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| Keahole Solar Power's Holaniku station | PS10 solar power tower in Spain |
Solar Power
Solar energy comes from our Sun. The energy from the Sun is available to us in many different ways, apart from the obvious ones of light and warmth. Even lighting a small fire from pieces of wood can only happen because of the Sun!
Our climate is the direct consequence of the effects of the Sun. The warmth, the lack of warmth, light and dark are the result of radiation (or lack of it) from the Sun. Almost everything to do with life on Earth is because of the Sun.
We only have supplies of gas, coal and oil (the fossil fuels) because of the Sun; although these are generally not seen as renewable fuels because the conversion of biomass material into these fuels requires processes that can not be duplicated!
New technologies are being derived using Solar thermal energy. These include solar panels and photovoltaic solar cells that extract the energy from the radiation from the Sun in various ways.
Usable forms of solar energy
Wind energy and wave energy, and as already mentioned biomass, account for most of the available renewable energy on Earth. But only a minuscule fraction of the available solar energy is used to give us energy!
- passive solar includes spaceheating, daylighting, hot water and heat for cooking.
- active solar include photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors.
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| Kramer Junction power station USA | PS10 and PS20 solar power towers |
Commercial concentrated solar power plants
- The 354 MW SEGS CSP installation is the largest solar power plant in the world and is located in the Mojave Desert of California.
- The Solnova Solar Power Station (150 MW) in Spain.
- The Andasol solar power station (100 MW) also in Spain.
- The 75 MW Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center in the United States.
- The 64 MW Nevada Solar One in the United States.
- The 50 MW Ibersol Ciudad Real in Spain.
- The 50 MW Alvarado I in Spain.
- The 50 MW La Florida in Spain.
- The 50 MW Majadas de Tiétar in Spain.
- The 50 MW La Dehesa in Spain.
- The 50 MW Palma del Rio 2 in Spain.
Click here for videos and resources on solar power
References
- PS10 solar power - Wikipedia - User: afloresm - Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
- PS10 & PS20 solar power - Wikipedia - User: Xklaim - Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
- SEGS - Wikipedia - User: Akradecki
- GNU Free Documentation License 1.2