Build Own Solar Panel

A “green” home is a home that is highly energy efficient, has excellent indoor environment, and is built to exceed local building code. Sounds expensive. Right? Absolutely not! You may have heard that building a green home is more expensive that conventional construction, but this is a myth. Using an experienced green home builder, a green home can be very affordable to build and can save a homeowner thousands in energy costs annually. And the homeowner could qualify for thousands in tax incentives.

A green home can be built for no more than regular construction, and has greater market value when it is completed. It is important to hire a builder that has built green homes before. A builder that has retrofitted existing homes has no experience with the type of building techniques that make green homes more affordable. In addition, an experienced green home builder can help educate the potential homeowner about green techniques, their options, and energy efficiency.

While some green home features can be expensive and retrofitting existing homes can be quite high, building a green home from scratch is very affordable. Your experienced green home builder knows that getting advice from LEED’s engineers and reorganizing the building process to save time, energy, and waste are key steps to starting the project off right. Generally speaking,the green home elements are not expensive items and since they are installed as the house is built, with no demolition of existing concrete foundations and landscaping, the cost of installation is kept lower.

In case you have been wondering what green homes look like, they look just like conventional homes (except for the solar panels) and are quieter and cleaner than conventional homes. Green home features are maintenance friendly and work just like conventional home features.

Energy efficiency savings can be substantial. Using the weather and energy costs in Illinois as an example, and comparing an affordable green home to conventional home with conventional natural gas forced air heating and central air-conditioning, typical homeowner annual bills of nearly $3,000 per year could be lowered to $700 or less – a savings of $2,100 per year. These figures are for illustrative purposes only. Your actual savings depends on the size of the home, the number of people you have living in your home, your electricity usage, and the green options you select.

With tax incentives in the thousands, energy savings worth thousands, and greater market value, building and living in a green home is an affordable option for everyone.

Kimberley Ward

How can this be achieved, what do we need to do? Is there a need to change really or is it just governments screwing up again and political buzz words? Is climate change a myth or accurate predictions of the future of planet earth? Consider also the impacts of our actions on the other living creatures that exist on Earth, do birds want to breathe in fumes from fuel?

Let’s consider the current reliance of our planet on oil, it produces our fuel for all travel and has many side uses, like producing plastic. Oil is formed by the degradation of dead organisms over thousand’s of years and exists in pockets underneath the Earth’s crust. So what happens when oil is pumped out of the earth? Well the holes appear to be filled by water, a technique used by drilling companies to recover all the oil in that particular well.

Then we come to how much is left, where there are estimates ranging from 10 years through to 30 years, but no-body can be entirely sure of this, due to demand increasing with the likes of China & India becoming more westernised. And what happens when Africa is then exploited by large corporate companies for cheap labour? Improved standard of living equals higher oil demand.

Then consider the environmentally impacts of burning oil, which releases carbon dioxide, making the greenhouse effect worse, warming the planet and causing freak weather conditions. This all seems like doom and gloom but with the advances in technology that have been made over the past 20 years then surely we can devise sustainable renewable energy, harnessing the weather?

Another big problem in our society is waste, just think how much is generated and goes to landfill! We have hundreds of sites with thousands of tonnes of waste that will degrade very slowly, would you do this in your back garden? Think about all those used disposable nappies and consider the methane that gets released as some items degrade, another greenhouse gas that is affecting our climate.

Something else to consider that has been around for many years is the reduction in forests that has been happening, cutting it down for timber and to provide more farm land. The impact of this is to also reduce the CO2 absorbed by our fossil fuel usage as well as changing the shape of our landscape. There have been big steps forward in this area by moving towards sustainable wood, where for every tree chopped down; one is planted, ensuring we maintain our planets’ forests. Another recent development is the use of bamboo as a fabric which has great eco friendly properties as it’s a renewable resource and uses less water than cotton in the process.

A final element of our daily impacts on planet earth is the high use of chemicals which get pumped into the ground everyday through our household drains and that of industry. These are all man made, but where do they go? Back into our water stream? Into our food chain? With the advances in medicine, everyone is living a longer life than say 100 years ago, but there are still big killer diseases around, cancer for example. Why? Surely we would have eradicated all of these, but don’t you think chemicals and fuel fumes have played a part in this? So why do we use chemical laden cleaners or eat food that has been sprayed & washed in chemicals? Taste the difference between home grown food and cheap supermarket food, but how do we balance that with our hectic lifestyles? Eating organic food and using natural cleaners, which appears to be more expensive?

This then seems quite daunting if you sit and consider all the information and basically our futures are in the hands of governments & scientists. However, as individuals we can make our own small impacts within our lives, helping towards keeping our lovely planet healthy and a great place for the human race to live.

So let’s start with fossil fuel usage, we all use it in our cars and homes, either as petrol/diesel and gas or indirectly as electricity. As a householder we want our running costs to be as low as possible so with vehicles it’s a balance between lower CO2 emissions and slightly lower running costs with diesel, and considering the other harmful gases emitted from diesel engines. Whatever the choice, the cost effective way is to accelerate smoothly, keeping your speed to the road limit and reduce the urge to overtake. Consider the purchase of a hybrid car if you do a lot of town driving, this becomes very economical and is so much better for the environment. We still have a long way to go on developing the vehicles for the future that run on renewable energy based around the sun, wind & rain.

In our homes we need to do all the normal things that have been said many times over the years by governments, like loft insulation, door draught excluders and turning the heating down 1 degree. Then every time you purchase a new electrical item, look at the efficiency rating, and ensure you pick a low energy rated one (normally A+). Purchase a low cost energy metering unit and find out what each of your electrical appliances consumes and then switch off those that are the highest users. Don’t get caught by thinking that these standby busters save you loads of money, they don’t! Gradually switch light bulbs to either low energy ones or even better to LED bulbs, these last up to 20 times longer and use about 1/50th of the energy consumed by normal bulbs. Further to this there are good developments in the use of wind turbines & solar panels but at the moment they are not proving to be economically viable, but given time this will be the way forward for our source of energy in our eco homes.

Think about all the waste you generate, does it all go into bin bags for landfill or can you segregate it into items for recycling & composting? Try collating items for recycling in separate bins and having a kitchen compost bin to collect vegetable & fruit waste, tea bags, egg shells etc. This can then be used in your garden to help grow your own products which not only taste better but give you great satisfaction. Aligned to this is the consideration of purchasing items that have less packaging, not using plastic bags and shopping for recycled gifts and stationery. For anything that uses wood, try to buy Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) approved items, this indicates that the timber comes from a sustainable forest.

Finally, try and move away from using chemical laden cleaning products to natural or organic cleaning products but always check the contents as not all products are as eco friendly as they claim. If you are unconvinced, just check out the ingredients list of a well known retailers own dishwashing liquid which contains formaldehyde! Most good natural cleaning products are actually concentrates, meaning the cost per use is the same or better than high street brands that are packed full of bulking agents & chemicals. Consider eating organic food as it hasn’t been treated with fertilisers or chemicals and look at organic pet foods for your furry loved ones. Another thing to consider are the products that you use on your baby & children, there are some decent organic and natural items, ranging from shampoo to nappies.

In summary, even though times are hard with costs rising, investments and property dropping, there are many ways in which you can save money by taking a “lets go eco” view. You will also feel like you are doing your bit to help towards the environmental cause even though we are in the wake of the credit crunch. We can all do our little bit by making our lifestyle a little bit more eco friendly and buying eco products for our homes.

Nigel Plant
http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/go-eco-in-the-wake-of-the-credit-crunch-by-changing-to-an-eco-lifestyle-672247.html

National Semiconductor (NI) -Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA, National Semiconductor is a significantly large semiconductor manufacturer, specializing in analog …, announced into the solar cell business, and the successful development of the solar system as a whole to increase the output power of technology “SolarMagic” .

The use of technology, even in the multi-block solar panels tied for the dirt or cubicle dislocation also be able to achieve the solar panels to maximize the efficiency of power generation.

California Solar System REgrid Power companies have started using the Solar Magic system’s trial. It has been said REgrid Power, and Solar Magic did not use the system, cloudy day the power generation efficiency can be raised by 44%, the overall increase of 12%.

There are other companies scheduled to install the solar (battery) cell will be a few months after the trial began this solar system.

NI in the United States intends to solar cells outside the country’s high rate of expansion of the system. During the year 2008 and plans to achieve the SolarMagic product commercialization.

A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a wide area electronic [1]device that converts solar energy into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaics is the field of technology and research related to the application of solar cells as solar energy. Sometimes the term solar cell is reserved for devices intended specifically to capture energy from sunlight, while the term photovoltaic cell is used when the source is unspecified. Assemblies of cells are used to make solar modules, or photovoltaic arrays.

Solar cells have many applications. Cells are used for powering small devices such as electronic calculators. Photovoltaic arrays generate a form of renewable electricity, particularly useful in situations where electrical power from the grid is unavailable such as in remote area power systems, Earth-orbiting satellites and space probes, remote radiotelephones and water pumping applications. Photovoltaic electricity is also increasingly deployed in grid-tied electrical systems. Similar devices intended to capture energy from other sources include thermophotovoltaic cells, betavoltaics cells, and optoelectric nuclear batteries.

Solar Electric
The preferred term used to describe something which uses sunlight to produce electricity. “Photovoltaic” is the more technical term.
Solar Cell The smallest basic solar electric device which generates electricity when exposed to light.

About Author :work at http://www.laptop-batteries-shop.com

john smith

Photovoltaic Solar Panels generate electricity by using a phenomenon first discovered in 1839 by a young scientist called Edmund Becquerel. This phenomenon, called the photovoltaic effect occurs when certain materials produce electric currents as they are exposed to light.

A photovoltaic solar panel is essentially a huge series of semiconductor PN junctions. One half of each junction is electron deficient, the other half electron rich. The photovoltaic cell is designed to create an electric field across the junction between two halves of the crystal, and electrons flow from the rich half to the poor half. A potential barrier exists between the p and n-type sides of the crystal and this prevents further electrons from traveling across the junction until sunlight hits the solar cell and releases electrons with enough energy to overcome the barrier.

High School physics taught us that the light from the sun is made up of packets of energy called Photons. Each photon carries an amount of energy corresponding to the wavelength of its light. When a photon strikes a photovoltaic solar panel it can do one of three things. It can pass straight through, be reflected, or be absorbed. If the photon is absorbed, its energy is absorbed by an electron in an atom of the solar cell enabling it to escape from its normal position, cross the junction and fill a hole. The electrons then flow through a load (e.g. charging a battery, lighting a light, or powering a motor), and complete the circuit by recombining with the holes they left behind. In so doing energy from the sunlight has been extracted and used at an efficiency of around 5-15%. This process can be repeated over and over again over the decades of lifetime of solar cells.

Dave Simpson

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Solar panel : 0.4W
# Ac input: AC100V-240V
# Output Voltage 5.5V DC
# Convert efficiency: over 18%
# Max output current: DC 500mA
# High capacity build in polymer battery: 2600mAh

Sorry, no.

An iPod Touch needs 500 mA of charging current, even a 300 mA charger won’t work (I tried it myself, it doesn’t).

Assuming you could actually get 0.4 W out of that panel at 5 volts, that’s only 80 mA of current. But small panels tend to have optimistic specifications, so the actual current you get could be just 20 mA.

You would look for a panel that says 5 volt output, 500 mA or more. Such a panel would likely be 1 foot square, or 1 foot by 2 feet.

Visit http://www.Snurl.com/SunPower and Learn How to make your own solar panels for less than $200 just visit http://Snurl.com/SunPower Answer this question? Do you want to save thousands off the cost of solar panels? Of course you do! You can now make solar panels at home! You have probably read about it or seen it on TV, but have you tried it yourself? Just check out this site and see how easy it can be!
Make Solar Panels | Solar Power Generator & Home Made Solar Power

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Available Information On Photovoltaic Power

 

There is an enormous supply of articles on the subject of photovoltaic power. Most articles are narrow in scope, perhaps announcing a recent breakthrough or discussing a particular project or application. The internet provides a great deal of information as well, with web sites sponsored by government agencies, industry groups, and manufacturers. We did have some difficulty finding an overview of the subject. Most books on photovoltaics are at least five years old and cover the technical aspect of photovoltaics without providing an assessment of the practicality of using photovoltaics for power generation.

 

Why Photovoltaic Power Requires Study

 

The high cost of generating electrical power using photovoltaic cells compared to conventional coal-, gas-, and nuclear-powered generators has kept PV power generation from being in widespread use. Less than 1% of electricity is generated by photovoltaics. However, there are a few applications in which PV power is economical. These applications include satellites, developing countries that lack a power distribution infrastructure, and remote or rugged areas where running distribution lines are not practical. As the cost of photovoltaic systems drops, more applications become economically feasible. The non-polluting aspect of PV power can make it an attractive choice even when conventional generating systems are more economical. The manufacture of photovoltaic systems has increased steadily for the last 25 years. It is inevitable that engineers will be called upon to develop photovoltaic technology or will be involved in projects using this technology. Many existing reports on photovoltaics cover only one facet of the technology and sometimes writers inflate their reports on behalf of the company involved. There is a need for an up-to-date, objective understanding of photovoltaic power generation. With this goal in mind we have created this report.

 

Photovoltaic Technology

 

Scientists have known of the photovoltaic effect for more than 150 years. Photovoltaic power generation was not considered practical until the arrival of the space program. Early satellites needed a source of electrical power and any solution was expensive. The development of solar cells for this purpose led to their eventual use in other applications.

 

Power Output and Efficiency Ratings

 

The figures given for power output and efficiency of photovoltaic cells, modules, and systems can be misleading. It is important to understand what these figures mean and how they relate to the power available from installed photovoltaic generating systems.

 

 

 

 

 

Power Ratings

 

Photovoltaic power generation systems are rated in peak kilowatts (kWp). This is the amount of electrical power that a new, clean system is expected to deliver when the sun is directly overhead on a clear day. We can safely assume that the actual output will never quite reach this value. System output will be compromised by the angle of the sun, atmospheric conditions, dust on the collectors, and deterioration of the components. When comparing photovoltaic systems to conventional power generation systems, one should bear in mind that the PV systems are only productive during the daytime. Therefore, a 100 kW photovoltaic system can produce only a fraction of the daily output of a conventional 100 kW generator.

 

Efficiency Ratings

 

The efficiency of a photovoltaic system is the percentage of sunlight energy converted to electrical energy. The efficiency figures most often reported are laboratory results using small cells. A small cell has a lower internal resistance and will yield a higher efficiency than the larger cells used in practical applications. Additionally, photovoltaic modules are made up of numerous cells connected in series to deliver a usable voltage. Due to the internal resistance of each cell, the total resistance increases and the efficiency drops to about 70% of the single-cell value. Efficiency is higher at lower temperatures. Temperatures used in laboratory measurements may be lower than those in a practical installation.

 

Converting Sunlight to Electricity

 

A typical photovoltaic cell consists of semiconductor material (usually silicon) having a pn junction as shown in Figure 1.

 

Figure 1.Implementation of  solar cells

 

Sunlight striking the cell raises the energy level of electrons and frees them from their atomic shells. The electric field at the pn junction drives the electrons into the n region while positive charges are driven to the p region. A metal grid on the surface of the cell collects the electrons while a metal back-plate collects the positive charges .

 

Light Generates

Electron and Hole

p-Type

n-Type

 

Thin Film Technology

 

Thin-film solar cells are manufactured by applying thin layers of semiconductor materials to a solid backing material. The composition of a typical thin-film cell is shown in Figure 2. Sunlight entering the intrinsic layer generates free electrons. The p-type and n-type layers create an electric field across the intrinsic layer. The electric field drives the free electrons into the ntype layer while positive charges collect in the p-type layer. The total thickness of the p-type, intrinsic, and n-type layers is about one micron. Although less efficient than single- and polycrystal silicon, thin-film solar cells offer greater promise for large-scale power generation because of ease of mass-production and lower materials cost. Thin-film is also suitable for building-integrated systems because the semiconductor films may be applied to building materials such as glass, roofing, and siding .

 

Fig.2.

 

Using thin films instead of silicon wafers greatly reduces the amount of semiconductor material required for each cell and therefore lowers the cost of reducing photovoltaic cells. Gallium arsenide (GaAs), copper indium diselenide (CuInSe2), cadmium telluride (CdTe) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) are materials that have been used for thin film PV cells. Titanium dioxide thin films have been recently developed and are interesting because the material is transparent and can be used for windows.

 

Tin Oxide Tin oxide is a conductive material that is transparent when in a thin layer. Tin oxide is used in place of a metallic grid for the top layer of thin film photovoltaic sheets .

 

Amorphous Silicon (a-Si) Amorphous (uncrystallized) silicon is the most popular thin-film technology. It is prone to degradation and produces cell efficiencies of 5-7%. Double- and triple-junction designs raise efficiency to 8-10%. The extra layers capture different wavelengths of light. The top cell captures blue light, the middle cell captures green light, and the bottom cell captures red light. Variations include amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC), amorphous silicongermanium (a-SiGe), microcrystalline silicon (mc-Si), and amorphous silicon-nitride (a-SiN)

.

Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) and Cadmium Sulphide (CdS) Photovoltaic cells using these materials are under development by BP Solar and Solar Cells Inc .

 

Poly-crystalline Silicon Poly-crystalline silicon offers an efficiency improvement over amorphous silicon while still using only a small amount of material.

 

Concentrating Collectors

By using a lens or mirror to concentrate the sun’s rays on a small area, it is possible to reduce the amount of photovoltaic material required. A second advantage is that greater cell efficiency can be achieved at higher light concentrations. To accommodate the higher currents in the photocells, a larger metallic grid is used. For example, in a system with a 22X concentration ratio, the grid covers about 20% of the surface of the solar cell. To prevent this from blocking 20% of the sunlight, a prism is used to redirect sunlight onto the photovoltaic material, as shown in Figure 3. A second problem is the higher temperatures of a concentrating system. The cells may be cooled with a heat sink or the heat can be used to heat water .

Fig.3.

Only direct sunlight, not scattered by clouds or haze, can be concentrated. Therefore, the concentrating collectors are less effective in locations that are frequently cloudy or hazy, such as coastal areas .

 

How much power is available from the sun?

 

Sunlight reaches the Earth’s outer atmosphere at strength of 1367 watts per square meter, defined as AM0, or “air mass zero.” Atmospheric losses reduce the sun’s power to about 1000 W/m2 when the sun is directly overhead on a cloudless day . Figure 4 shows the average daily sunlight falling on a square meter surface which has been tilted toward the southern horizon at an angle equal to the latitude of the location. Note that diffused as well as direct sunlight is considered, making this map applicable to flat plate collectors.

 

 

Fig.4.Average daily sunlight in kWh/m2

 

Conversion Efficiency

 

The most efficient PV modules usually employ single-crystal silicon cells, with efficiencies up to 15%. Poly-crystalline cells are less expensive to manufacture but yield module efficiencies of about 11%. Thin-film cells are less expensive still, but give efficiencies to about 8% and suffer greater losses from deterioration.

 

Production Considerations

 

In the past, low-grade silicon was bought from semiconductor manufacturers for use in building solar cells. With improvements in the manufacturing process, silicon manufacturers are able to consistently produce the more profitable semiconductor-grade silicon. As a result, it is becoming difficult to buy low-grade silicon. There has been much discussion about building a production facility dedicated to the production of silicon for solar cells.

 

 

 

 

 

Photovoltaic Applications

 

Photovoltaic power generation has been most useful in remote applications with small power requirements where the cost of running distribution lines was prohibitive. As PV power becomes more affordable, the use of photovoltaics for grid-connected applications is increasing. However, the high cost of PV modules and the large area they require continue to be obstacles to using PV power to supplement existing electrical utilities. An interesting approach to both of these problems is the integration of photovoltaics into building materials.

 

Building-Integrated Systems

 

Building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems offer advantages in cost and appearance by incorporating photovoltaic properties into building materials such as roofing, siding, and glass. When BIPV materials are substituted for conventional materials in new construction, the savings involved in the purchase and installation of the conventional materials are applied to the cost of the photovoltaic system. BIPV installations are architecturally more attractive than roof mounted PV structures.

 

For example, United Solar Corporation produces photovoltaic shingles that replace normal asphalt shingles. Each PV shingle replaces a seven-foot long row of asphalt shingles, and any roofer can install them. Normally, only one-third of a roof needs to be covered with PV panels to produce sufficient power for the average home. Glass manufactured with photovoltaic properties is available for use in skylights and windows. The architect can select from several colors of transparent photovoltaic glass. The tint color and depth is controlled by the type and amount of semiconductor material used in the construction of the photovoltaic glass.

 

Off-Grid Applications

 

The majority of photovoltaic power generation applications are remote, off-grid applications. These include communication satellites, terrestrial communication sites, remote homes and villages, and water pumps. These are sometimes hybrid systems that include an engine-driven generator to charge batteries when solar power is insufficient.

 

Grid-Connected Applications

 

In grid-connected application, the DC power from solar cells runs through an inverter and feeds back into the distribution system. Grid-connected systems have demonstrated an advantage in natural disasters by providing emergency power capabilities when utility power was interrupted. Although PV power is generally more expensive than utility-provided power, the use of grid connected systems is increasing.

 

The Economics Of Photovoltaic Power Generation

 

Photovoltaic efficiency and manufacturing costs have not reached the point that photovoltaic power generation can compete with conventional coal-, gas-, and nuclear-powered facilities. The cost of photovoltaic power (when storage is not required) is two to four times that of conventionally produced power. It is difficult to define this relationship precisely due to wide variations in the cost of producing and distributing conventional electrical power and other variables. Due to the wide range of these variables, some applications of photovoltaic power are economically superior to conventional systems.

 

Conclusion

However, large variations in cost of conventional electrical power, and other factors, such as cost of distribution, create situations in which the use of PV power is economically sound. PV power is used in remote applications such as communications, homes and villages in developing countries, water pumping, camping, and boating. Grid connected applications such as electric utility generating facilities and residential rooftop installations make up a smaller but more rapidly expanding segment of PV use. Furthermore, as technological advances narrow the cost gap, more applications are becoming economically feasible at an accelerating rate.

 

s.sankar
http://www.articlesbase.com/electronics-articles/a-detailed-analysis-of-power-demand-compensation-by-using-photovoltaic-power-generation-591667.html