Even in 21st century, it comes as a surprise that we still are dependent on age old methods for generating electricity. In olden days, i.e. few decades ago, we have used oil, after its discovery. From then, there was so much of development in the technology, which could have been used to develop methods for generating electricity.

But even now we are so dependent on oil from foreign land; it’s not the place where the USA, the powerful country of all should find herself. But that’s the fact. In 2008 the reality about our livelihoods, our futures even our very lives are in control of oil producing nations.

The position of Unites states on energy generation is sad. From several decades we are having solar technologies. But only from the recent past it started to develop with a full pace, which should have started much earlier. Sun alone can provide so much of energy, it is sufficient for each and every country. We are wasting this energy for so long, which should be in use long ago. Global warming- It is getting recognized finally by the people, who once argued that there is no such thing called Global warming. Its time for us to develop few things like solar wind, others include ‘green’ technologies, that should put all of us in 21st century, not only in numbers, also in energy production.

Many people think that getting systems used for generation of solar power is financially difficult for them. It is true in the case of commercial systems for home, but we can built an alternative in home, with nothing but common tools, little bit of common sense. With these any one can built their solar panels, which may not look as good as a factory make. Finally the point is, they will serve their purpose and will generate the electricity.

If we do our part in changing things around here, Earth will be a place where our future generation will inherit and they will be live happily. If the things continue like the present situation, then no one will be left behind to take over. Global warming affect will be upon us, which is very much real, if things around here doesn’t change in next decade, it will be too late.

By building some solar panels in your free time in your garage or basement, you will not only participate in reducing the effect of global warming, also you can save money and reduce most of the paying to your utility company.

It’s in your hands now to build these solar panels, so as to avoid monthly electricity bill. It will be even better if utility company pays you for surplus energy you generate. Please do your responsible duty, as citizen of earth. It requires only a little amount of effort and not more than $200 for construction of one solar panel, which generates electricity for years to come. Then start your own home built power generator from solar energy today.

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The first aircraft manned and powered by solar energy will go around the world by 2010 after overcoming the technical difficulty of flying at night, a difficulty that made the NASA Helios project fail, in 2001. The prototype, led by a Swiss adventurer, is covered with photovoltaic cells and need heavy batteries to store energy to continue flying during the night. Both engines on the tail will help the take off to help and will charge the batteries. The project aims to demonstrate that sustainable development is not incompatible with progress.

Solar Impulse

The Sun is a source of infinite energy and will serve to fuel a new generation of aircraft thanks to the vision and tenacity of a Swiss adventurer called Bertrand Piccard.

This is the Solar Impulse project, which is building a plane to fly around the world powered only by solar energy. This trip would be taken by Piccard and his colleague Brian Jones. The two adventurers made the first balloon flight nonstop around the world, in 1999.

Creators and supporters of the project believe that the future of our planet depends on the development of new technologies more than the reduction of our mobility or our quality of life. In this way, the Solar Impulse intends to assist the progress, albeit in a non-aggressive approach to the environment.

Efficient energy alternatives

The European Space Agency (ESA) has made available to the Solar Impulse the space technologies in Europe through the Technology Transfer Program. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, is the official scientific advisor to the project. Solar Impulse’s intention is to promote the use of alternative energy in aviation, in this case the solar infinite energy, clean compared to polluting and finite fossil fuels that are used at present. Although the design of the aircraft could never carry too many passengers, Solar Impulse is after awakening public interest in those technologies capable of sustainable development. The sun is the main energy source of the satellites, as well as for Piccard’s plane. The European space industry has developed some of the most efficient intelligent energy management devices, solar cells and energy storage systems, with which this aircraft will fly smoothly and without any form of traditional fuel.

Flying nonstop around the world will take place in 2010 and not 2006 as it was said when the project was announced in 2003. In an update of the project that has just been made public, it is confirmed that the prototype will be piloted by three people: Bertrand Piccard, President and initiator of the project, Brian Jones, program development, and André Borschberg executive director of the project.
The conceptual design of the aircraft is already underway and the prototype was built in 2007. During 2008 the first test flights took place which included night flights, and in 2009 will take place the first flights with several days of duration. Finally, in 2010 the Solar Impulse will circumnavigate the globe nonstop. It will be a journey divided into five phases, each lasting three to five days. The first solar powered plane will fly from the west to the east, at between 10 to 30 degrees north of the Equator, to make best use of air currents and the sun energy.

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We all have firsthand experience with the Sun and solar energy. We are aware that the air around us is warmer when the sun is out during the day than when it is obscured at night. We understand that the weather gets warmer during parts of the year where there are more hours of sunlight, and when the sun rises higher in the sky. Conversely, the weather gets cooler when the sun shines for fewer hours and doesn’t rise as high in the sky. Intuitively we know that the sun is responsible for most of the natural energy that drives our planet. It seems a natural question to ask: “Can we harness solar energy to make our lives easier?” The answer, as you probably know, is yes. The solar energy given off by the sun can be harnessed and converted into power useful for any number of tasks. This article will attempt to explain how solar power works and how it could affect the future of society, and indeed your very own future.

Light, or electromagnetic radiation, is a form of energy. The sun, being so large and powerful, emits particularly energetic light. The most common way of converting the sun’s light energy into useful power or electricity is by using photovoltaic cells or PVCs. In brief, these cells work by conducting the sun’s energy throughout the cell, which knocks electrons loose. Flowing electrons are essentially what we think of as electricity, so enough of these cells can generate quite a bit of electricity when they are exposed to sunlight. As you might imagine, solar energy is totally renewable. In other words, it is essentially available for free; we simply need the devices to harness it. Solar power results in zero carbon emissions. Since scientists estimate that the sun will continue to shine for at least another four billion years, we can be sure that the sun will provide plenty of free energy for the foreseeable future.

Using solar energy is becoming a more and more realistic option for many applications. Solar power has long been used to run satellites in space. It has been used in rural areas with limited or no access to traditional power grids, and it has been used for street lighting and railway crossings. Increasingly in recent years, people have been able to use solar power around the house to supplement the power they obtain from the traditional power grid. Solar power has been found to be very efficient for space heating, water heating, outdoor lighting, and general electricity needs. PVC arrays are becoming more affordable as time passes and as solar technology increases. Currently there is a wide selection of companies offering solar power packages geared toward homes and small businesses. Going forward, it appears that solar power will prove to be one of the most efficient, affordable and eco-friendly forms of alternative energy available to the consumer looking to save money while reducing his or her carbon footprint.

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Solar Energy on Transport

Many solar powered prototypes have been developed to compete in the World Solar Challenge (WSC), which is an international competition for solar cars being measured in a large path (3000km).
The average cost of this type of vehicles is $ 100,000.

International Experiences with solar cars

The development of solar powered cars in the world is driven by a concern to obtain new technologies to reduce manufacturing costs, and appropriate models for applications that require it. Different competitions are developed in the world, the most important being the World Solar Challenge (WSC) and the Sun Race. They involve various organizations linked to the development of photovoltaic technologies.

The competitions allow measuring every year the technology and designs of various research centers and universities in countries such as Holland, USA, Japan, Iran, Australia, Germany, France, among others.

World Solar Challenge

World Solar Challenge (WSC) race is a competition that encourages research and development of solar energy to solve future transport needs. Participants work with the motivation to win the race, but also get motivated knowing they are contributing to a vital search for alternative means of transport for future generations. These vehicles travel at incredible speeds between Darwin and Adelaide only with the sun’s energy and human ingenuity to give people a new appreciation of the future use of solar energy. This race was created in 1987 by Hans Tholstrup, a Danish adventurer, who holds several records in the world of motor and aviation.

The WSC is a boost to energy conservation and is a technological development vehicle of the future. It is no coincidence that car manufacturers in the forefront of the development of electric vehicles have previously competed and sometimes won the WSC.

The name of the World Solar Challenge is correctly used. More than a race is a challenge, a challenge for engineers and scientists in the world to build a vehicle that is light and efficient, but strong enough to cross the continent. It is a challenge to develop a solar panel capable of generating a large amount of electric power, and then design a vehicle for making a more effective use of that energy. But above all, is a challenge to build a vehicle that is fast (as fast as permitted by the rules of the road) moved only by the solar power.

The spirit of the concept car was not only driven that by solar energy would become a practical solution for the future transport needs, but that the idea of crossing a continent with the energy of sunlight is only a great fascination. This results in a motivation on those who are competing with their cars and turn on the imagination of the media and public following the event.

The solar car race produces theoretical innovations as teams search for greater energy efficiency. With the allowable area of solar panels and the best solar cells, less than 2 kilowatts of power are available to move a vehicle weighing 300 kg at a speed of 90 km / h.

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Spain is one of the most attractive countries for the development of solar energy, as is the European country with the greatest amount of sunshine. The Spanish government has committed to produce 12% of renewable energy by 2010, and to install 400 megawatts (MW) of power using solar power. Spain is the fourth country in the world in solar energy technologies exporting 80% of it to Germany.

Through a ministerial decision in March 2004, the Spanish government removed economic barriers to the connection of renewable energy to the electricity grid. Royal Decree 436/2004 equalizes the conditions for large-scale production of solar, thermal and photovoltaic energy and guarantees feed-in sale tariffs.
On June 1st, 2007 came into force the Royal Decree 661/2007 of May 25th, which regulates the production of electrical energy as a special regime, which maintains a system similar to those established by Royal Decree 436 / 2004, March 12th, in which the operator can choose to sell its energy under a regulated rate, unique for all programming periods, or sell the energy directly in the daily market or through a bilateral contract receiving in this case the agreed price plus a premium. In the latter case, some new technologies were introduced, lower and upper limits for the amount of hours of daily market price plus a premium of reference, so that the premium paid on an hourly basis, may be limited depending of these values. The new system protects the developer when the revenue from the market price is too low, and eliminates the premium when the market price is high enough to ensure coverage of their costs by eliminating irrationalities in the retribution of technologies, whose costs are not directly linked to oil prices in the international markets

Spain is one of the countries along with Germany, Italy, UK, Netherlands and Sweden that could meet the long term, between 10 and 60 percent of its electricity demand, through the introduction of solar photovoltaic panels, according to estimates made today by the European Commission at the conference on renewable energy held in the Swedish city of Uppsala. The president of the commission proposed to expand the research “to use the sun and the earth as energy sources,” and introduced the draft H-Alpha Solar and PROCIS. In the first case, researchers from France, Portugal and the Netherlands have opted for this new technology from the manufacturing of silicon solar energy equipment, with a good result both in cost and in efficiency.

The EU executive said that due to rising oil prices, environmental challenges and changing of the law there is an “urgent” need to develop alternatives to replace fossil fuels with renewable options. Also stated that the biomass, agricultural waste and organic debris are the only renewable energy sources can supply large-scale, liquid fuel for transportation and this in an industry that uses 97 percent oil, most of which is imported.

“We should do the impossible to develop new and renewable sources of energy to reduce our dependence on foreign sources, protecting our environment,” said European Commissioner for Development Louis Michel. “We must find solutions to convert the recent research results into profitable and appropriate alternatives for everyday use.”

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The Spanish telecommunications engineers are leading the development of solar energy in the world and its collegiate organs have made it apparent by granting the title of “Telecommunications Engineer of the Year” to Antonio Luque, who has 13 patents in the energy, half of them in operation.

The president of the Association of Telecommunications Engineers, Enrique Gutierrez Bueno, awarding the distinction, emphasized the role of this telecommunications engineer and professor of physical electronics, in the development of solar energy technology in the world, the invention of the bifacial solar cell that led to the foundation of the company Isofoton. This company is now the second largest producer of solar cells in Europe and eighth in the world, which exports 80 percent.

Luque is the founder of the Solar Energy Institute of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, which promotes development projects in this sector.

Antonio Luque said that solar energy and telecommunications are linked from the initial investigation and affirmed that no one can believe that “this energy is just an ecologist’s thing but it is the future “and will have a key role as a source of electricity by the middle of the century. Luque said that photovoltaic energy is growing at annual rates of 33.4 percent and that the biggest problem we have at present is the shortage of purified silicon for solar cells.

He explained that half of the silicon is already used on these cells and the Institute for Solar Energy is promoting in Getafe the creation of a technology company to purify the silicon, targeting the sale of plants to purify the material around the world to break the existing oligopoly and get prices down.

Professor Luque defended the importance of Spain in the world of solar energy because it is the fourth manufacturer in the world and regretted the county pessimistic attitude towards the research being done.

He recalled that in 2002 his team presented a project for the European Union to detect which will be the photovoltaic technologies of the future which was adopted and is being developed in 19 European centers. He also emphasized the importance of the project to industrialize the new solar cells in Castilla La Mancha under the support of the government which will be of great importance in the future. Luque said that despite the prominence that the telecommunications engineers have in this sector, some have had trouble endorsing solar energy projects for which he defended the need to assert its role as the solar energy is an issue of telecommunications.

Mobile powered by solar energy

China developed the first mobile phone that works with solar energy

According to an article published in news.xinhuanet.com, a Chinese company claims to have developed a mobile phone that is charged with solar energy and provides 40 minutes of talk time after exposure to the sun for an hour. Hi-Tech Wealth, a well-known provider of telecommunications products in China, said that his mobile phone is the first in the world to recharge its battery with solar energy. According to company sources, the phone has a kind of solar panel located at the top of the casing that can be loaded with light from other sources besides the sun.

Many companies worldwide are working on developing similar mobile phones but their products are still in an experimental phase. Zhang Zhengyu, chairman of Hi-Tech Wealth, said the company began to investigate the use of light as an energy source in 2000 and has invested hundreds of millions of yen in the project.

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