mahra's research (Solar Energy)

The Petroleum Institute
Electrical Engineering Department
Strategies for Team-based Engineering Problem Solving II – ELEG
Solar energy –individual research



Name
Mahra AlQamzi
ID
2129
Due Date
13-2-2010
Instructor
David Moore

The PI Honor Pledge:
“We pledge that we have neither given nor received any unauthorized assistance on this laboratory lab assignment.”




Abstract
The main aim of writing this report is to have a better understanding of the solar energy and its specifications. Furthermore is to conclude whether this energy is suitable in having it as a main source of function in our final project which is to be an educational kit.




Introduction
A lot are not aware of how will be the future of our earth in the coming twenty years. Most of our daily equipments works based on non-renewable mineral sources such as coal and oil. Those sources of energy are causing a non healthy environment, furthermore those type of energies never last long and when their consumed they couldn’t be reused again. Moreover, as the need of oil production increases the oil production begins to become less abundant, which as a result will force the people to search for other sources of energy. On the other hand there are several of different renewable sources of energies that can help reducing the effect that the other nonrenewable sources cause. Renewable energy sources are basically energies that comes in different types from natural resources, such as solar , wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal. Those forms of energies are not limited in supply and they can regenerate quickly after consumption. The previous facts are the reason why renewable sources of energy have been considered as necessitate in nowadays. This report will focus on a certain type of the renewable energy which is the solar energy and it will discuss how it may help in choosing our design.

History of solar energy
Solar energy was known from the 7th century till nowadays, beginning with the magnifying glasses and ending with a PV (photovoltaic cells) used to be able to benefit from the solar energy. Ages ago the Greeks and Romans used magnifying glasses to light torches for religious purposes, furthermore a Greek scientist Archimedes used the reflective properties of the bronze shield to burn wooden ships from the roman empire. In those days the famous Romans bathhouses worked with solar energy , a large window was used to set facing the south to let in as much heat as possible In 1954 , the photovoltaic technology was discovered in America by three scientists Daryl Chapin, Calvin Fuller, and Gerald Pearson when they developed the silicon photovoltaic cells to be capable of storing the energy coming from the sun and converting it into electricity to be used by any application but the efficiency was to low. From that period of time till today a lot of scientists had worked hard in improving the efficiency of the photovoltaic cells to be able to consume a lot of the solar energy.

The importance the process of converting the solar
As it is well known solar energy is the energy obtained from the sun rays, those rays contains molecules including protons and electrons. The importance of this energy is that it can produces gasses which enrich the plants to grow, it also controls the currents flowing in the ocean so that it doesn’t get frozen, furthermore it is affordable to everyone as long as the sun stays shinning and finally it helps reducing the amount of electricity generated from nonrenewable sources of energy and consumed in our everyday life. Solar energy can be used to power different electronic supplies such as TV, refrigerators, mobiles, Cars, computers and etc. A photovoltaic (PV) cells are used to store and convert the energy coming from the sunlight into direct currents (DC), then those currents passes through an inverter to convert them to an alternating currents (AC) in order to function the appliances.

Advantages and disadvantages
Applying renewable sources of energy to an application is great, but it carries some disadvantages. Considering the advantages of the solar power we can observe that is friendly to the environment, no maintenances, saves money and independent. It is not harmful to the earth were no carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide or sulphur mercury is released to the atmosphere as other mineral sources of energy, in addition to that it is generated when it is needed it has no limit. The solar energy systems can be installed with free maintenance and will last for decades, it doesn’t have moving parts, they operates silently and they don’t release offensive smells. Since we are dealing with energy coming from the sun then it is free charged energy and it will help in reducing the amount of money paid for the electricity bill. Finally, the solar power can independently operate the electricity of a whole house without the need of depending on the other nonrenewable sources. However beside those advantages there are some disadvantages of this source of energy, the production of solar energy might decrease in they presence of clouds and pollution in the atmosphere. Moreover solar panels will require large area in order to achieve a high point of efficiency.

How can it help us in our design?
This type of renewable energy consists of different characteristics which may help our design to approach its goals. After conducting this research it have been noticed that this energy can store the inverted rays in a certain capacitor to be used later ,moreover it can be used directly once it is applied to the load. In fact, the children in this range of years are willing to have kits which function faster. Most of our main objectives the solar energy is part of it, such as cost effective and environmentally friendly.

Conclusion
Summing up, this report covered the history of the solar power, its importance and the process of converting to electrical energy, later on the advantages and disadvantages of using this energy were identified. Finally, how this energy is going to help us further in designing our final project.



References

[1] The history of solar energy, http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/pdfs/solar_timeline.pdf ,accessed on 3-3-2010
[2] Solar energy conversion technologies, http://gcep.stanford.edu/pdfs/assessments/solar_assessment.pdf , accessed on 28-2-2010
[3] Solar advantages and disadvantages, http://ezinearticles.com/?Solar-Energy-Advantages-Disadvantages&id=50178 , accessed on 12-3-2010
[5] The passive solar energy book, by Edward Mazria
[6] Renewable energy book, by Andy Mccrea,