Solar Power

Lots of Hot Water from Small-Scale Parabolic Solar

Philip Proefrock

Parabolic solar dishes generally come in two sizes, the very small "solar oven" and the large, industrial scale solar furnace. But now, a Canadian company is making parabolic solar dishes for small commercial and even residential use.

The Solar Beam Solar Concentrator produces up to 13kW of heat per hour according to the company. That's far more hot water than most households would need, but could be practical for a home with hot water radiators or in-floor radiant heating.

Solar Beam uses a 15 foot (4.5 meter) diameter parabolic dish. A block of aluminum 10 x 10 inches (25.4 x 25.4 cm) absorbs the heat and transfers it to a glycol fluid which circulates the heat to the equipment where it is needed. The company also claims a much faster payback for the Solar Beam as compared to flat panel solar water heaters. "The SolarBeam is 262% more efficient that hot water panels and 98% more efficient than evacuated tube technology."

The Solar Beam uses a 2-axis controller to track the sun throughout the day, in order to increase efficiency of energy collection. Since just one dish has to be tracked, it is much easier to do this than it would be to have an array of flat panels tracking the sun. Since the collector can be ground mounted, it can be possible to use it for solar hot water in places where orientation or other factors do not make rooftop collectors practical. The smaller size also makes it possible to use the dish in places where there is not the space available for a large rooftop array or where it might be otherwise undesirable.

via: Solar Thermal Magazine

Add comment (15)

Princeton Building Large Solar Collector Field

Megan Treacy

princeton-solar
Princeton University announced that they are building a large solar collector field, one of the single largest solar installations of any U.S. university. The field will be made up of 16,500 PV panels, producing enough energy to power 700 households.

The solar field will take up 27 acres of Princeton-owned land and should be installed by 2012. Once the field is operating, it will cut the college's electricity costs by eight percent. The builders of the field, SunPower Corp., say it could produce 8 million kWh per year, covering 5.5 percent of the campus' annual electricity needs, but under ideal sunny conditions, the field could cover up to 20 percent of the campus' electricity needs for any given hour.

This project is part of the university's bigger goal of reducing its emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, which is 95,000 metric tons annually. The solar field is expected to account for six percent of that reduction.

via Daily Princetonian

Add comment (1)

First Solar Sail Spacecraft Circles the Earth

Megan Treacy

NASA's NanoSail-D has become the first solar sail spacecraft to orbit the Earth. At first, the tiny spacecraft got stuck when team members tried to release it from the FASTSAT satellite in late 2010, but a few days ago it spontaneously ejected from the satellite and starting sailing its way around the planet.

The probe on the NanoSail-D is the size of a breadbox and the sail is ten square meters. NASA plans to observe the spacecraft and study how it can be used to bring old satellites and space junk out of orbit. As a solar sail circles circle the planet, it skims the atmosphere and aerodynamic drag eventually brings it down out of orbit where it burns up in the atmosphere, which for the NanoSail-D should happen within 120 days.

While NASA plans to stay close to home, Japan's space program JAXA is using solar sails to venture deeper into space. Last year, JAXA deployed a solar sail spacecraft called IKAROS in interplanetary space where, using the pressure of sunlight, it sailed by Venus. A follow-up mission to cruise by Jupiter is planned for later this decade.

via Physorg

Add comment (5)

Graphene Could be Key to Better, Cheaper Organic Solar Cells

Megan Treacy

graphene-osc
Researchers at MIT believe that the use of graphene as an electrode material in organic solar cells could make them cheaper to produce and could open up a host of new applications for the technology.

Organic solar cells are constantly improving and have great potential, but some issues are still holding them back from really taking off. The efficiency of such cells still lags behind that of traditional silicon cells and, so far, the only electrode material that has been successful is rare and expensive indium-tin-oxide (ITO).

The researchers have begun experimenting with inexpensive and readily available graphene, a form of carbon where the atoms form a flat sheet just one atom thick, arranged like chicken-wire, as an electrode. The use of graphene has lots of benefits over ITO, namely transparency. Because it's transparent just like the organic solar cells themselves, the cells could be applied to windows or even on top of other solar panels, boosting overall electricity output. Graphene is also flexible, where ITO is rigid, meaning the cells could be applied to irregular wall or rooftop surfaces and folded or rolled for easy transportation.

And, just as importantly, the graphene's performance as an electrode material is very similar to the ITO, making it a suitable replacement.

via Physorg

Add comment (3)

Solar Car Sets New World Record in Speed

Megan Treacy

sunswift
A solar car designed and built by University of New South Wales students broke the Guinness World Record for fastest solar vehicle.

The Sunswift solar car hit 55 mph at the HMAS Albatross navy base airstrip in Nowra, Australia, beating the previous record of 49 mph. The record is for vehicles powered only by silicon solar cells, so the team removed the battery from the car for the speed trial. For the special occasion the car had special drivers: Barton Mawer, a professional racing driver and Craig Davis, head of Tesla's European operations.

While 55 mph was enough to cinch an official world record, the car has previously hit a top speed of 64 mph in a race, and other solar cars have tested at 100 mph.

It may not seem so amazing since 55 - 64 mph is everyday driving for traditional cars, but solar cars are making leaps in speed, aerodynamics, efficiency and weight reduction pretty quickly. The technology may never fully power a mass-produced sedan, but every gain solar car designers make can lead to useful applications in electric and gas-fueled cars.

via Physorg

Add comment (4)

More Articles...

Start Prev 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next End

Page 15 of 105

Lots of Hot Water from Small-Scale Parabolic Solar

Princeton Building Large Solar Collector Field

First Solar Sail Spacecraft Circles the Earth

Graphene Could be Key to Better, Cheaper Organic Solar Cells

Solar Car Sets New World Record in Speed

Are you an EcoGeek?

The Most Popular Articles

Categories