Report about Solar Energy

Prepared by:
Mustafa Maher Abdel Fattah Elsharkawy
Section: 8
Mechanical power department
Contents:
1. Introduction to Solar Energy
2. the Advantages of Solar Energy
3. the Disadvantages of Solar Energy
4. the Applications of Solar Energy
5. the Environmental Implications of Solar Energy

1. Introduction to Solar Energy:

Energy produced and radiated by sun is known as solar
energy. This solar energy can be converted directly or
indirectly into other forms of energy such as heat and
electricity. Now it has been proved that the solar energy
can be stored by either of these methods:

• By producing hydrogen and storing it.

• By storing it in mechanical or electrical devices.

• By storing it in containers of chemicals called eutectic

or phase-changing salts.

Most of the energy is received from the Sun in the form of

short wave radiations of light. When this radiation strikes a
solid or liquid, it gets absorbed and transformed into heat
energy. This heat energy is either stored (warming the
material) or is conducted to the surrounding materials (air,
water etc.) or is re-radiated (in the form of a long wave
radiation) to the other material having relatively lower
temperature. Glass possess very little interference to the
incoming solar energy i.e. it easily transmits short wave
radiation whereas it is a very poor transmitter of long wave
radiation i.e. once the solar energy has passed through the
glass and has been absorbed by some material (black
painted surface) inner to it, then the heat will not be re-
radiated back, out of the glass (thus glass acts as a heat
trap). This is the physical principle for the conversion of
solar energy into heat energy.

2. Advantages of Solar Energy:

• It is a renewable source of energy.

• It is available at all parts of the world.

• It is free source of energy.

• It is non-polluting source of energy.

3. Disadvantages of Solar Energy:

• It is intermittent in nature

• Variable in nature.

• It requires
large area for
collection and
storage.
4. Applications of Solar Energy:
• Solar Water Heating:

A solar water heating unit comprises a blackened flat plate metal

collector with an associated metal tubing facing the general
direction of the sun. The plate collector has a transparent glass
cover above and a layer of thermal insulation beneath it. The metal
tubing of the collector is connected by a pipe to an insulated tank
that stores hot water during cloudy days. The collector absorbs
solar radiations and transfers the heat to the water circulating
through tubing either by gravity or by a pump. This hot water is
supplied to the storage tank via the associated metal tubing. This
system of water heating is commonly used in hotels, guest houses,
tourist bungalows, hospitals, canteens as well as domestic and
industrial units.

• Solar Heating of Buildings:

Solar energy can be used for space heating of buildings in many

ways namely:

(a) Collecting the solar radiation by some element of the building

itself. solar energy is admitted directly into the building through
large South-facing windows.
(b) Using separate solar collectors which may heat either water or
air or storage devices which can accumulate the collected solar
energy for use at night and during inclement days.

When the building requires heat then from these collectors or

storage devices, the heat is transferred by conventional equipment
such as fans, ducts, air outlets, radiators and hot air registers etc. to
warm up the living spaces of a building. When the building does not
require heat, the heated air or water from the collector can be
moved to the heat storage device such as well insulated water tank
or other heat holding material. For inclement days, an auxiliary
heating system using gas, oil or electricity is required as a back-up
system.

• Solar-distillation:

In arid, semi-arid or coastal areas there is scarcity of potable water.

The abundant sunlight in these areas can be used for converting
saline water into potable distilled water by the method of solar
distillation.
In this method, solar radiation is admitted through a transparent
air tight glass cover into a shallow blackened basin containing
saline water. Solar radiation passes through the covers and is
absorbed and converted into heat in the blackened surface causing
the water to evaporate from the brine (impure saline water). The
vapours produced get condensed to from purified water in the cool
interior of the roof. The condensed water flows down the sloping
roof and is collected in the troughs placed at the bottom and from
there into a water storage tank to supply potable distilled water in
areas of scarcity, in colleges, school science laboratories, defence
labs, petrol pumps, hospitals and pharmaceutical industries. Per
litre distilled water cost obtained by this system is cheaper than
distilled water obtained by other electrical energy-based processes.

• Solar Furnaces:

In a Solar furnace, high temperature is obtained by concentrating

the solar radiations onto a specimen using a number of heliostats
(turnable mirrors) arranged on a sloping surface. The solar furnace
is used for studying the properties of ceramics at extremely high
temperatures above the range measurable in laboratories with
flames and electric currents. Heating can be accomplished without
any contamination and temperature can be easily controlled by
changing the position of the material in focus. This is especially
useful for metallurgical and chemical operations. Various property
measurements arc possible on an open specimen. An important
future application of solar furnaces is the production of nitric acid
and fertilisers from air.

• Solar Cooking:

A variety of fuel like coal, kerosene, cooking gas, firewood dung

cakes and agricultural wastes are used for cooking purposes. Due to
the energy crisis, supply to these fuels are either deteriorating
(wood, coal, kerosene, cooking gas) or are too precious to be wasted
for cooking purposes (cow dung can be better used as manure for
improving soil fertility). This associated the used of solar energy for
cooking purposes and the development of solar cookers.

A simple solar cooker is the flat plate box type solar cooker. It
consists of a well-insulated metal or wooden box which is
blackened from the inner side. The solar radiations entering the box
are of short wavelength. As higher wavelength radiations are
unable to pass through the glass covers, the re-radiations from the
blackened interior to outside the box through the two glass covers
is minimised, thereby minimising the heat loss. The heat loss due
to convection is minimised by making the box airtight. This is
achieved by providing a rubber strip between the upper lid and the
box for minimising the heat loss due to conduction, the space
between the blackened tray and outer cover of the box is filled with
an insulating material like glass-wool, saw-dust, paddy husk etc.
When placed in sunlight, the solar rays penetrate the glass cover
and are absorbed by the blackened surface thereby resulting in an
increase in temperature inside the box. Cooking pots blackened
from outside are placed in the solar box. The uncooked food gets
cooked with the heat energy produced due to increased temperature
of the solar box. Collector area of such a solar cooker can be
increased by providing a plane reflector mirror. When this reflector
is adjusted to reflect the sun rays into the box, then a 15°C to 25°C
rise in temperature is achieved inside the cooker box. The solar
cooker requires neither fuel nor attention while cooking food and
there is no pollution, no charring or over flowing of food and the
most important advantage is that nutritional value of the cooked
food is very high as the vitamins and natural tastes of the food are
not destroyed. Maintenance cost of the solar cooker is negligible.
The main disadvantage of the solar cooker is that the food cannot
be cooked at night, during cloudy days or at short notice. Cooking
takes comparatively more time and chapattis cannot be cooked in a
solar cooker.

• Solar Electric Power Generation (Photo voltaic system):

Electric energy or electricity can be produced directly from solar

energy by means of photovoltaic cells. The photovoltaic cell is an
energy conversion device which is used to convert photons sunlight
directly into electricity. It is made of semiconductors which absorb
the photons received from the sun, creating free electrons with
high energies.
These high energy
free electrons are
induced by an
electric field, to
flow out of the
semiconductor to
do useful work. This
electric field in
photo voltaic cells is
usually provided by
a p-n junction of materials which have different electrical
properties. There are different fabrication techniques to enable
these cells to achieve maximum efficiency. These cells are arranged
in parallel or series combination to form cell modules. Some of the
special features of these modules are high reliability, no
expenditure on fuel, minimum cost of maintenance, long life,
portability, modularity, pollution free working etc.
 • Application of photovoltaic cells have been used to
operate:
1. Irrigation pumps,

2. Rail road crossing warnings,

3. Navigational signals,

4. Highway emergency call systems,

5. Automatic meteorological station etc. in areas where it is

difficult to lay power lines,

6. They are also used for weather monitoring and

7. Portable power sources for televisions, calculators,

watches, computer card readers, battery charging and in
satellites etc.

Besides these, photovoltaic cells are used for the emergisation of

pump sets for irrigation, drinking water supply and for providing
electricity in rural areas i.e. street lights etc. The photovoltaic
conversion systems convert solar radiation directly into electricity
through silicon solar cells. These may be single crystal silicon cell,
polycrystalline cells, amorphic solar cells etc. such systems are
used for community lighting, radio and TV sets, light houses,
offshore platforms and installation in remote areas. An important
application of these systems is pumping of water for micro-
irrigation and drinking purposes. Such systems are decentralised
on the spot electricity generation systems and help to replace diesel
utilizing systems. They may be installed in remote areas as forests,
deserts etc. under the National Solar Photovoltaic Energy
Demonstration Programme (NSPEDP) the DNES has since 1980
installed a number of photovoltaic devices with a target of
producing 1 MW of electricity. Such systems are used for pumping
water, village electrification, use in TV sets etc. In rural areas
photovoltaic can be used as a biomass based system. The solar
thermal system utilizes radiation in the form of heat which can be
converted in to mechanical, electrical or chemical energy. The sun
rays are used to supersede a fluid that is then used to drive an
electricity generating turbine.

• Solar Thermal Power Production:

Solar thermal power production means the conversion of solar

energy into electricity through thermal energy. In this
procedure, solar energy is first utilised to heat up a working
fluid, gas, water or any other volatile liquid. This heat energy is
then converted into mechanical energy in a turbine. Finally a
conventional generator coupled to a turbine converts this
mechanical energy into electrical energy.

• Production of Power through Solar Ponds:

A solar pond is a natural or artificial body of water utilised for
collecting and absorbing solar radiation and storing it as heat.
It is very shallow (5-10 Cm deep) and has a radiation absorbing
(black plastic) bottom. It has a curved fibre glass cover over it
to permit the entry of solar radiation but reduces losses by
radiation and convection (air movement). Loss of heat to the
ground is minimised by providing a bed of insulating material
under the pond. Solar ponds utilise water for collecting and
storing the solar energy which is used for many applications
such as space heating, industrial process heating and to
generate electricity by driving a turbine powered by
evaporating an organic fluid with a low boiling point.
 • Solar Green Houses:
A green house is a structure covered with transparent material
(glass or plastic) that acts as a solar collector and utilizes solar
radiant energy to grow plants. It has heating, cooling and
ventilating devices for controlling the temperature inside the
green house. Solar radiations can pass through the green house
glazing but the thermal radiations emitted by the objects
within the green house cannot escape through the glazed
surface. As a result, the radiations get trapped within the green
house and result in an increase in temperature. As the green
house structure has a closed boundary, the air inside the
greenhouse gets enriched with CO2 as there is no mixing of the
green house air with the ambient air. Further, there is reduced
moisture loss due to restricted transpiration. All these features
help to sustain plant growth throughout the day as well as
during the night and all year round. In-spite of the
intermittent and variable manner in which solar energy arrives
at the earth’s surface, and the large area required to collect the
energy at a useful rate, solar energy is regarded as an
inexhaustible source of useful, non-polluting energy.
5. Environmental Implications of Solar
Energy:
The use of solar energy, from the environmental view
point, is a completely benign operation. In case of solar
thermal route, apart from land use, there exist absolutely
no environmental consequences of producing energy from
these sources.
i. However, the sites for larger installations of solar power
plants should be selected without reducing the forest
cover.

ii. Cadmium used in fabricating thin film solar cells, is both

poisonous and a possible carcinogen. Since only small
quantities of cadmium are released from discarded PV
panels, the dangers involved are not so serious.

iii. Carbon dioxide produced while forming silicon from

silica may increase the atmospheric temperature causing
green-house effect.

iv. Silicon dust is also an important occupational hazard.