this way, the team says it should be able to cheaply produce massive amounts of hydrogen fuel. The team's solar thermal system concentrates sunlight off a vast array of mirrors into a single point at the top of a tall tower to produce very high temperatures.
When this heat is delivered into a reactor full of metal oxides, the oxides heat up and release oxygen. The reduced metal oxide now gains a chemical composition that makes it ready to bind with oxygen atoms. EcoGrid EU. Researchers double efficiency of see-through solar cell. Researchers at UCLA have developed a new kind of see-through solar cell that could be used on windows, car sunroofs, smartphone displays and other transparent surfaces to harvest energy from the sun.
First developed in 2012, the researchers have now almost doubled the efficiency of this technology getting it even closer to commercial viability. Alternative energy costs are dropping. Virtually silent, fully enclosed, bladeless wind turbines on the way. A wind turbine that uses boundary layers instead of blades to generate power has been patented by Solar Aero, a New Hampshire based not-for-profit scientific research organization.
Modeled on the 1913 Tesla steam turbine, the Fuller turbine is virtually silent and completely enclosed, which avoids many of the drawbacks of bladed turbines such as noise, radar interference, visual pollution and wildlife injuries. Solar Aero's Howard Fuller says the principal of operation is roughly the same as for the Tesla steam turbine. "Closely-spaced discs trap the motive fluid molecules (in this case air) in a laminar flow adjacent to the disc surface.
This provides aerodynamic drag, which imparts force to the disc surface. McCamley's Solar Wind Turbine Generates Energy From the Wind and Sun. Like peanut butter and jelly or chips and dip, some things were just meant to go together.
A team from the University of Bath in collaboration with SME McCamley Middle East Ltd has developed a new wind turbine that they claim will overcome many of the problems associated with traditional renewable power generation. Their hybrid technology encases a vertical blade wind turbine in an outer frame that is outfitted with solar cells. Bat and bird friendly as well as quiet, the design is able to be installed on buildings in order to assist with urban electricity projects.
While most turbines lose their ability to function when winds are extremely high, the new design is able to safely operate in storms. The model can also still work when air flow is as low as 1.8m/s and can self start without sucking power from the grid. . + University of Bath/SME McCamley Middle East Ltd Via Treehugger.
Solar Roadways - Introduction. We are excited to announce that Indiegogo has asked us to join their InDemand program: It allows teams to continue raising funds for their projects.
We are very excited about this for many reasons: We've had numerous requests since our original campaign ended: "Can I still donate? ", "Can I still get a Solar Roadways perk? ", "I'd love to be a part of this movement", etc. Many people hadn't even heard about Solar Roadways until after the campaign had ended. We're still in Research & Development, so we're not making a profit yet. These Incredible New Buses Are Charged Wirelessly by the Road Itself. Window Socket – Solar Energy Powered Socket by Kyuho Song & Boa Oh.
The Window Socket offers a neat way to harness solar energy and use it as a plug socket.
So far we have seen solutions that act as a solar battery backup, but none as a direct plug-in. Simple in design, the plug just attaches to any window and does its job intuitively. Designers: Kyuho Song & Boa Oh. "The Solar Baby" Solar Oven, cooker.