Archive for November, 2009

How much will it cost to install a solar energy power to run a few appliances such as lights,tv,e-fans?

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Also where I can inquire here in the Philippines (NCR) about the installation of Solar Power Energy?

I would not bother… You will not get your money back on the savings……….

Can someone proof read my paper?

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

would someone be willing to proof read this essay? i know its a bit long… but any help would be appreciated. please don;t be too harsh. English is my worst subject.

The environment is changing, there’s no question about that. With global warming, mass extinction, and other threats to the welfare of the world, it’s only a matter of time before humans permanently annihilate all life on earth. This has all happened before. People have to look into the past to preserve the future, for history is cyclical. Once upon a time an island by the name of Easter lived and prospered. Never heard of it? Well that’s because all life there perished. On this small island in the south pacific a group of people came and settled on what seemed to be the perfect island. It was thought to have infinite resources and everything one needed to survive in luxury. After time the population began growing exponentially which caused the resources to decline equally. It reached the point where there were more people than resources and the island turned to cannibalism and finally a collapse of all life. Is this the earth’s past or is it the present? Humanity has been given the crystal ball, it is known what can happen, and so it’s time to fix it before earth becomes the next Easter Island. Despite the recalcitrancy of humanity, which in effect is deteriorating our surroundings, the environment still shows a fighting chance of recovery if we as a whole can give up our lavish lifestyles and think more eco-friendly.
One of the main issues with today’s society is their lack of knowledge about how vitally important the energy crisis is. Most know only that fossil fuels are bad and the burning of them leads to global warming and other problems that they consider unimportant. "Using cleaner energy will preserve the environment in multiple ways" ( Kline 1). Many don’t understand how severe of a threat to the world’s welfare global warming is. Most people just take it as a joke or don’t think it will ever happen, but in reality the effects range from "extreme weather to glacial disappearance to higher sea levels" ("Effects" 1). And for some countries such as The Netherlands, who live on the ocean and whose entire country is below sea level, this change could be detrimental. One very good candidate for the solution is hydrogen. Although this is one of the more expensive solutions to this crisis, "Hydrogen is more effective and cleaner than oil" (Brown 1). Gas is still more expensive than hydrogen. "The cost of hydrogen per equivalent gallon of gasoline is only $1.40" (Brown 1). So why hasn’t the world changed to hydrogen power? The only one’s who would suffer are the oil company executives who have in effect sent America’s economy into a recession by inflating gas prices to record highs. Along with hydrogen, another decent solution is harnessing the power of the sun. Even though it is not the most effective solution it is clean and, obviously, the most abundant. "Many South American villages are already using solar energy to fuel themselves" (Brown 1). The final major solution is using wind power. Like solar power, "Wind energy is one of the most abundant and cheapest ways of creating energy without releasing carbon dioxide" (Brown 1). And not only is this more eco-friendly it is also more cost effective, which is extremely beneficial to the world at this time due to a poor economy. "With each doubling of the world’s wind generating capacity, the cost will fall by 15%"(Brown 1). Scientists are now looking at ways to attempt to combine two or more of these potential power sources to create a clean and efficient fuel. The only problem is that the oil company will not give up it’s high profit business that easily; "The use of solar and wind energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun nor the wind" (Brown 1)
Not only is the world our home, it has many other important uses that we can utilize if it is destroyed. Along with providing us with the essential resources to life, it has many medicinal uses, which help people, live a longer and healthier life. "Four out of every five of the top 150 prescription drugs are made from ingredients found in nature"("Preserving" 1). So why would humanity destroy something that without it they could not live? Although to some this is common sense, many do not think about how much comes from natural world. Too many people are too pre occupied with a television and their big, fancy jobs, instead of they taking notice to the daily destruction of everyone’s true home, the earth. All of one’s life accomplishments won’t matter if there is no place to live and show people. So humanity must collaborate to find the solution before it is too late.
Who is to blame for all of this? The human population is. Humanity’s gluttonous lifestyle is using the earth’s natural resources faster than it can replace them. "Throughout history, human’s have used over 7000 different plant species as a
7000 different plant species as a food source, now only 20 plants provide 90% of the plant food" (Wilson 1). This occurred because humans would pick all of the specific plant they could, so when it came time for the plant to reproduce there were not enough to recreate a high amount of them. Thus over a few seasons of this the plant would enter extinction. Also " Human’s are over fishing, over hunting everywhere causing weaker eco systems and lower biodiversity" (Cincotta and Engelman 1). Biodiversity is important because "Biodiversity boosts an ecosystems where every species, no matter how small, has an important role. It is this combination that enables the ecosystem to possess the ability to prevent and recover from a variety of disasters"(Shah 1). The damage done can be fixed if people will just adopt new lifestyles and put the environments welfare before their own selfish desires. The closed mindedness of the importance of the environment will lead to the downfall of every species
the downfall of every species on the planet. What most people don’t realize is that their activities are affecting all species by pushing them out of their habitat, and pushing many towards extinction. "Human activities force the lower parts of the food chain to go extinct, which causes a domino effect and hurts all the species that are above it in a food web"(Kline 1). So when a human’s actions cause even the smallest of species to go extinct it will come back to effect him or her because now the next level of the food web has one less food source. That causes instability within the food web than it only takes one disaster and the entire ecosystem will fail, and to think it starts with such a small animal dieing off. Overall the profligacy of the 20th century has led humanity to overpopulation and shrinking natural resources. But overpopulation is not the biggest problem because "when determining resource usage, it is more dependent on how people live rather than how many there are" (
The place on this planet that we should be trying to save the most of is the rainforest, but sadly that is what is being destroyed the fastest. "One and a half acres of rainforest are destroyed per second. The rainforest used to cover 14% of the world’s land, now it covers a mere 6% and at this rate the whole rainforest will be gone within forty years"("Impact" 1). One major advantage of the rainforest is its high biodiversity, meaning there are a lot of new and useful species located within its boundaries. And because of the high biodiversity it allows "80% of the world’s diet to be found within the rainforest" ("Impact" 1). And not a lot of the rainforest plants have been discovered or tested for useful properties, so we are destroying a section of the planet that could be used to help much of society. "The rainforest provides more resources than anywhere else on earth, it contributes 20% of the world’s oxygen while taking in carbon dioxide along with giving us over 25% of the planet
The place on this planet that we should be trying to save the most of is the rainforest, but sadly that is what is being destroyed the fastest. "One and a half acres of rainforest are destroyed per second. The rainforest used to cover 14% of the world’s land, now it covers a mere 6% and at this rate the whole rainforest will be gone within forty years"("Impact" 1). One major advantage of the rainforest is its high biodiversity, meaning there are a lot of new and useful species located within its boundaries. And because of the high biodiversity it allows "80% of the world’s diet to be found within the rainforest" ("Impact" 1). And not a lot of the rainforest plants have been discovered or tested for useful properties, so we are destroying a section of the planet that could be used to help much of society. "The rainforest provides more resources than anywhere else on earth, it contributes 20% of the world’s oxygen while taking in carbon dioxide along with giving us over 25% of the planet
Ok i cant do this 100 more times…. its too long to fit. just rad the parts that there :) . ignore the fact that its missing a big chunk and no conclusion. if u really love it i can email it to u

Good but it is like 3 paragraphs and the 2nd is big try to separate it.

What engineering degrees are solar/wind/clean energy companies looking for?

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

I’m currently in my last year of high school and looking at potential career opportunities and am very interested in clean energy. I have a couple more questions regarding this industry. If you are in the industry or know someone who is I’d love to contact you or them and ask a few more questions.

Any type of engineering, but especially mechanical engineering. Efficiency of mechanical systems and materials are were the action is at. Then again, I may be a little bias since I got my undergrad in mechanical engineering :-)

Disadavtages to photovoltaic?

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Yeah me and my friend are doing a project and we neeed to know the disadvantages to photovoltaic solar energy… by dec the 8… kk thanks…

So you left it until the day before to ask this question? And then you start a sentence with ‘yeah’? Also, you mean ‘my friend and I’ not ‘me and my friend’. Anyway, enough criticism:

Photovoltaic solar energy isn’t very efficient. Although they recently developed solar cells that absorb a very broad-band of frequencies including all of the optical frequencies, they still suffer from reflection and internal heating. Also, they produce DC electricity. As most homes run off AC electricity this needs to be converted and that costs even more energy. Finally you need a good supply of sunlight to make this work. I have seen a building on the North-Wales coast coated in solar cells and I don’t think they are efficient enough to warrant that kind of expense.

Should the government stop subsidizing bad solar technology and put the money into research?

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

The state of solar panel technology (especially thermal) is stuck where it was 30 years ago because the government is subsidizing projects using that old technology rather than investing in research into new more efficient was to capture solar energy. Here in Florida we have a glaring example of how much of our tax dollars the government can waste while making a select group rich. This solar project will never produce the energy it is suppose to.
http://www.fpl.com/environment/solar/martin.shtml
But that’s OK because the "green" energy traders will make millions off it and so will FPL Group from tax credits.

And when a hurricane or hail storm wrecks the glass collectors, guess who will fund rebuilding it all over again.

"Solar panel technology is stuck where it was 30 years ago"? Are you kidding me? Solar panel research is ongoing and is cutting edge. Conversion efficiencies have skyrocketed in the past few years and we’re now seeing thin-film solar technology that can be affixed to windows and roof tiles and such. We’re at the point where solar power is reaching price parity with natural gas. Give it a few more years and it’ll be economical to have it widespread.

Sure, solar research could always use more money, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t put money into the end product. If no one is buying the fruits of the research, what’s the point of the research?

As for hail and storms, many modern panels are built to resist all but the worst impacts. In areas where this is a problem engineers take this into consideration and prepare for it.

Solar is the way of the future as it’s the only fuel source that is available world-wide and will never run out (ok, maybe in 5 billion years). Pair it up with natural gas in the short-term and hydrogen production in the long-term and you have an electric grid that’s clean and doesn’t depend on the whims of OPEC.

How do you construct a solar panel to recycle energy, and what are solar cells composed of?

Sunday, November 29th, 2009


everyone wants to be a comedian……constructing your own solar cells is not possible to do and still make them cost effective. I have about 400 watts on top of the roof right now, and I am powering one room. its pretty expensive to get started, but after the initial investment the cost goes down, and so does your utility bill, I have the added advantage of still having lights and being able to power my fridge and have tv and phones when the power goes out during a storm,

I didnt start doing this to save the planet, and I dont hug tree’s, I did it for more selfish reasons, my wallet! I gave up on trying to find deals on ebay, even bought a few books on how to make your own solar panels, I came to the conclusion that I personally could not build them for under 7/8 bux a watt, I get my panels from a company in New Mexico called affordable solar, most of the time I buy brand new panels from them for 4.50 to 6 bux a watt, WITH a warranty ;)

you can find them here

www.affordable-solar.com

hope this helps

How solar panels convert solar energy into electricity?

Sunday, November 29th, 2009


Look into the photoelectric effect.

In a nutshell what happens is that photons of light hit a photoelectric material and transfer their energy to it. In doing so they break electrons off. It takes some of the photon’s energy to break those electrons off. If there is leftover energy after breaking off those electrons the electrons will get that energy and their movement are what we know as electricity.

Could the thermal energy generated by bald people’s scalps be harnessed to save greenhouse emissions?

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

. Is the loss of hair simply nature’s own way of creating a solar panel?

Sorry to prick the balloon. The dome will reflect the energy. It is the grizzly and gorilla types, who collect solar energy, which currently seems to make a fevered imagination spawn hair(less?)brained ideas.

The way things are going on (or off) at the top, I may be able to give a comparative evaluation of the two types based on direct experimentation, the tropical sun being what it is.

what do i need to build a Solar energy system to run three tv’s a microwave?

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

three 12btu air condition a washing machine a dryer a music center with a Surround sound system a computer a large fridge an electric stove a water heater,lighting and a water pump ,etc.

A lot lot of money for solar arrays and batteries. I’d guess at US$100k at least. You will need a whole room to store the batteries.

Get the ratings on each item, and add them up. Discount where an appliance is not used continuously. For example, a microwave oven may be rated at 2000 watts but is used only 10 minutes a day, which is about 0.6%, so average usage is 14 watts.

Or look at your electric bills for the last few months (include a hot summer month) to get kW-hrs.

Then there are a lot of decision points. Do you want to sell power to the power company when you have excess and buy it from them when the sun is not shining? that saves you having to buy a bank of a hundred or so expensive batteries.

How many hours do the batteries have to supply power when there is a long period with no sun? (it could be days). Remember that one $400 battery can supply only about 1000 watt-hrs (1 kW-hr) of energy. That is enough to run all of your appliances for a minute or two. (a stove can use 10kW, that is 1kW-hr every 6 minutes).

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What has been done to encourage a wider uptake of solar power/energy?

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Worldwide.

Many states have rebates or other subsidy programs. Arizona has, through the utility companies programs that almost cut the initial cost in half. Great, huh? Problem is, even with the subsidy, your break even time is almost 20 years. I looked at the expected life of the panels and it was 10 years!

Greed rules when the government tries to help us. Every time subsidies are made, the price goes up because everybody thinks the government has limitless supplies of money.