Slide 1: Title Slide: The graphic was used to illustrate a Daily Telegraph article entitled “Push for solar power that could cover a hundred Olympic parks” which referred to a British government initiative to expand the country’s solar energy resource to 20GW by 2020 – representing an increase of ten times the number of solar farms either existing or planned.
Slide 2: “Two Principal Technologies”: According to Philibert (2010), photovoltaic solar cells, which use semiconductor technology to convert solar energy to electricity, have been most commonly used. However, an indirect method of harnessing the sun’s energy using concentrated solar beams to generate heat, often referred to as Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) has been utilized for larger power generation installations, which also involve more complex equipment and systems.
Slide 3: Photovoltaic Solar Cells: Knier’s article defines photovoltaics as “the direct conversion of light into electricity at the atomic level.” He reports that this photoelectric effect was first discovered in 1839 by a French physicist, but has since been greatly developed and was used from the 1960s in space technology to provide spacecraft with electrical power. In solar energy applications, cells are linked to form modules and modules are linked to form arrays, all producing direct current electricity.
Slide 4: “Concentrated Solar Power”: The slide shows one version of a CSP installation, in which an array of steerable mirrors (heliostats) are automatically and continually adjusted to maintain their reflected focus on a target located in a central tower. The target is heated by the concentrated solar energy producing steam, which drives a turbine to generate electricity. Other CSP types include parabolic troughs/mirrors with fluid-filled tubes on their focus. The fluid – heated to over 1000 degrees F – heats water to create steam to drive a turbine. A third version of CSP is called the “dish Sterling engine” type. In this form of CSP, parabolic “concentrator” dishes each focus the sun’s rays to drive a Stirling engine so that its piston oscillates at 50-60 cycles per second, using an attached magnet to generate alternating current electricity. The parabolic dishes are auto-controlled to track the sun.
Slide 5: “Advantages (1)”: Lists some of the best-known and accepted advantages of solar energy. Information retrieved from the website of Commercial Construction Services, a company who design and install renewable energy systems.
Slide 6: “Advantages (2)”: The advantages listed are derived from information provided on the Commercial Construction Services and Solar Central (Four Peaks Technologies Inc.) websites. Another advantage cited by Solar Central but omitted due to lack of space here is that a typical solar field can be built and generating electricity in approximately one year, whereas it is several years to bring a coal or gas-fired power station on line and even longer for a nuclear installation.
Slide 7: “Engineering Aspects (1)”: Contrasts the different engineering technologies / disciplines involved in PV and CSP Solar Energy systems.
Slide 8: “Engineering Aspects: (2)”: This slide suggests some other engineering aspects involved in solar energy systems. In the case of domestic (home) solar energy projects, forward-thinking architects are increasingly using innovative techniques to improve the “passive” solar efficiency of homes, without necessarily using PV solar cells.
