How do scientists capture energy, such as from solar power, or energy from water falls?
And how do they make that energy into something we can use for power? What instrument do they use to do this? I am really curious.
Waterfalls – Hydro energy
Water falls from a great height, as it falls potential energy are converted to kinetic energy which den drive the turbine of an electric generator, producing mechanical power.
Solar Energy
Light from the sun are discrete packet of energy. When the light shone on the solar panal which is a p-n semiconductor, electrons are excited by the sunlight, producing an electron-hole pair. these electron-holes pair will den act as a charge carrier conducting electricity. When potential difference is applied, the charge carriers will flow in a specific direction generating electricity and hence power.
Hope this helps
October 29th, 2009 at 9:40 am
theres this element called magiun and it can capture anything
References :
October 29th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Waterfalls -
.
The falling water flows through a tube and passed a large turbine.
The water turns that turbine. The other end of that turbines shaft
is attached to a generator where the spinning of the shaft produces electricity.
References :
October 29th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Anybody can harness power. Not just scientists. You can set up a windmill, solar cell, or hydroelectric generator. you store the power in a battery. One home can run lights off of 1 or 2 industrial sized batteries (the kind that would go into a piece of heavy equipment) Depending on what your needs are justifies how big you need to go with whatever application you choose to use. Some times you may generate more juice than you need and some power companies will pay you for placing power back into the grid.
To use the power you gather you sometimes need to wire your house with 2 outlets one for a/c and one for d/c you monitor your system with a volt meter because you don’t want to put too much strain on your batteries.
References :
October 29th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Waterfalls – Hydro energy
Water falls from a great height, as it falls potential energy are converted to kinetic energy which den drive the turbine of an electric generator, producing mechanical power.
Solar Energy
Light from the sun are discrete packet of energy. When the light shone on the solar panal which is a p-n semiconductor, electrons are excited by the sunlight, producing an electron-hole pair. these electron-holes pair will den act as a charge carrier conducting electricity. When potential difference is applied, the charge carriers will flow in a specific direction generating electricity and hence power.
Hope this helps
References :
October 29th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Solar energy can be captured in a number of ways:
(1) the sunlight is focused onto tubes that carry water. The water boils and turns to steam and which then goes through a turbine that spins to generate electricity.
(2)The sunlight is focused onto special high temperature photovoltaic cells which convert the heat directly into electricity.
These are just a few examples so have a look at the following as there is heaps more information that should satisfy your curiosity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power
Waterfalls have already been explained but there is also what is called pumped energy storage which is basically two dams joined by pipes with the generating station between them. When there is a high demand for electricity water is released to the lower dam and when a low demand the water is pumped back up to be ready for the next cycle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroelectricity
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroelectricity