WOMEN IN ENERGY
Whether gleaning information on solar technology to increase your knowledge, gathering information for a home installa- tion, or learning more with the desire of building solar panels, solar power is a field of study that continues to grow and expand. With growing interest in green technology, attention is turning toward environmentally clean energy alternatives from building wind power to harnessing the sun’s energy. Though all solar tech- nology has the same end goal of generat- ing energy, specific technologies work to focus solar power in unique ways based on their applications. Concentrated Solar Power systems or
CSPs, make use of mirrors or lenses and tracking systems to focus a wide area of sunlight into a single, small beam. The concentrated light is then used as a heat source for a conventional power plant. There are a wide range of solar methods beyond those of building your own solar panels, and the most developed technologies are the parabolic trough, the
The Science Of Solar Power S
olar power is described simply as the conversion of sunlight into electricity.
focusing linear fresnel reflector, the Stirling solar dish, the solar power tower, and the solar bowl. While several tech- niques are used to locate the sun and con- centrate light, working fluid is heated in all of these systems using concentrated sunlight which is then applied for generat- ing power or storing energy. A parabolic trough utilizes a linear par-
abolic reflector placed along the focal line of the reflector that concentrates light right onto a receiver. The receiver is a tube filled with a working fluid positioned directly over the middle of the parabolic mirror. The reflector is designed to follow the sun during the daylight hours by track- ing along a single axis. Building solar panels and parabolic trough systems pro- vide the best land-use factor among all solar technologies. Acciona’s Nevada So- lar One outside of Boulder City, Nevada is a great example of this technology. Focusing linear fresnel reflectors are
CSPs which use several thin strips of mir- ror instead of the usual parabolic mirrors to focus sunlight onto a couple of tubes using working fluid. Building solar pan-
els with the flat mirrors of focusing linear Fresnel reflectors are more cost effective than parabolic mirrors and are able to con- tain more reflectors within the same amount of space. This allows more avail- able sunlight to be utilized. Focusing lin- ear Fresnel reflectors can be used in both large and compact plants. The Stirling solar dish, also known as a
dish engine system, is made of an inde- pendent parabolic reflector that concen- trates light directly onto a receiver posi- tioned at the focal point of the reflector. The reflector tracks the sun along two axes. Parabolic dish systems provide high efficiency. The 50 kW Big Dish in Canberra, Australia is a great ex- ample. The Stirling solar dish integrates a parabolic focusing dish with a Stirling heat engine that normally drives an elec- tric generator. The benefits of Stirling so- lar over photovoltaic cells are higher effi- ciency converting sunlight into electricity and a longer lifetime. Solar power towers include a wide ar-
ray of tracking reflectors known as he- liostats that focus light on a central receiv- er on a tower. Power towers are considered to be the most cost effective and provide better energy storage and higher efficien- cy compared to other CSP technolo- gies. The Solar Two in Barstow, Califor- nia is an example of a power tower. A solar bowl is a dish mirror that is af-
fixed to a certain spot or structure. The receiver follows the line focus made by the dish rather than having a point focus as with a parabolic mirror.
simplest designs with lowest mainte- nance.
Whether building solar panels or in-
stalling premade units, specific devices and structures are manufactured to focus and concentrate solar power based on the application. Solar power as an answer to modern energy needs continues to in- crease in popularity due in part to envi- ronmental awareness and also to the con- tinued development, expansion, and production of these devices. Source:
articlesbase.com
34 PROFESSIONAL WOMAN’S MULTICULTURAL MAGAZINE CELEBRATING 11 YEARS OF DIVERSITY
WWW.PROFESSIONALWOMANMAG.COM It is one of the
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68