"GLOBALGREEN" - WindEnergy SolarEnergy links to your Future

Different Types of SolarEnergy Systems plus WindEnergy Systems

Many power plants today use fossil fuels as a heat source to boil water. The steam from the boiling water spins a large turbine, which drives a generator to produce electricity. However, a new generation of power plants with concentrating solar power systems uses the sun as a heat source. The three main types of concentrating solar power systems are: linear concentrator, dish/engine, and power tower systems.

Linear concentrator systems collect the sun's energy using long rectangular, curved (U-shaped) mirrors. The mirrors are tilted toward the sun, focusing sunlight on tubes (or receivers) that run the length of the mirrors. The reflected sunlight heats a fluid flowing through the tubes. The hot fluid then is used to boil water in a conventional steam-turbine generator to produce electricity. There are two major types of linear concentrator systems: parabolic trough systems, where receiver tubes are positioned along the focal line of each parabolic mirror; and linear Fresnel reflector systems, where one receiver tube is positioned above several mirrors to allow the mirrors greater mobility in tracking the sun.

A dish/engine system uses a mirrored dish similar to a very large satellite dish. The dish-shaped surface directs and concentrates sunlight onto a thermal receiver, which absorbs and collects the heat and transfers it to the engine generator. The most common type of heat engine used today in dish/engine systems is the Stirling engine. This system uses the fluid heated by the receiver to move pistons and create mechanical power. The mechanical power is then used to run a generator or alternator to produce electricity.

A power tower system uses a large field of flat, sun-tracking mirrors known as heliostats to focus and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver on the top of a tower. A heat-transfer fluid heated in the receiver is used to generate steam, which, in turn, is used in a conventional turbine generator to produce electricity. Some power towers use water/steam as the heat-transfer fluid. Other advanced designs are experimenting with molten nitrate salt because of its superior heat-transfer and energy-storage capabilities. The energy-storage capability, or thermal storage, allows the system to continue to dispatch electricity during cloudy weather or at night.


You can build your own SolarEnergy "Photovoltaic Cell" System at home and even sell the power you make, if you build your system is large enough, back to the power company.
Below you will find links to two sites which will provide you with the knowledge to build a solarenergy system in your own backyard, "Home Solar Energy" 

They will also provide you with information on how to build a homemade wind turbine" to supplement the solarenergy system. "Home Wind Power" using an "homemade wind turbine" or wind powered generator is another project you can complete at home using the instruction from the links below. 


"Wind Turbine Design" for residential windpower is just one more way these links will sve you money on you "energy billing".


Check this out today and build your system in as quick as a weekend and they add to it over the course of the coming weeks and months.

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GLOBALGREEN -SolarEnergy Basics links provided by WindEnergy SolarEnergy saving you money today.

SolarEnergy Basics

Solar panels installed on a home in Colorado.

Solar is the Latin word for sun—a powerful source of energy that can be used to heat, cool, and light our homes and businesses. That's because more energy from the sun falls on the earth in one hour than is used by everyone in the world in one year. A variety of technologies convert sunlight to usable energy for buildings. The most commonly used solarenergy technologies for homes and businesses are solar water heating, passive solar design for space heating and cooling, and solar "Photovoltaic Cell" for electricity.

Businesses and industry also use these technologies to diversify their energy sources, improve efficiency, and save money. SolarEnergy "photovoltaic cell" and concentrating solarpower technologies are also being used by developers and utilities to produce electricity on a massive scale to power cities and small towns.

Concentrating Solar Energy Power 

These technologies harness heat from the sun to provide electricity for large power stations.

Passive SolarEnergy Technology 

These technologies harness heat from the sun to warm our homes and businesses in winter.

SolarEnergy  "Photovoltaic Cell" Technology 

These technologies convert sunlight directly into electricity to power homes and businesses.

Solar Water Heating 

These technologies harness heat from the sun to provide hot water for homes and businesses.

SolarEnergy Process Heat 

These technologies use solar energy to heat or cool commercial and industrial buildings.


You can make your own SolarEnergy system at home, you can also supplement it with a WindEnergy System you can build at home as well. Just click the links provide below and get started on a great family weekend project that will  save you money as well.

SOLARENERGY - Power for the Future

Economics and Other Benefits of Active Home SolarEnergy Heating Systems

Active solarenergy heating systems are most cost-effectivehome solarenergy, when they are used for most of the year, that is, in cold climates with good solar resources and good solarenergy cells. They are most economical if they are displacing more expensive heating fuels, such as electricity, propane, and oil heat. Some states offer sales tax exemptions, income tax credits or deductions, and property tax exemptions or deductions for home solarenergy systems.

The cost of an active home solarenergy heating system will vary. Commercial systems range from $30 to $80 per square foot of collector area, installed. Usually, the larger the system, the less it costs per unit of collector area. Commercially available collectors come with warranties of 10 years or more, and should easily last decades longer. The economics of an active space heating system improve if it also heats domestic water, because an otherwise idle collector can heat water in the summer. 


You are able, through "solar panel design", such as the instructional packages below, to build your own "photovoltaic cell" making your own solarenergy panels. These panels can be portable or fixed allowing you to chose how to use your finished product.

Heating your home with an active "solarenergy power cells" "photovoltaic cell"  energy system can significantly reduce your "energy billing" in the winter. A "home solarenergy" heating system will also reduce the amount of air pollution and greenhouse gases, that result from your use of fossil fuels such as oil, propane, and natural gas for heating or that may be used to generate the electricity that you use.

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WindEnergy - Large Scale - "How It's Made" - Same Principle for "Home Made"

Energy 101: Wind Turbines Basics

This video explains the basics of how wind turbines operate to produce clean power from an abundant, renewable resource—the wind.

Wind Turbines

Although all wind turbines operate on similar principles, several varieties are in use today. These include horizontal axis turbines and vertical axis turbines.

Horizontal Axis Turbines

Horizontal axis turbines are the most common turbine configuration used today. They consist of a tall tower, atop which sits a fan-like rotor that faces into or away from the wind, a generator, a controller, and other components. Most horizontal axis turbines built today are two- or three-bladed.

Horizontal axis turbines sit high atop towers to take advantage of the stronger and less turbulent wind at 100 feet (30 meters) or more aboveground. Each blade acts like an airplane wing, so when wind blows, a pocket of low-pressure air forms on the downwind side of the blade. The low-pressure air pocket then pulls the blade toward it, which causes the rotor to turn. This is called lift. The force of the lift is actually much stronger than the wind's force against the front side of the blade, which is called drag. The combination of lift and drag causes the rotor to spin like a propeller, and the turning shaft spins a generator to make windenergy  electricity.

Learn more about horizontal axis turbines on the WindEnergy Power Animation page.

Vertical Axis Turbines

Vertical axis turbines are of two types: Savonius and Darrieus. Neither type is in wide use.

The Darrieus turbine was invented in France in the 1920s. Often described as looking like an eggbeater, it has vertical blades that rotate into and out of the wind. Using aerodynamic lift, it can capture more energy than drag devices. The Giromill and cycloturbine are variants on the Darrieus turbine.

The Savonius turbine is S-shaped if viewed from above. This drag-type turbine turns relatively slowly but yields a high torque. It is useful for grinding grain, pumping water, and many other tasks, but its slow rotational speeds are not good for generating windenergy  electricity.

In addition, windmills are still used for a variety of purposes. Windmills have been used by humans since at least 200 B.C. for grinding grain and pumping water. By the 1900s, windmills were used on farms and ranches in the United States to pump water and, later, to produce electricity. Windmills have more blades than modern wind turbines, and they rely on drag to rotate the blades.

You can produce your own windenergy at home to power your current energy needs. You can also offset the windenergy with a solarenergy system as well. You need to check out the links provide below to see which or both systems are workable for your family.

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Build a Home Windenergy Power System

SolarEnergy - "Photovoltaic Cell" System

Many PV "Photovoltaic cell"s, connected in series, form a PV module; several modules attached to a frame form a solarenergy electric panel. A panel can power a stand-alone system, simply and cost-effectively generating electricity away from the power lines, or it can be connected to the power grid, allowing the owner to sell the electricity generated.

Components of Solarenergy Electricity Generation

The basic components of a PV "Photovoltaic cell" system (Figure 7) include:

• PV modules which are a group of cells that generate an electric field by absorbing sunlight, resulting in direct current (DC) electricity.
• An inverter which converts the DC electricity from the PV modules into the alternating current (AC) electricity is used in the power grid and is required by most electrical appliances.

Most PV "Photovoltaic Cell" systems in operation use one centralized inverter to convert electricity from multiple panels. These large inverters involve power loss and can be noisy.

Figure 7. Photovoltaic power diagram. Courtesy of Go Solar.

Microinverters, a new technology, attach directly to each solar module in the power system.

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Obtain the Knowledge Required to Build your own SolarEnergy System

SolarEnergy - "Photovoltaic Cell" Systems Explained.

"Photovoltaic Cell"  Systems

A "photovoltaic cell"  (PV), or solarenergy electric system, is made up of several photovoltaic solar cells. An individual "photovoltaic cell" (PV cell) is usually small, typically producing about 1 or 2 watts of power. To boost the power output of  a"Photovolaic cell", they are connected together to form larger units called modules. Modules, in turn, can be connected to form even larger units called arrays, which can be interconnected to produce more power, and so on. In this way, PV systems can be built to meet almost any electric power need, small or large.

The basic PV or solar cell produces only a small amount of power. To produce more power, cells can be interconnected to form modules, which can in turn be connected into arrays to produce yet more power. Because of this modularity, PV systems can be designed to meet any electrical requirement, no matter how large or how small.

By themselves, modules or arrays do not represent an entire PV system. Systems also include structures that point them toward the sun and components that take the direct-current electricity produced by modules and "condition" that electricity, usually by converting it to alternate-current electricity. "Photovoltaic Cell", PV systems may also include batteries. These items are referred to as the balance of system (BOS) components.

Combining modules with BOS components creates an entire PV system. This system is usually everything needed to meet a particular energy demand, such as powering a water pump, the appliances and lights in a home.

You can build your own "Photovoltaic Cell" PV System at home with the aid of the information contained in the attached links below. They also provide instruction on building your own windenergy turbine, to supplement the solarenergy system.

Check it out today and start building for a greener globe today -   GlobalGreen

Global Green - WindEnergy - SolarEnergy - Location

Picking the Best Location for a Wind Turbine

Where you choose to build your wind turbine is important. Remember that if nearby houses, tree lines and silos obstruct the full force of the wind from your wind turbine, you will not be able to generate as much power.

Also keep the following in mind:

• Wind speeds are always higher at the top of a hill, on a shoreline, and in places clear of trees and other structures.
• Remember that trees grow over the years; wind turbine towers do not.
• Inform neighbours of your plans to avoid conflict later on.
• Be courteous. Keep the turbine as far away from neighbours as possible. 250-300 m away is typical.
• Check with the local government for any other bylaws and regulations about zoning.

Wind speeds tend to be higher on the top of a ridge or hill, and for that reason it is a good idea to locate wind turbines at hilly locations. Just remember to keep your turbine away from high turbulence. Neighbours must also be taken into consideration when picking a spot to build your turbine. The farther your wind turbine site is from neighbouring houses, the better.

Do not expect your wind turbine to generate the same amount of power all the time. The wind speed at a single location may vary considerably, and this can have a significant impact on the power production from a wind turbine (Figure 3). Even if the wind speed varies by only 10%, the power production from a wind turbine can vary by up to 25%!

Figure 3. Example of wind speed distribution by hour of the day. Values shown are monthly averages of measurements made by anemometers. (Source: US Department of Energy)

If you think this may be something you would like to discover further, check the links below for more information and start making your own windenergy electricity today. Also, included in the information are the details on how to build your own solar energy "photovoltaic cell" PV System.

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SolarPower - SolarEnergy - build your own "Photovoltaic Cell" PV System

Siting Your Small Solar Electric System

Both the orientation and tilt of your solarenergy panels or "photovoltaic cell" (PV) modules will affect the output of your solarenergy electric system. You should consider both factors while evaluating your site's solar resource and sizing your system.

Orientation

"Photovoltaic Cell" PV modules should be oriented geographically to maximize the amount of daily and seasonal solarenergy that they receive. In general, the optimum orientation for a "Photovoltaic Cell" PV module in the northern hemisphere is true south. However, your modules can face up to 45º east or west of true south without significantly decreasing its performance.

If you plan to mount the modules on your roof, you'll also want to consider these factors:

• Roof orientation and condition
• Local landscape features that shade the collector daily or seasonally
• Local weather conditions (foggy mornings or cloudy afternoons) that may affect the optimal orientation and subsequent electricity production of the "Photovoltaic Cell" PV modules.

To be eligible for some rebates, your system must be unshaded between certain hours during certain times of the year. Some areas also have laws that establish your right to protect your solar access through the creation of a solar easement.

If a rooftop can't be used, your solarenergy modules can also be placed on the ground, either on a fixed mount or a "tracking" mount that follows the sun to orient the "Photovoltaic Cell"  PV modules.

Tilt

Most "Photovoltaic Cell" PV modules are mounted flat on the roof, and so have the same tilt as the roof. Although the optimal tilt angle for your modules is an angle equal to your latitude, fixing the "Photovoltaic Cell" PV modules flat on an angled roof is generally not a problem. However, because most roofs are pitched at an angle less than the latitude, you will need to factor your roof angle into the performance calculations when sizing your system.


Once you've done all the homework needed regarding the above, it's time to build. You can now build your own "Photovoltaic Cell" PV System with the the help one or both of the links below. Check the information on each of the sites and see which is best suited for your needs or possibly combine the two reference's material. 

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Get Started Today