Life Alternate

Cleaning Solar Panels

Wispa — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:02:29 +0000

Photovoltaic solar panels detest dirt and grim more than anything. As the wind blows across the world lots of particles are picked up and deposited elsewhere. Some of this may end up on your solar panels. The grains of sand act as barriers to the sunlight and block the much needed solar energy from reaching the cells and reducing the amount of electricity produced.

Rooftop Solar Panel

We can compare this somewhat to how amazed we are at the clarity of our TV display or computer screen after giving it a good clean. Or giving the car windows a good clean and everything seems a bit more crisper. The light has been getting reflected away by all that dirt – wherever it may have come from – and reducing the quality of the display or views. Solar arrays suffer just as much and can benefit from a good regular clean.

Luckily the surfaces of your panels are treated and with the help of some rain or a watering hose the most of the dirt may was away by itself. The will still need a regular light service to maximize their performance. At home this would be relatively easy to perform if your panels are easier to access. Sometimes it might take a bit more effort if the mountings are hard to reach.

All this is really trivial when we compare residential solar with the massive solar farms that are being developed across the world. The crave sun, sun and well more sun. This often means low rainfall and hot dry locations like deserts which are ideal places for millions of little particles of dirt and sand to become airborne by a slight blow of wind. No doubt much of this ends up on the solar panels and keeping them clean is a necessary task that needs to be done regularly to keep up the efficiency of the electrical output.

The answer may come from Outer Space.

Not from aliens but from a development by NASA for it’s planetary robots. On far distant planets calling up a man is a space suit to give the solar powered robots a clean is not going to be practical. So the scientists have come up with a novel idea and this is to electrocute the dirt. Running a small short electric charge over the solar panels that causes most of the dirt to be repelled from the panels keeping them clean.

The amount of energy used is small and easily produced by the solar panels and the cleaner arrays perform much better. Using this idea back on earth based solar farms would add to the cost of the solar plants but the benefit from the solar efficiency would more than pay for itself many times over. It would not guarantee 100% that the panels will be clean, small dust particles could be easily shifted but as the grains get bigger then it would still need a wiped by damp cloth.

For all of us with solar panels at home, whether they are mounted on our roofs or on a smaller scale as part of a solar battery charger, the story here is quite clear. Dirty panels do not perform at their best. Keep them clean and maximize their power output.

nPower Kinetic Charger For your Gadgets

Wispa — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:53:52 +0000

A charger with a difference here. The nPower PEG Kinetic charger virtually powers up by itself, the sun is not needed.

Most battery charger devices on the market use solar energy to get those little electrons captured ready to power our mobile phones or MP3 Players. The PEG, which stands for Personal Energy Generator, uses Kinetic energy to juice itself up.

Kinetic Energy to you and me is movement and the PEG is designed to use the movement of walking. Have this packed away in your rucksack and it doesn’t matter if the sun is behind a cloud and start moving. The tiny movements up and down generate the power gradually as you walk and after about a nice 5 minute stroll the gadget will have generated enough power to give you a quick 1 minute call on your cell phone.

Not a lot of time there, but over the length of a day, 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon would give over an hours worth of mobile phone use. Different devices have varying power requirements and the charge in the PEG will last longer or shorter accordingly.

Like all charging devices that use some form of cleaner renewable energy the power generation is low compared to the 100’s of volts coming out the wall sockets. The comparison should not be made, like solar chargers, the PEG is aims to charge devices from with renewable energy and more importantly portability. Try finding a wall socket when your are 5,000 feet up a mountain or simply just having a walk in the park.

It would be silly for any modern charging device to restrict the types of devices it can power up. The nPower PEG is versatile in this aspect and can energize over 3,000 devices. If you already have a MP3 player, Camera, Mobile phone the most likely the PEG will be a good charging partner to your device.

It should not just be restricted to walking. Possibly any movement where some form of oscillation occurs should provide some energy. Don’t expect to pack it in your suitcase and have a full charge after a transatlantic flight. That is really the wrong type of movement, he journey would be too smooth. But the baggage handlers might add some energy as they toss your luggage around. Bike riding, especially off road action would generate more action as the rider navigates the turns and bumps of the track.

The casing is made from the space age material, Titanium, with is has the property of being light weight but still strong. Cylindrical in shape like a relay baton with a length of 9 inches and a 1 inch diameter, (230 mm x 25 mm). Internally it has a lithium battery which when fully charged has a capacity of 1000 mHa. That would be enough to keep most devices working for more than a days normal use.

Using Titanium help the PEG shed some weight but it still come in at 12 oz, that us just under a pound (500 grams). This is about the same weight as my midsize digital camera and about 3 times as heavy as an iPhone4.

We think this is a good alternative to a solar charger and ideal for those who are are a little more active and green.

Solar Impulse Aircraft to Fly at Night

Wispa — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 06:31:34 +0000

The Solar powered aircraft, Solar Impulse, is to attempt the next phase in its energy efficient development.

The aircraft will energize itself during the day and store the energy in its internal batteries ready for the attempt at flying at night.

The aircraft which is covered in solar panels will take off on its test flight from Switzerland.

Developed by an aptly named Mr. Piccard the ultimate goal of the solar Impulse is to make long distance solar powered flight a reality. If enough energy can be stored and not used by day time flight then it could be possible to fly for 24 hours totally on solar energy.

Once the tests flights are completed the aircraft hopes to make a nonstop flight across the Atlantic ocean followed by longer round the world flights.

The Solar Impulse is small and not designed to carry passengers or cargo.

Solar energy is low power and using it directly to power aircraft, ship, vehicles or energy hungry devices currently cannot supply enough energy in real time. The Solar Impulse is highly efficient both in design of its airframe and in it`s engines.

Certainly in a few years the efficiency of solar cells is going to improve and this means more real time energy to drive more heavier vehicles.

Xpal Egg Solar Charger

Wispa — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 06:25:11 +0000

Yep, Another Solar Charger, but not all chargers are created equally. The Xpal Solar Egg comes in as one of the lightweights with a specific purpose.

The egg name needs no explanation once you have seen the shape of the device. It features technology called SunBoost, developed by Intivation , that allows the solar charger to perform better in lower light levels.

Using the new charging technology lets the Xpal perform adequately without the actual need to deliberately place the egg out in direct sunlight an wait for a full charge.

Look at this more as an accessory to be carried on perhaps your keychain or bag and capturing solar energy whenever it can. It’s a reserve tank of energy with just enough power to get you to the next station.

This has advantages, you do not need to carry much larger and bulkier solar chargers around when your just popping down for some shopping or commuting home after work. These are times when we might use our phone,music player or any other portable device and it just happens to run out of energy. The Egg will come to your rescue and juice your device up with more then enough energy to get you home.

The stated specifications say that with just 4 hours of sunlight the device can be charged up to 90% of capacity. This is stored in an inbuilt 500mAh battery which while quite a low capacity should give a boost to any portable device hungry for some energy.

Making the batteries have more capacity would add to the weight of the egg and make it more obtrusive and less useful as a light weight energy backup.

You might ask why not carry an extra battery? Many of us might have more than one portable device and this mean lots of spare batteries in our pockets. In addition each of those batteries are not continually charged with solar energy as we walk around. The Xpal Egg removed all that unnecessary extra weigh in something that is quite usable.

Oceanlinx Wave Generator Sinks

Wispa — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:05:56 +0000

Renewable Energy took a crashing in Australia with the destruction of Oceanlinx’s wave power generator.

As ever mariner knows the sea should be respected for the forces it can unleashed. The Australian company Oceanlinx has found this out with the destruction of their generator in Port Kembla.

The prototype machine was moored close to a breakwater and due to rough seas broke loose and came crashing on to the rock. It currently lies smashed into pieces waiting to see what can be salvaged.

Oceanlinx had indented the wave generator to be a prototype to gain valuable information for future designs. The destruction of the machine has cut short the experiment with a bang.

An obvious lesson to learn is not to underestimate the power of the sea and provide adequate anchorage for your machine. With it being moored so close to rocks some would have said it was an accident waiting to happen.

Tapping Wave Energy in Scotland

Wispa — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:26:18 +0000

Aquamarine Power plans to harvest the energy of the easy with the Oyster.

Wave Energy has not seem as much development as other forms of renewable energy like solar and wind power. But developments are taking place around the globe some with more success than others.

Aquamarine hopes to install their new wave machine, the Oyster 2, around the waters of Scotland next year. Build like a large door hinge laying on its side, this massive machine will lay anchored in shallow water. As the swell of the sea passes back and forth over the Oyster the upper part of the machine will rock as each wave passes.

Driving hydraulic pistons the movement will pump water through pipes to an onshore electrical generator. Splitting the device in two parts has some advantages. Should the sea side device malfunction, which might be quite common given the nature of the seas the generating side will still function. Using multiple Oysters would provide sufficient backup and increased production of electricity from a single onshore station.

Oyster 2 is an advanced version of Oyster 1 which provided the company with information to make the new version more reliable and efficient.

The waters around Scotland are ideal for wave power. The Atlantic ocean gradually gathers the energy as it flows from the Americas towards the coasts of Europe and Scotland. This can sometimes be quite powerful with raging storms crashing on shore. If the Oyster 2 can survive that then there is lots of potential here for cleaner energy generation.

For home owners this type of device might be a little bit too large scale for many of us. A fortunate few may have streams or rivers running through our properties and this could be quite a boost to our energy needs. Using the equivalent of modern day water wheels or torpedoes anchored in the streams, energy can be harnessed as long as the water flows.

Nano Fiber Lighting takes on LED

Wispa — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:02:36 +0000

If you thought Light Emitting Diode Lighting was space age then you’ll be enlightened by the news of a new upstart glowing in the future. Nano Fiber Lights are looking to compete.

Nano fibers are tiny, around the diameter of a human hair. They can emit light using an amount of energy that is 5 times less than the older incandescent bulb. This puts it on par with the LED and CFL lighting for energy consumption.

They do not use mercury, an extremely toxic metal, that is used in CFL lighting so they automatically gain an advantage there.

RTI International are pushing the developments with the help of partial funding from the Department of Energy.

Using energy efficient lighting on a large scale does bring in massive savings. While each light bulb uses just a tiny fraction of the words energy, they are a lot of them around. Changing to LED, CFL or the new Nano Fiber for every bit of illumination could reduce the worlds energy use by 20%. This may seem small when we talk about tiny watts of electricity , but the world uses terawatts of energy and that is a lot of zeros on the number.

Development may take a while for the research to come out of the laboratory. Perhaps in 3 to 5 years Nano Fiber Lighting may be competing with LED or even some other new technology for illumination.

Wind Power Blowing Out in the USA

Wispa — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:12:22 +0000

The United States of America was once on the leading edge of renewable energy generated from wind power. Now it seems this drive is starting to blow itself out.

Offshore Wind Farm

Last year, 2009, the USA installed a quite massive 9.8 GigaWatts of wind generating capacity. In 2010 this may drop to just 7 GigaWatts of new installations. It is not clear why the drop has occurred, but may be somewhat attributed to the recent financial crisis that has rocked the world.

After showing a steady increase of new wind farms every year for the last 5 years, we hope that this is just a little blip and soon we shall see the continual rise of renewable energies.

Wind power, along with Solar energy and wave still produce a tiny amount of the needed energy we use. The two main forms of electrical generation are coal and oil. The recent events in The Gulf Of Mexico with the spillage of oil from deep sea drilling should hopefully edge more generation in the direction of cleaner and renewable energy sources.

Overall is is expected that 200 GigaWatts of capacity will be installed by the year 2025 and the bulk of this may in the form of wind farms built on land.

The installation of offshore wind generation is still relatively untapped. Could we eventually see instead of rigs drilling, pumping and leaking crude oil around the shores lots of cleaner wind farms generating energy without adding to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Around the world other countries are making strides into renewable energies. The big players are India and China who with their developing infrastructure will find it easier to integrate the newer forms of energy.

Solar and Wind Power Calls to India

Wispa — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:30:58 +0000

The Indian Mobile Phone company Airvoice Group and the public sector body Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam have joined in a venture to use Wind Energy and Solar Power to produce 13GW of power in India.

Karnataka district located in the southwest of India is the region for the development. Using multiple sites for the development project aims to produce up to 10 GW of energy by solar power. Using Solar Photovoltaic arrays to capture the suns rays and with just 3 GW being produce by wind power.

The project is estimated to take up to ten years to complete and will cost around $50 billion. The project is being build in multiple phases with the initial constructions due to start shortly. These will have a capacity of 200 MW generated by wind turbines and 100 MW produced by solar arrays.

For comparison 13 GW of energy would be the equivalent of between 20 to 30 coal powered power stations.

Unfortunately there will be no reduction in CO2 emissions as these are not replacing power station. The world is still demanding more energy and the uptake of renewable forms of energy is still slowly building its capacity.

This is still good news for India who badly needs energy and if a large portion of that demand cam be met by projects such as this then the nation will be better of fin the long run. India, like China, is embracing these new forms of energy and forging ahead with large scale projects as well as smaller capacity generation which will bring much needed benefits to the smaller villages in India.

Flexible Solar Cells From Caltech

Wispa — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:01:09 +0000

The California Institute of Technology are developing flexible solar cells that may prove to be cheaper and more efficient than current types on the market.

This is a new breed of cells that uses thin silicon wires embedded in a polymer substrate along with light scattering particles. If you are lost then don’t worry, so am I. This technology is moving fast and as users and consumers the physics of the materials sometimes does not quite makes sense.

Normally solar cells just gather the electrons that happen to fall on them. The efficiency can be improved by adding multiple layer to catch the light that escapes the previous layers. In the Caltech implementation this is all turned on its side and the light particles bounce around and are reflected. Eventually they are caught by the silicon wires and are turned in to electrical charge.

In the experiments the researchers have manages to capture up to 85% of the photons.

Silicon that is used to make the solar cells is quite costly once it is refined and is a major factor in the end price of solar panels. These new types of cells use just one fiftieth of the amount of silicon and obviously will cut the price by a large amount.

Using silicon wires instead of silicon wafers to manufacture the panels means they have the added advantage of being flexible. This not only allows the manufacturing process to be easier but also makes the end panels to be more versatile in their use.

Currently Caltech are working on laboratory scale cells of around a few centimeter and are hoping to devise ways of scaling up the devices to something more usable.