Ecsem Portable solar charger

Having use this portable solar charger for half one year came from Ecsem Industrail Co., Ltd(http://www.portable-solar-charger.com), it works terrific, recommend it here.

Outdoor with solar panel

Solar panels can charge for your phone and mp3 equipment, it is indispensable outdoor sharp tool.

Solar Energy History

When politicians start talking about renewable energy, you know we have problems. Solar energy is a significant renewable energy. Here is an overview of solar energy history.

Solar Energy History

Solar energy is simply energy produced by harnessing the sun. It comes in many forms including electricity production through solar panels, home heating through passive solar systems and solar energy packets for powering devices like laptops and RVs to mention only a few platforms. 

Historically, solar energy has been used by mankind to produce heat since we first built structures. Without electricity, mankind soon learned to orient structures to capture the heat of the sun during the day and store it in ceramic or mud materials much like a blacktop parking lot will radiate heat after the sun has gone down. Early Greek structures show a particular use of passive solar heating as do Egyptian structures. 

The production of electricity using sunlight is a much more recent phenomena. In 1901, Nicolas Tesla was the first person to receive a patent related to solar energy, but he called it radiant heating. He sought a patent for a machine to capture the radiant heat, but nothing much came of the invention.

In 1904, some unknown physicist named Albert Einstein published a paper on the potential electricity production from sunlight. In 1913, William Coblentz received the first patent for a solar cell, but he could never make it work. In 1916, Robert Millikan was the first to produce electricity with the solar cell. For the next forty years or so, nobody made much progress because the cells were highly inefficient at converting sunlight to energy.

In the 1950s, Bell Labs got involved with NASA. Bell was charged with coming up with a solar energy platform to power spacecraft once they were in orbit. The solar energy field would never be the same.

 Gerald L. Pearson, Daryl M. Chapin, and Calvin S. Fuller start researching different areas related to solar, but not active parts of the NASA project. By luck, they meet and exchange idea. While their individual projects were failures, their combined efforts produce a much more efficient solar cell using crystallized silicon to convert sunlight into electricity. The efficiency rate of the cells is roughly 6 percent, a marked improvement over previous technology.  In 1958, NASA launches the Vanguard Spacecraft, which is powered by solar panels.

In the following years, solar energy technology grows in leaps and bounds. Solar panels today are roughly 15 percent efficient, but also much smaller than they use to be. More importantly, companies are abandoning the solar panel platform and coming out with amazing new products. The first are solar shingles that look exactly like regular roof shingles and perform as such. Nanotechnology is also offering amazing possibilities with quantum dots, which are essentially solar panels on the quantum level. Eventually, these dots will be incorporated in things such as paint. Yes, the paint on the walls of buildings and homes will eventually also produce all the electricity needed for the structures.

As this solar energy history demonstrates, man has used solar power for heat for a very long time. Only now, however, are we starting to master the technology to turn it into large amounts of free electricity.

Trackback: http://solar4us.blogspot.com/2010/06/solar-energy-history.html

The Solar Energy Facts

Okay, we all know it’s a good choice, but why?

Here we discuss Facts about solar energy usage, systems, plus sun related and other Interesting Facts about Solar Energy.

All of which will help you with your decision whether or not to install a solar energy system at your home.

Perhaps you’d even like to save yourself a lot of money and Build your very own solar energy system.

General facts

• Solar Energy is better for the environment than traditional forms of energy.
• Solar energy has many uses such as electricity production and heating of water through photovoltaic cells and directly for drying clothes.
• Solar energy can also be used to heat swimming pools, power cars, for attic fans, calculators and other small appliances. It produces lighting for indoors or outdoors.
• You can even cook food with solar energy.
• Solar Energy is becoming more and more popular. The worldwide demand for Solar Energy is currently greater than supply.

Facts about Solar Energy usage:

• Solar Energy is measured in kilowatt-hour. 1 kilowatt = 1000 watts.
• 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) = the amount of electricity required to burn a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours.
• According to the US Department of Energy, an average American household used approximately 866-kilowatt hours per month in 1999 costing them $70.68.
• About 30% of our total energy consumption is used to heat water.

Facts about Solar Energy systems:

• A home solar system is typically made up of solar panels, an inverter, a solar battery, a Solar charger controller, wiring and support structure.
• A 1-kilowatt home solar system takes about 1-2 days to install and costs around US$10,000, but can vary greatly and does not take into account any incentives offered by the government.
• A 1-kilowatt home solar system consists of about 10-12 solar panels and requires about 100 square feet of installation area.
• A 1 kilowatt home solar system will generate approximately 1,600 kilowatt hours per year in a sunny climate (receiving 5.5 hours of sunshine per day) and approximately 750 kilowatt hours per year in a cloudy climate (receiving 2.5 hours of sunshine per day).
• A 1-kilowatt home solar system will prevent approximately 170 lbs. of coal from being burned, 300 lbs of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere and 105 gallons of water from being consumed each month!

   

• About 40 solar cells are usually combined into a solar panel and around 10-12 panels mounted in an array facing due North to receive maximum sunlight.
• The system usually comes with a 5-year warranty, although the solar panels are warranted for 20.
• Relying on the battery back up, a solar energy system can provide electricity 24×7, even on cloudy days and at night.
• Solar panels come in various colours.
• Solar energy can be collected and stored in batteries, reflected, insulated, absorbed and transmitted.

Sun related Facts about Solar Energy:

• Sunlight travels to the earth in approximately 8 minutes from 93,000,000 miles away, at 186,282 miles per second.
• The sun is also the main source of non-renewable fossil fuels (coal, gas and petroleum), which began life as plants or animals whose energy came from the sun millions of year ago.
• Solar energy is responsible for weather patterns and ocean currents.
• Clouds, pollution and wind can prevent the sun’s rays from reaching the earth.

Other Interesting Facts about Solar Energy:

• Da Vinci predicted a solar industrialization as far back as 1447.
• In one hour more sunlight falls on the earth than what is used by the entire population in one year.
• A world record was set in 1990 when a solar powered aircraft flew 4060km across the USA, using no fuel.
• Fierce weather cost the world a record $130 Billion in the first eleven months of 1998- more money than was lost from weather related disasters from 1980 to 1990 ($82 Billion).
• Researchers from the Worldwatch Institute and Munich Re blame deforestation and climate change from Earth warming for much of the loss. The previous one-year record was $90 Billion in 1996. Source - Associated Press, November 28,1998.
• About 2 billion people in the world are currently without electricity.
• Accounting for only 5 percent of the world’s population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world’s energy.
• Electric ovens consume the most amount of electricity, followed by microwaves and central air conditioning.
• Third world countries with an abundance of sunlight and a population currently without electricity, represents the fastest growing market for solar energy, with the largest domestic market being the utilities sector.
• Shell Oil predicts that 50% of the world’s energy will come from renewable sources by 2040.

DIY Solar Power for Homes

Hi Home Owners,

I am sure that you have recognized solar energy is a great resource to our planet. But do you know that having solar power for homes is also beneficial to you and your family? Nowadays more and more people have realized that and they are looking for ways to install residential solar power systems.

5 Reasons Why Home Owners Love Solar Power for Homes

No. 1 – Thanks to the solar technology development, solar conversion efficiency is increasing and the cost is decreasing. It means that you are going to pay less money but generate more clean power for homes.

No. 2 - US is not the top 5 countries in the world adopting solar power for homes. Only 20,000 households are now using solar energy. (Reuters, 2009) You will become the leader of using renewable energy among your friends. They will appreciate your initiative to protect our world.

No. 3 - The US government has decided to offer Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency* in 2009. Home owners who install solar power systems will receive a tax credit for 30% of the cost, with no upper limit through 2016 (for existing homes & new construction), so the cost of building the solar power system is even lower.

No. 4 – Learning how to install a solar power system for homes is very easy nowadays. Apart from hiring solar energy companies to do the job, you can even purchase solar energy kits to build the systems on your own in just a few days but at a lower cost.

No. 5 – People are now aware of the serious pollution and other environmental problems brought by using oil and coal as the primary sources of energy. They, including you, are looking for alternative energy to save the Earth.

Solar power for homes has become a hot issue and you, as a citizen on the Earth should start thinking about implementing solar power for your houses. You can get more understanding on how solar power works for homes in below video.

Total, MIT to work on batteries that store solar

What is solar power?

Solar power is energy which comes from the sun. This energy is very powerful and hits the earth regardless of whether or not we take advantage of it. Even the tiny percentage of sunlight that touches the earth is plenty to meet the energy and power needs of the entire human population more than 8,500 times over.

The only concern is learning how to collect this energy efficiently. Today there are many different technologies which exist to achieve this goal. Due to concerns of the availability of traditional energy sources, many people today are interested in further developing renewable energy technologies, such as solar devices.

For this reason it is sensible to expect continual improvement of existing solar technology and the invention of new solar power devices over the next few decades.

What is solar power technology doing to harness the energy from the sun?

Solar power technology captures energy from the sun in a variety of ways.
Here are some examples:

•Solar cells- Also known as photoelectric or photovoltaic cells, these are the most common devices that turn sunlight into electricity. Solar cells are combined into modules of which solar panels are comprised.
•Solar water heaters- Basically, heat from the sun is used to heat water through glass panels which are installed on roofs, known as solar collectors. Solar collectors deal with heat from the sun (solar thermal energy) as opposed to light.
•Solar furnaces: Solar furnaces use many strategically placed reflective surfaces, like mirrors, in order to concentrate all of the sunlight into a single point. This small space of concentrated energy creates an extreme amount of heat which can be used for making electricity, melting steel, or creating hydrogen fuel.

What is solar power offering that makes it such an appealing energy source?

•Solar energy is a completely free and inexhaustible fuel source
•No fuel, waste, or pollution is expelled in its usage.
•In remote areas, or small villages, solar power can be the saving grace. Sometimes it is the only realistic way to provide energy to a place that is not capable of drawing energy from other sources.
•It can be used for low-power purposes as well as larger ones- from battery chargers, hand-held calculators, and solar powered garden lights to air conditioning, cars, and satellites.
•Sunlight is provided regardless of whether we use it or not. There is no need to process sunlight beyond the amount which a solar cell or solar collector is capable of doing (unlike fossil fuels or even other alternative energy sources, such as biomass.)

How to buy a replacement battery online

 
The feeling is terrible when the laptop power off during working time. How to quickly buy a replacement laptop battery on line? Follow me and try to make clear it… 

1.Do you know your current battery code number and laptop model number? If the answer is positive, then the thing is getting easy.

Then you have to decide which kind of battery you would like to buy? A genuine battery or a replacement battery? Normally speaking, replacement battery is cheaper than genuine battery, maybe 4 times. To choose a replacement laptop battery, you have to consider about it’s quality factor, delivery time, payment method, and price etc. The current one I use is a replacement battery, work quite well and I am satisfied with its performance.

2.After decide to buy which battery, you can go to search engineer and enter the key words in the table, for example, if you want to buy a replacement Dell inspiron 1300 battery, copy this key words to the filling table, then you can find many related website on the Google search engineer, for example, I see that http://www.ecsem.net have this 4400mAh battery, you can also go to other website compare the price to get a battery and pay less money. You can check your laptop model number or battery code against the spec description on the online shop to make sure that the battery you see is compatible with your laptop.

3.Many website also post many battery tips and using knowledge, laptop battery blog for user’s reference, such as how to maintain battery, charge and discharge, reactivate the battery and so on.

4.Find the battery what you want, then go to the shopping cart, pay the money, credit card and Paypal account are always acceptable, after make payment, you will get a order confirmation or a payment receipt from Paypal to confirm your order payment just now. Then the whole purchase process is completed, you can seat at home to wait to the battery package arrival.

Solar Energy Phones

Solar Energy Phones

Solar energy phones are bound to become the must-have product in the future.  As the energy reduced daily, energy saving is an eternal task. The current cell phones are almost use lithium, Ni-MH are all energy consumption, environmental pollution and difficult to recover. I strongly appeal majority people who with social responsibilities pay attention to this industry’s development.

The differentiation competition urge the cell phone emerge one after another, such as business cell phone , information security cell phone, invisible cell phone. Recently, a new kind of light energy cell phone shocked this area and attractive enough eyes. Explanting solar energy technology to cell phone has enormous appliance value? What is the technology difficulty? And whether it is becomes to the new sea of cell phone industry or not?

Plenty of consumers’ cell phone always out of battery, so many people have to take along 2 or 3 batteries when goes out, even someone take along the charger daily. Solving cell phone standby problem is concerned by supplier all along, along with the come forth of cell phone multimedia function, standby problem disturb the Solar panel cell phone industry and consumers all alone. Everybody hope to explants convenient, energy saving, safe and reliable solar energy technology to cell phone, make it becomes to the long-term steady dynamic supporting of cell phone in 3G eras wireless life?

Users obviously feel that the charge frequency reduced dramatically after they use the cell phone battery which utilizes the solar energy technology. The battery working life increased obviously which convenient to people phone conversation, media and entertainment aspects. Meanwhile, new energy, new material is the inevitable trend of cell phone development. Photo-electricity converts technology full of challenges.

Current domestic chips enterprises is in weakness stage in photo-electricity convert chips and low consumption chips technology, it is difficult to achieve mass production, hence, it is difficult to realize domestic purchasing in a short period. Besides, some domestic solar energy monocrystalline silicon wafer company supplied solar energy silicon wafer with low absorptivity universally, it will affect photo-electricity effect directly. Now many laptop battery manufacturer are using the solar panel to design the new battery accessories.

How to increase the solar panel use area under the circumstance of not affecting the cell phone cosmetic, optimize the battery internal management and enhance the photovoltaic conversion will be the further focus and difficulty in technology development of solar cell phone. Now the solar panel can be used in laptop battery.

China now has more than 400 million mobile phone users with huge potential consumer market. In addition, this technology expect to realize on mobile phone, but also can be expanded to MP3, DV, DC, Bluetooth and other consumer electronics products, the application value is very wide. With gradual growth of market and increased feedback of consumer satisfaction degree, solar energy cell phone will be like a webcam as an important standard device of cell phone and become as a guideline for consumers to choose cell phone. Experts predict that solar energy cell phone battery will be a bright point next year.

New Report on Solar Power Industry

Interesting news from Market Watch - Given the size, population, resources, and level of technology development in the United States, the US solar market is believed to be the most underexploited in the world. The US solar market has experienced fantastic growth over the last five years.

As part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the U.S. Investment Tax Credit provides another eight years extension for commercial and residential investments.

Trends in solar thermal power revolve more around mandates and financing than technology, thus the ITC provides the necessary financial support to ensure the growth of this emerging technology.

Within the solar market, solar thermal (concentrated solar power) installation is expected to surpass those of solar electric (photovoltaic). Research indicates that utilities firms are looking at solar thermal as the preferred alternative energy technology.

Solar thermal energy presents a more cost-effective way to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and meets the renewal portfolio standards (RPS) that call for a certain percentage of renewable energy by a certain time.

Standing to the online report available here

U.S. Southwest has the highest amount of sunshine and open land, resulting in numerous suitable sites for solar thermal power plants. According to Abengoa Solar, U.S. southwest can support over 11TW of solar thermal, which is enough to support a capacity of more than 6 times the current electrical demand in the United States.

In the southwestern United States, the cost of electricity from CSP plants (including ITC) is about 13–17¢ per kilowatt-hour, meaning that CSP with thermal storage is competitive today with simple-cycle natural gas-fired power plants. The U.S.

Department of Energy aims to reduce CSP costs to 7–10¢ per kilowatt-hour by 2015 and to 5–7¢ per kilowatt-hour by 2020, making CSP a competitive alternative to fossil-fuel-based power sources.