Top 3 Ways to Harness Solar Energy

One of the greatest sources of free energy, both in the amount and power of that energy is the sun, and here are the top 3 ways to harness solar energy.

Top 3 Ways to Harness Solar Energy

Top 3 Ways to Harness Solar Energy

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Top 3 Ways to Harness Solar Energy

Top 3 Ways to Harness Solar Energy

Let's face it, without the sun, there'd be no life, so it's impossible to underestimate the importance of the sun to our planet. Not only does it sustain life as we know it, it also supplies thousands of times more power in a single day than we humans use in a whole year.

Which means we're only tapping into a small fraction of the energy available to us, so we could do a much better job of harnessing the sun's energy than we are doing. But, until we come up with new ways to use the sun's energy, these are the top 3 ways to harness that energy.

1. Generating Solar Electricity

This isthe way of harnessing solar energy that most people are probably familiar with, or, at least, the one they think of when solar energy is mentioned. That's not to say people generally understand the details of how it works, but they're at least aware that solar panels are used to generate electricity.

How it's done is another matter. That would be via the use of a scientific discovery called the "photovoltaic effect", which was the work of a French scientist named Edmund Becquerel, who noticed that sunlight reacted with certain materials such as selenium to generate a tiny charge of electricity.

This discovery has been refined over the years and today solar cells made from silicon are wired together in a metal frame to form a panel, which, when joined together with several morepanels to form an array, can generate enough electricity to power a home's electrical devices and appliances.

PV (a popular abbreviation for photovoltaic) technology is being embraced as one of the best ways for us to combat and hopefully defeat the effects of carbon emissions and global warming, and more people are taking advantage of its benefits for both themselves and the environment.

2. Using Solar Thermal Energy

Solar thermal has been around for centuries, although most people don't realize that that's the name given to it when they hear of such things as the ancient Greeks using glass and mirrors to generate heat from the sun centuries ago. This was early solar thermal.

Nowadays, the most common applications for solar thermal are to provide hot waterand heat for homes and businesses and to heat swimming pools. Hot water and space heaters usually use a storage tank to hold the heated water, whereas solar pool heaters recycle the pool's water through collectors which heat the water and transfer back to the pool.

3. Heating And Cooling From Passive Solar

When you open your drapes in the morning to allow the sun in, you're using passive solar in its simplest form. Passive solar is any means by which we take advantage if the sun's energy to supply heating and/or cooling to rooms and buildings.

Passive solar can be as simple as just shown, but is usually somewhat more complex as a technology and design feature. Passive solar systems are designed to store the sun's energy into what's known as a thermal mass, which isbasically some type of material such as certain types of wood, concrete, etc., which retains the energy for later use as heat when the temperature cools.

Passive solar can also be used to provide ventilation via solar chimneys.

These are the most common ways currently used to harness solar energy, and combining these methods would be a great way to make a home almost completely energy independent. But, together or separately, they can go a long way to helping reduce energy costs and carbon emissions.

Top 3 Ways to Harness Solar Energy

Diesel vs. Regular Gasoline-Which is Better for the Environment?

With the implementation of alternative fuel sources on the minds of many, diesel is now under the microscope more than ever. Although diesel-powered vehicles have been around for a long time, gasoline is still the primary fuel source for most North American vehicles. Why diesel has not been used as a fuel source in more vehicles? Which is better for the environment? These are questions that are being asked more frequently as the search for alternative fuels is weighing heavily on more people's minds.

Diesel vs. Regular Gasoline-Which is Better for the Environment?

Diesel vs. Regular Gasoline-Which is Better for the Environment?

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Diesel vs. Regular Gasoline-Which is Better for the Environment?

Diesel vs. Regular Gasoline-Which is Better for the Environment?

Gasoline vs. Diesel

It turns out that gasoline is more volatile than diesel, not because of what its base consists of, but because of the additives it contains. In addition, vehicles that use diesel engines tend to be more fuel-efficient andproduces less greenhouse gases. In that respect, diesel is more environmentally friendly. Diesel actually produces 15% more in greenhouse gases than gasoline when compared by the litre rather than the gallon. Yet it is through the 20-40% improvement in fuel economy over gasoline that offsets the higher emissions per litre. In actuality, the carbon dioxide emissions are considerably less than gasoline, but diesel does contain 2.778 grams of carbon per gallon, whereas gasoline contains 2.421 grams per gallon. But, again, it is the fuel economy of diesels that accounts for the smaller rate of carbon emissions.

Then again, diesel fuel contains larger quantities of sulfur. The United States has what is considered to be the dirtiest diesel, but as of June1, 2010 this is going to be different. U.S. diesel fuel has a lower measure of ignition quality. This means that when it is cold outside, ignition performance is poor and can result in higher emissions. This is why you see truck drivers idling their trucks all night long in cold weather rather than risk a troublesome start in the mornings.

But, the sulfur in the diesel that is emitted during cold ignitions and long engine idling is still harmful to the environment because the sulfurs prevent the control of diesel particulate emissions through diesel particulate filters. This is changing, though, since new advanced technologies such as nitrogen oxide absorbers are being developed to reduce these emissions.

Diesel vs. Regular Gasoline-Which is Better for the Environment?

Hydro Energy

Water is a renewable energy resource, and one that offers the greatest variation in power production. We can harness the water energy through what is known as motive energy or through the differences it experiences in temperatures.

Hydro Energy

Hydro Energy

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Hydro Energy

Hydro Energy

Water is nearly one thousand times as dense as our air. What this tells us, then, is that a slow moving stream of water is more powerful, in terms of renewable energy than wind. A wave or swell of the sea can deliver many times that energy.

We have many forms of renewable energy water from which to choose.

There are many forms of water energy.

The first type of water energy, and the one we most commonly think of when we think of renewable water power is hydroelectric. This is the power that commonly is created by largehydroelectric dams.

You can also have what are called micro hydroelectric systems. These are small power installations that produces as much as 100 kilowatts of power. The most common places to find these renewable energy sources are water in areas where water is abundant and the hydro system can be used as a remote area power supply RAPS. While there are many RAPS around the globe several are functioning in the Solomon Islands.

Wave power is another way of using water as a renewable energy source. The waves are used to create an up and down affect for pontoons that float in the water. This has just started to be used commercially as renewable energy.

Tides can produce renewable energy as well. As the ocean tides as the water level is raised in the water basin. Then,at low tide the basin water gets discharged through the water turbines. Tidal stream power is different in that it captures the energy produced by the tidal flow. This usually is accomplished through the use of an underwater plant that looks like a small-scale wind turbines. While governments have set up demonstrations for this type of tidal power, any large scale commercialization of this renewable tidal energy would require extensive upfront capital. This has yet to be attempted.

Ocean thermal energy conversion OTEC is yet another form of water energy. OTEC uses the different in temperature between the oceans surface water and the water at deeper points. To do this it uses a cyclic heat engine. This form of renewable energy has had no large scale field tests as yet.

Though nottechnically a form of generating renewable energy the cooling of the water in deep lakes is an efficient way to save energy during the hot summer months. Pipes are submerged and used as heat sinks. The bottom of these lakes typically stays at less than 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Blue energy, which is really desalination in reverse, is a renewable energy resource still being researched. There is no data at this point to show whether it will work.

Hydro Energy