It would seem almost idiotic not to delve into our renewable energy resources. Our climate changes over the past 5 years are putting concern in our public officials. We could cut down our carbon footprint to nearly a fraction of a shadow. This type of energy comes from sunlight, rain, wind, tides, hydroelectricity, biomass, and geothermal heat which is totally replenished by our Earth. It would be the ultimate “go green” technology.

We all know how wind, sunlight, and rain work, but what about biomass? It comes from any type of living or dead biological, or organic material that we can use for fuel. Primary sources are wood, manure, plant matter, some garbage and let’s not forget where it all started with fossil fuels. Plants use photosynthesis to grow thus producing biomass. Biomass creates fuels such as biodiesel, ethanol, and biogases. They can be burned in combustion engines or boilers. Prime plants for these types of fuels are sugar cane, willow, corn, and switch grasses.

Biomass isn’t completely immune from the diseased carbon stamp. It can still contribute to global warming but over a much longer period of time. But this renewable energy is easily replaced for by the growing of more plants.

Hydroelectricity comes primarily from the production of hydroelectric dams. It’s major advantage its that it completely eliminates the cost of fuel. Energy in water is harnessed through kinetic energy and saline gradients or osmotic power. Water is about 800 times the density of air, so a flowing stream or moderate sea swell can generate a considerable amount of energy.

There are some systems of hydroelectricity that can pull kinetic energy without a dam. These systems are used in the ocean. It converts the thermal differences from the warmer surfaces near the top and the lower cooler temperatures from the bottom of the ocean.

Tidal energy is also a great renewable energy because we will have tides as long as we have oceans. The energy is measured kinetically from both horizontal and vertical tide movement. Tidal energy is harnessed using tidal stream generators which are much like wind turbines. Several commercial prototypes are in development so this type of energy will be readily available in the near future.

Our Earth’s core creates mega watts of energy in only seconds. Geothermal power stations are fairly expensive to build but the benefits of eternal energy out weigh the costs. When tapping the Earth’s crust, the radioactive decay that is created from the earths crust is continues to provide the core with renewable energy. Fissures are basically pockets of steam that is released from the core through dry steam plants and runs through turbines.

There are many ways to take our Earth back and stop the madness we’ve created.

Wind generated electricity is pollution free and while it won’t totally eliminate the need for power supplied by a utility, it can reduce the bill from around half to upwards of ninety percent. In some cases, a wind turbine can produce more energy than needed, which is then sold back to the utility company.

There are some daring do-it-yourselfers who can build a wind turbine from the ground up using salvaged parts of power tools, junked cars, their old stereo from college, and leftover PVC pipe from the last bathroom remodel. For those who don’t know the difference between a ratchet and a wrench, any size residential wind turbine can be purchased with professional installation included.

For those of us that fall somewhere in between master craftsman and totally clueless, a kit can be purchased with prices starting at a couple hundred dollars. Installation is pretty straightforward, and manufacturers provide knowledgeable customer service for any issues that might come up. There is no rewiring required to the house, and the utility company will connect the meter to the source. If you have average DIY skills, this is a project that will pay for itself over time and you can feel good about being environmentally conscious.

Before you get out your tool belt and hard hat, research the various models available and decide which size suits your needs. You may want to build a hybrid system that integrates a wind turbine with solar panels. There are many informative websites available to help you get the answers you need.

Next, check local zoning regulations and get a building permit if necessary. You will need to know if there are any height restrictions also, as most turbines need to be a minimum of thirty feet above any buildings. There are clearance requirements as well; the blades need to be able to turn freely and the whole mechanism rotates with the direction of the wind. It needs to be located away from buildings, trees and overhead wires. Something to keep in mind: more power requires a larger turbine, which in turn means it has to be mounted higher. A larger turbine also means a higher cost.

Talk to your neighbors about your plans and make sure they are agreeable. While a wind turbine doesn’t generate a significant amount of noise or interfere with television or satellite reception, it requires a significant height in order to work properly. That means your neighbors will very likely have a good view of it, whether they want to or not. Understanding that ahead of time will help you be a good neighbor and might even start a trend in your neighborhood.

Photo by Gili Soffer

The concept of using solar energy to power a home is not a new one. People have been trying to figure out for many years how the sun’s energy can be used in the home as useful energy to power objects. There actually are ways that this can be accomplished right now. It is possible to sustain a family on solar energy. Certain steps must be taken, and it takes a little more foresight when constructing a home, but the finished product is well worth the extra work at the beginning.

One of the easiest ways to harness solar energy is through passive changes in the home. Doing things like sealing up unnecessary cracks in the walls and around doors and windows will help guide energy where it should go. When building a new house, if most of the windows are placed on the south side then the sun will warm the house more effectively. It is important to have the proper kind of window in a home. The best kinds of windows to use are ones that reflect heat rather than absorb it. This prevents the house from having to waste energy on eliminating excess heat.

A popular way (mostly in warmer climates) to harness the power of the sun is through solar water heaters. Roof panels are built outside to collect the sun’s solar energy. Then there are pipes and lines leading down into a regular water heater. The panels on the roof cause the water to remain hot just like a regular water heater. However, the use of the sun’s energy saves money, and the environment. It is also possible to power the heat of a house using a similar system. Water pipes are run under the house, and the solar water system causes the liquid in the pipes to heat up. Once this happens the heat rises into the room.

Electricity powered by the sun is very effective as well. Usually there are several panels set up on the roof of the house, or nearby the house on a south facing slope. The reason the panels always point south is because that direction harnesses more of the useful solar energy that the sun gives off. Most electric solar systems like these turn to face wherever the sun is producing the brightest rays. The solar panels create a DC power current that can be converted to the usual AC power that most homes use. With a house powered by solar electricity it is possible to eliminate the need for any other form of electricity power in the home. There are comunities that actually live ‘off grid’ The initial setup may be a bit expensive at the moment, but the investment will return itself.

With these uses of solar power in the home it is possible to sustain a family off of solar energy. One of the great benefits to using solar energy is the ability to run a house off of the sun and not have to pay electric bills. Another benefit is the ability to save the environment from the emissions that most power plants cause that harm the environment. Sustaining a family off of solar power is a great way to save money and the environment at the same time.

Before you start laying the foundation for your new wind generator you need to do some research to see if you will be able to capture the energy of the wind while still within the confines of your own property. First and foremost you need to have a spot on your property that is raised above the level of the rest of your property and where the wind is allowed free access. Obviously it would be difficult to build a unit on a city lot but if you own a lot of land with a large backyard then you have good access to the proper wind flow.

The next thing you need to do is to be certain that you get sufficient wind power in your area to justify building a wind generator. Traditionally you need a reliable supply of 10 to 20mph winds to generate enough spin to help power a standard size home. You could look up the history of the wind speed in your area and see if you get that kind of wind flow regularly but the conditions in your backyard may be different than the conditions at the weather station where they made the measurements. Get a wind gauge and set it up in your backyard. Be sure to read it at least once a day and the catalog the results. From there you can determine what the average wind flow is on your property and then you can gauge whether or not a wind generator would be effective for your home.

There are still some drawbacks to using a wind generator at your home. If you have neighbors, or neighborhood children that would be able to see your windmill, then you run the risk of someone tampering with your homemade wind catcher and causing you a lot of problems. Another problem can be the lack of wind. While wind shows a pattern based on the weather patterns for your area there is always that chance that for one summer the wind barely blows. But for the rest of the time harnessing the power of the wind can help free up a large portion of your monthly expenses.

Photo by Gili Soffer

Switching from electric to solar power is not as big a leap as one might think. With some careful planning and an initial financial investment, a person can run their home and business on solar power without many complications at all. There are many benefits of solar power, and if you are considering making this important switch, you should definitely give these benefits some careful thought.

One of the main reasons a person should consider investing in solar power is that it is a less expensive option. Instead of having to deal with escalating electricity bills, you will be able to limit or even cut out these monthly bills if you solar power. After all, you don’t have to pay the universe to use the sun and its rays.
Another great plus of using solar power is that it cut down on the amount of wires you have in your home. This not only prevents tripping and clutter but can save a person a lot of money in the event that they would normally have to call an electrician to set up such items. For example, if you wanted lights for your porch or garden, you wouldn’t need to install a light or its wires. Additionally, because many solar power products have sensors that detect when it is light or dark outside, you will not have to worry about turning items on and off or worry that such items are running up a high electricity bill.
This benefit then results in another benefit of solar power: less maintenance. You will very rarely have to call in anyone to fix your solar panels and other solar based products. Unlike wiring that can become corroded and old or ineffective with wear and tear, solar power is more durable.
In the event of a storm, you will not have to worry as much about loss of power. Even if the sun is not out, the panels and products are adept at saving up energy. Thus, even if the electrical lines are hit with a tree or if there is a blackout of some sort, you will be more protected than if you had traditional wiring and electricity in the home. At the end of the day, you will not be a victim of power outages.
And of course, one of the most obvious benefits of solar power is that it is environmentally friendly. This is obvious but should not be discounted, especially now that pollution and excess are making their mark on the world and its resources. If you care about doing your part to eliminate waste, then solar power is a beneficial and smart choice. Solar power is renewable and it does not pollute like other more traditional kinds of electricity, and thus, just by making a few switches in your home, you are helping the environment without having to lose time and energy over it.

Photo by Gili Soffer

The cost of solar panels per watt is a little pricey these days at $3.66 per watt. However, it is being said that this price will drop to $2.14 per watt by 2010. The thin film PV is also going to be dropping from $2.96 down to $1.81. These figures are great due to the fact that it should entice more people to install solar panels in their homes and businesses to save on electricity.

The current global production will also be rising from the current 3.14 Gigawatts to just about a 400 percent increase of 12.36 Gigawatts. The demand for solar panels is looking to go up to 6.76 Gigawatts from 2.94 Gigawatts, which will leave 5 Gigawatts unused, and because of the unused portion it is speculated that the price of solar panels may even go down lower.

The supply of silicon production is so low right now and this is why the prices are going to be dropping. An abundance of silicon is going to be made, of 125,302 tons, an amount that is quadrupled of what is made today. This is going to leave a huge over supply of the product which will drive down the prices. It is expected to take place by 2012. Those companies that do not use silicon but thin film to make solar panels will not be affected by the over supply of silicon being made but they do still have to compete with the prices dropping for solar panels, so they will in turn have to lower their prices also.

It is believed that when the supply in silicon is expanded, thousands upon thousands of people will be employed and the government may offer people incentives to use solar panels in their homes and businesses to help close the gap in Gigawatts usage in regards to them. It is possible too however, that the government will not do this and the companies will have to figure out how to cover their expenses, even without all the Gigawatts being used, on their own.

AVA Solar Inc. is planning on starting production on new solar panels that was developed by a mechanical engineer at Colorado State University, Professor W.S. Sampath, who has been working on getting this technology right for the past 16 years. These new panels will provide 200 megawatts of power which can power up to 40,000 homes in the United States.

With the prices dropping and the new solar panels being able to power so many homes, the industry is very encouraged of the panels being installed by more and more people, which in turn will provide cleaner energy being used to power their homes and businesses.

By the year 2010, the solar panel industry is expected to be a multi-billion dollar industry bringing in about $25 billion. It is currently bringing in about $6 billion, but with the rise for the past 5 years of 40 percent per year, the industry is only going to continue to grow, thus becoming more profitable.

Photo by Gili Soffer

Recent research and development in production has resulted in new solar cells that are getting more and more efficient. Photovoltaic cells have been made from a single material, silicon, which achieves about 25 percent efficiency. New stacked material cells are gaining up to 40 percent or better efficiency in converting light to electrical power energy.

Silicon is used because it is available, though not cheap, but it wastes a lot of sun energy as heat. By using a system of alloys, conversion of almost a full spectrum of sunlight to electrical current is possible. New alloys incorporate indium, gallium, and nitrogen along with some elements of nitrogen and arsenic. They will be more durable and less expensive than single silicon layers.

Research into solar cells and their efficiency has been directed toward making photovoltaic cells more efficient and at the same time, less costly. The return time of the investment has been reduced, that is, the time it takes to recoup the initial cost of production and installation, versus the rewards in lower energy costs from reaping solar energy.

A stacked group of different band gap materials brings better efficiency in capturing and using sunlight energy for electrical current in multi-junction cells. Even a two layer cell of different materials can offer better efficiency than using only silicon material in the cell. Making cells thinner and more light weight are desirable also, to reduce costs. But with thinner silicon cells, efficiency is lost. There is a shortage of refined silicon, which also is keeping solar cell prices higher.

New designs in panel top grid construction are aimed toward better electricity conduction and lower power loss, while allowing more of the cell visible to absorb light. Changes in the bottom layer are also showing an effect on efficiency. Being able to reflect lost light back up to the silicon means a greater amount of light energy can be captured and absorbed.

Solar cells are made of two layers of and light needs to pass through the top layer to reach the second for conversion into electricity. Using typical silver lines on top can be improved by interweaving the silver with copper coated wires that conduct electricity better and do not diffuse when heated to high temperatures through the silicon to create a short circuit.

New solar cells are being designed that use an optical concentrator to increase sunlight intensity, thus resulting in capturing more electricity from the photovoltaic cells. Much current research can be credited to U.S. Department of Energy’s “Solar America Initiative”. The major goal is to reduce costs and open markets, and reduce dependence on foreign oil. New highly efficient units can reduce costs through increased efficiency with fewer but better solar cells.

The target cost for PV system installation is $3 per watt, down from $4. Electricity production cost goals are $0.08 to $0.10 cents per kilowatt-hour. Solar cells are getting more and more efficient, and their use will grow in the coming years as prices for installation and costs decrease and benefits from the lower cost energy production increases.

Photo by Gili Soffer

Maybe you have seen the little bluish or black panels on rooftops and wondered, how does a solar panel work? It is a fairly simple system, with complex parts. Briefly, the solar panels are set to capture as much natural sunlight as possible. They may be permanently installed, or movable. Some are relatively fragile and breakable, while others are thin and flexible, and portable. They can be seen on rooftops, on cars, on boats, as well as in large “farm” configurations. Small solar panels are used on electronics like calculators. All need to be directed towards sunlight to receive sun energy to convert to electrical current.

How does a solar panel work? The important material is inside a small solar cell. Usually it is crystalline silicon, or a combination of silicon with another material, or stacked layers of alloy materials. The silicon is cut into tiny disks. They are less than a centimeter in thickness, and are then polished and repaired from any cutting damage. Once polished, metal conductors, typically thin silver wires, are spread across each disk and they are laid out in a grid design on top of the panel. After being covered with a thin layer of glass, there is a substrate added to the bottom of the panel with a thermally conducive cement to help prevent overheating. These solar panels are then mounted slightly above a surface facing the sun, in order to allow cooling breezes to run under the panels.

With an amorphous silicon solar panel, silicon and other alloys are stacked to absorb larger parts of the solar spectrum, making the panel more efficient than if constructed with just silicon material. Light that makes it past the silicon materials is bounced around and reabsorbed for more intensity instead of being lost. This type of solar panel is thinner, more flexible and less breakable than the crystalline panels. New stacked material solar cells are proving to be less expensive and more productive than those using just expensive silicon materials.

The solar panel, called a photovoltaic module, is like a sandwich, with individual solar cells honeycombed in the middle. The top may be glass, the bottom may be aluminum. A silver or metal wire grid connects the cells across the top of the cells. The solar cells use their silicon or alloy materials to convert sunlight into electrical current, which is then collected and stored in a DC battery and used from the battery, or converted to AC current via an inverter that boosts the voltage up to AC current. Solar silicon cells produce about .5 Volts each. Smaller panels are usually 12V. Solar panels are used in multiples, called an array, for increased power output. Solar power is clean, environmentally safe, and renewable.

Reduced cost is important to help spread the use of the solar panel. Using a thinner, light weight solar panel that offer increased efficiency is one way to reduce the costs and recovery time from cost of installation and purchase of the panels over time. Solar panel power is seen as an eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels such as oil.

In the 11th century people in the Middle East were using wind energy to help with food production and their merchants and crusaders took this idea to Europe. The Dutch then made the use of wind energy more efficient by using windmills to drain lakes and marshes into the Rhine River Delta. Settlers ended up taking this new technology to the New World in the 19th century, which was then being used to drain farms and to power up homes and businesses.

The use of steam engines and low cost electric power in Europe and America made the use of wind energy decline in the 1930’s. However, during this time the use of bigger windmills to produce power was also used and this helped to power up a local utility network for a time during World War II.

The use and interest of using wind energy has gone up and down over the years. When oil is at a low price it seems interest begins to fall as the oil is more affordable, but when the oil prices rise to where the average person is struggling to obtain it, the interest in wind energy surges again.

With wind energy having the ability to bring power to homes and businesses with clean and renewable energy, this source will be used for many, many years. The cost is starting to come down in this type of power to be more comparable to other energy sources and is expected to be even less. It is said that if more people use wind energy to power their homes and businesses that they may be able to cut their electricity bill by 50 percent up to 90 percent.

The use of wind energy will also be a helpful way to make our atmosphere and environment stronger as it does not emit smog and other harmful pollutants into our air. The supply of wind is not going to run out either as it comes naturally from our Earth.

Windmills can be built on farms and ranches which can be used to power so many houses and businesses, and because they take up minimal space the farmers and ranchers would still be able to use their land for their own purposes.

There are drawbacks to the use of wind energy however. Wind energy cannot be stored and this in turn can cause problems when the wind is not blowing for the time that the power is needed. Cost effectiveness may be an issue, however this is disagreed upon, because building windmills cost more initially then other sources do.

The windmill has been used for years to create wind power for simple functions and it has done its job. Windmills are the opposite of fans; windmills use wind to create electricity and fans create wind by using electricity. The windmill has undergone some radical changes in appearance over the last couple of decades. They now look like giant blades that are turned by the wind and they turn a shaft which turns a gearbox that turns a generator. The blades are positioned at different highs and have been renamed wind turbines. There are several types of turbines. The three blade model has the wind coming at the blades, that’s called an upwind turbine. The two blade model is called a downwind turbine, its blades turn away from the wind. A third version is called a vertical turbine; the blades are shaped like an egg beater, so the changing winds don’t affect the result of creating wind power. All of these turbines can be made to fit any situation and the amount of energy needed is regulated by the size and number of turbines used. There are also hybrid versions of wind turbines that are used in conjunction with solar cells and other devices. The turbine/solar combination has been developed for individual home use.

A relative new approach to harnessing wind power has been developed by a group of scientist in the Netherlands. They are using kites to harness wind power and the results are fantastic. By attaching a ten square meter kite to a generator they have produced ten kilowatts of power which is enough to support ten homes. They are working on a kite that will generate fifty kilowatts as well as a kite that will harness one hundred megawatts of wind power. That array will power one hundred thousand homes. The formation of the kites is called a Laddermill. The kites are tethered at thirty thousand feet and will produce an amazing amount of energy.

The advantage of using kites instead of turbines is that the kites are less expensive and don’t need as much land and are able to fly at higher altitudes where the wind generates more energy.

Research has confirmed that wind power is the cleanest method of creating the energy we need to function in daily life. It can be used all over the world and it has always been used around the world, in some fashion. The most effective way of moving towards a greener world is definitely blowing in the wind. The wind along with water will at some point become unlimited sources of energy for the 21st century and for centuries to come. Even the rich oil nations are developing methods of harnessing wind power; they know it’s just a matter of time before nature changes its course and we change our beliefs.