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From Wikimochis

A single of the consistent problems with solar platforms has been the inefficient conversion of sunlight to electrical energy. New technology and methods are dealing with this issue.

Concentrate, Concentrate

Classic power producing plants function by making use of a fuel, often fossil, to heat a liquid till it expands or turns into a gas. The pressure or gas than rotates a turbine, which cranks up a generator and produces the huge amounts of electrical energy we all take for granted. This is a time tested approach and is utilized in coal, nuclear, hydropower and most main power sources. The notion is now being transferred to solar platforms in an work to get far more bang for the buck out of these clean power platforms.

The problem with solar is sunlight is converted to energy at a rate of ten to 15 percent efficiency, a really uninspiring number. Place in sports terms, the very best batter in baseball would have a batting average of 150, a quarterback would full 1.5 of his attempted throws and Michael Jordan would have missed 9 out of each and every ten dunks. The numbers just arent quite.

The difficulty with solar power is the base construct of solar cells. Various forms of silicon are employed to convert sunlight into power. The material is simply inefficient and improvements are slow and incremental. The scenario is comparable to attempting to turn a moped into a high overall performance racing bike. You dont have significantly to operate with. Given the limitations of silicon, solar producers are trying new approaches.

A single of the significant new techniques is to use the sun as a direct heating element to generate energy. Instead of trying to directly convert the sunlight with silicon wafers, producers are trying to use reflective panels to concentrate it onto a certain spot. This spot then consists of a pipe or pool of liquid. The concentrated focus of the sun heats the liquid up and the standard turbine to generator to electrical energy strategy is undertaken. If youve ever sat in a car in targeted traffic on a summer season day without having air conditioning, youll recognize the idea.

Generating power from the sun on a big scale has often been a bit of a head scratcher. Early returns on the concentrated energy approach, however, have been incredibly positive. Significant fields are being used in Germany and the future appearsbright.