Plans for solar thermal, PV, Wind, Heating, Cooling, Cooking, and energy saving projects for Do It Yourselfers Search The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers More than 500 renewable energy and conservation projects you can build. Free plans and information on: Conservation, water, solar homes, solar space heating, solar water heating, passive cooling techniques, solar sunspaces and greenhouses, solar pool heating, solar electricity (PV), wind generated electricity, micro hydro, biofuels, methane generators, solar cooking, solar food drying, solar and efficient vehicles, solar water pumping, solar engines, and solar wood drying. So, what were you looking for that you did not find? Questions?
Solar car The Sunswift solar car eVe, which holds an FIA world record and in 2016 will be Australia's first road legal solar car A solar car is a solar vehicle used for land transport. Solar cars only run on solar power from the sun. Solar cars combine technology typically used in the aerospace, bicycle, alternative energy and automotive industries. Solar cars depend on a solar array that uses photovoltaic cells (PV cells) to convert sunlight into electricity. Chinese solar panel manufacturer Hanergy plans to build and sell solar cars equipped with lithium-ion batteries to consumers in China.[4][5]Hanergy says that five to six hours of sunlight should allow the cars’ thin-film solar cells to generate between 8-10kWh of power a day, allowing the car to travel about 80km on solar power alone.[6] Maximmum range is about 350km. Solar array[edit] The solar array consists of hundreds of photovoltaic solar cells converting sunlight into electricity. The solar array can be mounted in six ways: horizontal.
Hugh Piggott's home page ChemEngineering - Wind profile power law The wind profile power law is a relationship between the wind speed at one height and the wind speed at another height. The power law is often used in wind power assessments1, 2 where wind speeds at the height of a wind turbine (about 50 meters or more) must be estimated from near surface wind observations (about 10 meters), or where wind speed data at various heights must be adjusted to a standard height3 prior to use. Wind profiles are generated and used in a number of atmospheric pollution dispersion models.4 The wind profile of the atmospheric boundary layer (from the ground surface to around a height of 2000 meters) is generally logarithmic in nature and is best approximated using the log wind profile equation that accounts for surface roughness and atmospheric stability. The wind profile power law relationship is often used as a substitute for the log wind profile equation when surface roughness or stability information is not available.
How I built an electricity producing Solar Panel Several years ago I bought some remote property in Arizona. I am an astronomer and wanted a place to practice my hobby far away from the sky-wrecking light pollution found near cities of any real size. In my attempt to escape city light pollution, I found a great piece of remote property. The problem is, it's so remote that there is no electric service available. That's not really a problem. No electricity equals no light pollution. I built a wind turbine to provide some power on the remote property. Here is a video of the solar panel set up and in use on my remote, off-grid property. Let me state up front that I probably won't be able to help you out much if you decide to build your own solar panel(s). So what is a solar panel anyway? I started out the way I start every project, by Googling for information on home-built solar panels. After a while, I came to some conclusions: <a href=' seller. A solar panel is really just a shallow box.
Wind power Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electrical power, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships. Large wind farms consist of hundreds of individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network. For new constructions, onshore wind is an inexpensive source of electricity, competitive with or in many places cheaper than fossil fuel plants.[1][2] Small onshore wind farms provide electricity to isolated locations. Utility companies increasingly buy surplus electricity produced by small domestic wind turbines.[3] Offshore wind is steadier and stronger than on land, and offshore farms have less visual impact, but construction and maintenance costs are considerably higher. Wind power is very consistent from year to year but has significant variation over shorter time scales. History Wind energy Wind farms Feeding into grid Growth trends
BLUE Ready to Rock - a "condensed" version shown for the photo, with a 3/4 hp generator, held by the inventor, Doug Selsam. Here are the blades of a 20 inch diameter turbine, that produces about half a kilowatt. They will be mounted on a shaft that projects for a long distance forward, and backward, at an angle from horizontal, so that the wind encounters the rotors like a stairway. The New Turbine is flown in Tehachapi, mounted to a Tower by Brent Scheibel, of General Electric Wind and owner of WindTesting.com Well, it's up and running, with data being logged. Brent Scheibel, WindTesting.com, His wife, Teri, with their dog Ezra, and Doug Selsam, windmill is seen in background This is the test team, Brent Scheibel, who handles Anemometry over at Zond / Enron Wind - now General Electric Wind Energy, and runs Windtesting.com, His wife Teri, their dog Ezra, who barks at windmills, and Doug Selsam, the inventor. Row after row of clean-turning turbine blades adorn the landscape... pretty cool.
Funny Looking Tower Generates 600% More Electrical Energy Than Traditional Wind Turbines The Sheerwind wind turbine promises to produce 6 times the electrical power than traditional wind turbines. This funny looking wind tower acts like a funnel, directing the wind from any angle, down through a tube to a ground based turbine generator. The funneling of the wind through a narrow passage effectively creates a “jet effect” increasing the velocity of the wind, while lowering the pressure. This is called the Venturi Effect. This speeds up the wind turbine mounted inside the narrowest portion and generates electricity. As such it can capture and generate electricity at a much lower wind speed than current wind power technologies. The idea is so simple, so elegant, and promises to produce so much more energy at lower cost and more efficiently, that it might just be the answer to many problems with current wind turbine technology. Imagine a smaller HOME version on your off grid cabin. Conventional wind turbines use massive turbine generator systems mounted on top of a tower.
Solar Panels Compared What is the best solar cell you can buy? It all depends on what is important to you. Two things that can be important are cost and size. For applications where space doesn't matter (like putting panels in your back yard or on your roof), you want to make the most power for the least cost. Here is what I've found... Solar Panels ranked by least cost per unit of power (best first) Clearly, large panels bought in bulk are more economical. For mobile applications (solar powered cell phone or lawn mower), you want the most power per unit of area. Solar Panels ranked by minimum size per unit of power (best first) Interestingly, some efficient panels are also economical. Please note that I am basing these lists on the data supplied by the referenced web pages. Q: Why didn't you include X? A: If you know about an interesting panel that is commercially available and not included here, send me a link where I can see its specs and actually buy it and I will add it to the list. A: I agree. Questions
Wind Turbine Output Boosted 30% by Breakthrough Design Clean Power Published on April 29th, 2009 | by Timothy B. Hurst Passive structure design of “Wind Energizer” by Leviathan Energy reportedly increases wind turbine efficiency 30% in field tests. Technological advancements in wind energy efficiency have generally come incrementally and usually made via a process of increasingly large wind turbine blades. But that pattern of incremental improvements may be a thing of the past if Leviathan Energy has anything to say about it. The principle theory at work is that by placing passive objects around a wind farm it will change the circulation around a large wind turbine. “This is a disruptive technology,” Leviathan Energy CEO Dr. Farb is a bit of a modern day renaissance man. The Wind Energizer is a donut-shaped structure made from steel and plastic, but the exact dimensions of it depend on site-specific data, like the tower height, length of the blades, prevailing wind direction and intensity, etc. Images courtesy of Leviathan Energy Timothy B.
Windbelt Micro-wind, 10 Times Cheaper Wind Energy!! [Run time: 2:05 min] I hope you enjoy this short video of Shawn Frayne, a young inventor that has created this device to generate, on the micro-scale, energy for LED lights and radios in developing countries. This is the first approach that uses aeroelastic flutter to create super cheap electricity. We’re talking about changing the way wind energy is harvested and captured. Frayne won a 2007 Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics, and he deserves it. UPDATE: EcoGeek reports that Shawn Frayne has launched the website for Humdinger Wind Energy. Here’s a different video of Shawn Frayne talking about the Windbelt technology. Article tags: alternative energy, video