Solar Energy

Some places rely on solar and wind energy right? To power their homes and such. How do they use energy in the night or when there is no wind? Do they have something that stores the energy like a big battery or something?

I have to “make” a green city and it will use renewable energy source including solar and wind energy. How would I make the wind and solar energy sustainable and not have shortages of power?

Small places, like a remote house or an island, might have batteries. A large place, like a city, would be connected to a "Grid", or electrical energy transmission system. If the wind stopped blowing, deep in the night, they would pull energy off the grid, from a nuclear plant, or coal-burning generation station, or hydroelectric project many miles away. A town on an island might have a large diesel generator.

I came accross a new, proven and tested home made wind power system and solar power system which eliminates our electricity bills. It was written by a Renewable energy enthusiasts Michael Harvey the diy called Earth4energy. You can get your copy to save energy and help environment while eliminating your power bills. Get it from here: http://homemadeenergyreviews.blogspot.com/

Fossil fuels will undoubtedly be depleted in the near future. And though most of us have heard of the alternatives (wind, solar, electric, nuclear), society usually selects one specific natural resource to power our industrialized world. What do you think it will be? Please qualify your statement.

"Fossil fuels will undoubtedly be depleted" is the voice of the media.

There isnt one single tap for fossil fuels. It requires extensive engineering to get them out of the ground. As there become less and less sources the price will go up and the production of energy will move to other forms.

I don’t think that the society is looking for the usual single resource this time, and its a wise choice.

Unless regulations change in favor of nuclear, I believe that geothermal will be the largest source of power in 2050.

According to the 2008 Annual Report from the Commissioner of Public Lands in New Mexico revenues earned from leases for wind, solar, and biomass energy development on trust lands have jumped more than 300 percent. New Mexico is producing 496 megawatts of wind power, but according to the American Wind Energy Association has dropped to twelfth in the nation for installed wind capacity.
Why do you think this is? Is this a bad place for New Mexico to be?

they dropped to 12th because other states have been installing turbines as well. Pa has been adding about 1 a month (300′ turbines) as well as ohio new york michigan. just north of Pittsburgh near I80 is a farm under construction now in addition to the others already in operation.
http://www.pawindenergynow.org/pa/farms.html

My question is what besides solar panels and zeolites / photovoltaic can store solar energy?

Our project is about using nanotechnology to store solar energy. We are trying to think and look of something that may store solar energy and is much like chloroplasts (if possible).

Thank you

Solar energy can also be stored as heat.

Southernland are people from south
How can I contact with Mr. Emphreth T jeffreys

Who is Southernland? Where is he from?

Ok, I’m guessing that you mean in the southern part of the USA. That is very simple if you just want to develop home or business systems.. Just search the internet for Grid Tie Systems or Solar Electric Backup. Any solar electric business owner would be more then happy to increase their sales. And would give out all the information needed.

Now if you are trying to develop something new you are on your own because if someone else develops it they will put a price on it and sell it to you anyway.

You are not real clear in your question.

What type of battery bank would i need to store energy from a solar panel used to power a house, and what would be the cost?

a big one.

You need to answer a few questions:

1. What is your average power usage. You can get that from old electric bills. Typical is 1000 watts.

2. How many hours without sun do you want the batteries to continue to supply power when there is no sun. Obviously you need the nite hours, but how about 2-3 days when it is raining?

Lets try a sample calculation of 24 hours, and 1000 watts. That is 24000 watt hours. A large marine sealed lead acid battery can supply about 1000 watt hours, and costs about US$300. But in this case, you would need 24 of them, a lot of money and storage space and maintenance. Change to 2000 watts and 2 days and it quickly spirals out of control.

One alternative you should investigate is selling power to your power company when you have excess and buying when the sun isn’t shining. Some allow this, and it saves on the battery cost and maintenance.

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Say solar panels converted 100% of energy from the sun. How much energy would a solar panel get that was, say, 1 square foot? What I mean is how much of the sun’s energy actually gets to the solar panel?

That depends on the solar insolation which varies around the surface of the Earth. At the top of the atmosphere, the insolation is around 1300 Watts per square metre. The atmosphere attenuates a lot of that, though, but that is the absolute maximum. (no atmosphere).

A rough rule of thumb is that on a clear day at the equator, the maximum is about 1000W per square metre, and this will reduce as latitude increases and as cloud cover increases.

I go through the maths here: http://www.howtopowertheworld.com/what-is-solar-energy.html

Also, you can measure the insolation around the world,: there are maps which show this, for example http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/natural-resource-solar-power-potential

You’ll have to convert the units though.

Hope this helps.

I just found one, here at http://www.gadgetroad.com/technology/spain-uses-worlds-first-solar-thermal-power-plant/2007/05/07/, in Seville, Spain. They say is the only one, buy I feel they’re wrong? Is it true?

Yes!….and NO its not true!

A new 12 MW power plant was just put online last year in June. It is located just outside Phoenix, AZ, and it provides all of its power to Sempra Energy in San Diego for distribution to all those power hungry folk in the so-called nation’s finest city. Go to the Sempra Energy site and check it out…its in their news releases.

I just got an estimate of about $37,000, and that was after rebates and tax credits. And I would still have a sizeable PG&E bill. And would it save to install yourself?

You know I bought 3 small security lights that run on light and they did not work so I am holding off on the big system. Plus PG&E is so expensive compaired to other companies.

im doing a project for geography about the renewable resources. Mine is solar energy and one of the question was that i need to find the distribution of power plants of the assigned source (solar energy). I searched every , but i cant find any decent info. plz tell some good websites thx

Here’s a good start, with links to articles about specific plants, and articles with more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deployment_of_solar_power_to_energy_grids