A new solar energy technology solution has been put to the test, and has been given the go-ahead for production in Australia.

This new solar power station is based on solar tower technology designed in Germany. The most fantastic thing about this new technology is the simplicity of its design, and its ingenious use of basic principles of physics to create energy.

So what is this new solar energy plant?

This new solar tower, also referred to as a “solar chimney,” uses solar power to turn wind turbines.

Solar energy to turn wind turbines?

How does this work?

Well, the simplest way to describe it is to compare it to a huge greenhouse with a large chimney.

As we all know, hot air rises.

The greenhouse within the solar chimney system captures the heat of the sun. The heated air in the greenhouse is then allowed to escape through a huge chimney.

Before the air escapes through the chimney, it is forced to pass through wind turbines, which are in turn used to generate electricity. You can see a diagram of it here.

The beauty of this technology is that it uses centuries-old tried-and-true principles of updraft. This is the same principles used for chimneys in open fire places. When you light a fire in your fireplace, your house doesn’t fill up with smoke. This is because of the suction which is created by the hot air rising up through the chimney. This pulls the smoke up through the chimney as well.

But in the case of the solar tower, we are not using a fire to create hot air. We are simply allowing the sun to do its thing: heat stuff up. In this case, the sun heats the air up, and the air rises through the solar chimney as a result.

Australia is the first country to build this type solar energy power plant for commercial use.

The central tower will be over 3000 feet high and 400 feet in diameter.

It will use 750,000 cubic yards of concrete.

The solar energy collector (greenhouse) will contain thirty-million square yards of space. That’s more than three and a half miles in diameter.

It will have 32 wind turbines placed at ground level, each capable of creating 6.25 megawatts of electricity.

It will take 34 months to construct.

It will provide a total of 200 megawatts, which is enough to provide solar power in the form of electricity, for over 200,000 households.

The solar tower will create absolutely no carbon emissions, greenhouse gases, or other pollutants in its energy generation process. In other words, it is going to be 100% eco-friendly.

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Learn more about solar power and alternative energy at the author’s website on Solar Energy. You can also find a variety of Solar Panels and other solar-powered or wind-powered equipment at the Solar Power Store.

If you have been scouring the net looking at solar panels then you know that the pre assembled solar panels can run from $6-30 thousand dollars. Now for us mere mortals this is simply not a financial option.

But the good news is that a solar panel is not rocket science. In fact right now in an elementary school somewhere there are 8 year olds building and using solar panels for a science experiments.

Frankly you can probably get everything you need to build your own solar panel for as little as $200. And some of the parts may be available for free - if you know where to look.

If you want to start building your own solar panel > click to that link and read more.

What are thin film solar panels, and why are they so important? What do they mean for broad-scale solar power solutions?

Thin film solar panels operate in the same manner that regular solar panels do, the only difference being that they are a lot thinner and require far less materials and energy for construction.

This might not sound particularly spectacular, but in fact it is. It is a major breakthrough in solar technology.

Why are Thin Film Solar Panels so Important?

The reason thin film solar technology is considered to be such a major breakthrough is because, until now, the two barriers that have prevented solar energy and solar technology from becoming mainstream energy providers have been the 1. the cost to produce them, and 2. the problems in mass-producing them rapidly.

Both of these problems have been solved. This paves the way for rapid expansion of clean energy in the form of solar power.

What is Thin Film Solar Technology?

Thin film solar technology is a method of putting extremely thin films of photovoltaic material on to a thin layer of backing for support.

This is made possible through new inventions, such as solar ink. A photovoltaic material is dissolved into a solution, that is then printable as ink. It is then printed out, similarly to how books are printed.

Because of the invention of solar ink, it is possible to print photovoltaic material onto thin layers of plastic fabric or metal. This printing process is extremely fast, and thus it allows you to mass-produce solar panels at a high speed and at only a fraction of the cost.

Whereas, in the past, solar panels were bulky and weighed a serious amount, thin film solar panels weigh almost nothing and take up almost no space. This means that solar panels can now be produced at only 5 percent of the cost, as compared to our old bulky solar panels.

Uses of Thin Film Solar Panels

The ability to literally print solar panels onto fabric, plastic and metal has opened up new horizons in the application of solar power.

Some of the uses now possible are as follows:

• Rollable solar chargers
• AA battery solar charger
• Water purification systems
• Foldable solar chargers
• Weather stations
• RVs Campers Boats GPS devices
• Wildlife feeders
• Metal roofing Membrane roofing Architectural fabric
• Cell phone chargers
• GPS asset tracking
• Military, Police and Emergency Services:
• Sol laptop chargers
• Warning/safety lights
• GPS chargers
• Satellite phone chargers

The above are just some of the ways that solar power can be and is being used, with the advent of thin film solar panels. I am sure that many more uses will be added, now that the price and manufacturing barrier of solar power have been broken.

Learn more about solar technology at Alternative Energy and Solar Panels.

A solar tower is a device that converts solar energy (heat from the sun) into electricity. Solar towers are suitable for large-scale power generation.

The Basic Component Parts of a Solar Tower Energy Plant

* Solar Tower - The solar tower is simply a large structure with a boiler (a tank used to heat liquids) at the top. The boiler collects the heat from the sun. It is also referred to as the “central tower” or “power tower”.

* Heliostats - These are movable mirrors that track the sun and reflect the sunlight at the top of the solar tower where the heat is collected. These mirrors move as the sun moves, so as to continuously reflect maximum sunlight toward the tower.

* Heat Transfer Fluid - We use the term “heat transfer fluid” because not all solar towers use the same. Early solar towers used water to collect the heat from the sun. Some of the newer solar towers use liquid sodium. Whichever liquid is used, it is referred to as “heat transfer fluid.”

* Heat Storage - Because we still want to generate energy at night after the sun is gone, newer solar towers have methods of storing heat so that it can be used during the night to continue generating electricity.

* Steam Generator - As stated earlier, liquid sodium is now used to collect the heat, and the liquid sodium is then used to generate steam.

* Steam Turbine - This is a generator that uses steam to generate electrical power. This is the same set-up as is used in a conventional power plant.

How Does a Solar Tower Work?

Computer controlled mirrors (called heliostats) follow the sun, adjusting their position as the sun moves, and reflect sunlight toward the top of the solar tower, where a heat collector tank is located. Of course, more than one heliostat is needed, so an arrangement of hundreds or even thousands of heliostats is used.

The combined reflected sunlight of these heliostats can produce temperatures as high as 550 degrees, Celsius at their focal point.

Thus, the liquid inside the boiler is rapidly heated and is then pumped downward into storage tanks, or is pumped directly into to a heat exchanger where it is used to make steam.

The steam produced by the heat exchanger is then led through a steam turbine, which uses the steam to generate electricity.

As an interesting note, liquid sodium can be used as a heat transfer/storage liquid, because of its ability to hold and store heat efficiently. Large storage tanks can be used to hold the heated liquid sodium. The stored “heat” can then be used at night, so as to continue generating steam which is used to generate electricity.

Currently, there are two solar towers in operation using the above design. The 64 MW Nevada Solar One and 11 MW PS10 solar power tower in Spain.

Solar tower energy is categorized as CSP (concentrated solar power) technology. There are several other power plant designs which use concentrated solar power technology. This includes the parabolic trough and the solar dish engine.

Find more information about Solar Power, Alternative Energy, and broad-scale solutions for Solar Power

Most people actually already have basic knowledge about solar energy. Discussing about solar energy will be near to talk about how the sun can produce substitute energy. In fact, many people have used the sun’s power to heat air and water for several energy resources. Moreover, many people switch to solar energy since it is the most viable and cleanest form of renewable energy.

Solar energy detains the sun’s rays by using photovoltaic cell that alters the energy into electricity in order to supply electrical energy. In actual fact, electricity can be converted to the type 120-volt alternating current although the electricity produced is only 12-volt direct current.

Commonly, power converter is used to wielding this energy by most household electrical appliances. In addition, the number appliances that operate on 120-vot direct current are rising these days. They do work with solar energy even though most of them were designed for portable use by being plugged into a vehicles 12-volt outlet.

Homes or business can safe the costs of energy by using the solar energy. Since the present crop of solar cells, the grouping of photovoltaic cells that change the energy into electricity only operates at about 15-percent efficiency, so many of them are required that it is costly to install enough of them to give the power needs.

Return on Investment Provides Inexpensive Electricity

Even though the present high initial cost, once a facility has been changed to solar energy they can use far less power from the utility grid. The more power that is changed from the sun the less electricity is required, putting a significant dent in the electric bills. It is estimated that the initial cost of converting an usual home to solar energy will be recouped in about 15 to 18 years.

During that time, electric bills will be much lower and once the cost has been recovered, the payoff can be valuable with most of the components needed to trigger a home on solar energy having a warranted life of 20 years. However, not all appliances, such as electric heaters and those that use a large amount of power for operation, may still require more than the sun for their use.

Many houses that have moved to solar energy remain connected to the power grid. It usually happens for the times that the sun is not shining strong enough. The power grid is used to power the solar cells and to have sufficient electric to power some of the more energy-hungry devices in the house.

Solar energy will help to find alternative energy that last very long. To get more information, please explore this valuable site about solar energy