Build your own Solar System

Our sun is a constant source of energy. Each day, the sun bathes the Earth in unimaginable amounts of solar energy, most of which comes in the form of visible light. All over planet Earth, sunlight is by far the most important source of energy for all living things. Without it, Earth would be lifeless.

Sunlight can be a practical source of energy for such everyday jobs as cooking, heating water, or warming up homes. The challenge is to find ways to transform sunlight into usable heat. The most efficient way to transform sunlight into heat is to shine lots of sunlight onto a dark surface. Dark surfaces absorb most of the visible light that falls upon them, and reflect very little. Visible light that is absorbed this way usually causes the dark-colored surface to warm up. Of all colors, black is able to absorb the most light, and produce the most heat.

You are familiar with what happens to a dark-colored surface when sunlight strikes it: it will get warm. But without a little help, there is usually not enough heat produced to cook foods. To produce enough heat for cooking, it is necessary to shine additional sunlight from a wider area onto the black surface. This is easy to do with mirrors or other reflective surfaces, or with glass or plastic lenses.

The solar oven you will be building from this plan uses aluminum foil to gather sunlight. The foil-covered panels of the oven reflect sunlight into the cooking chamber, which is painted black. Heat is produced when the concentrated sunlight is absorbed by the black surface of the cooking chamber. The heat is contained inside the chamber with the help of insulation and a clear plastic oven bag. The result is a great solar cooker and yummy food!

Safety Precautions:

Use extreme caution when cutting cardboard with the utility knife. Extend the blade only as far as is needed to cut through the cardboard, and lock it into place. Do your cutting on a cutting board or piece of scrap plywood, cardboard, or a kitchen cutting board.
Use sunglasses when working with shiny materials in sunlight.
Solar ovens can get very hot! Use oven mitts or gloves to prevent burns.

President directs initiation of solar energy projects

SLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has directed the initiation of a pilot project for solar cookers and water heaters in selected areas of the country and has called for devising an easy financing scheme for providing them to the needy and the poor in remote areas.

He said this during a presentation on alternate energy sources at the Aiwan-e-Sadr on Tuesday.

The president directed that state resources be mobilised to develop the energy base of the country in order to overcome the energy shortages that are adversely affecting socio-economic development.

He said being an energy deficient country, all available resources must be utilised effectively to augment the existing capacity so that reliance on conventional resources could be reduced.

Most efficient: Alternate Energy Sources Chief Executive Officer Arif Allauddin said manually-charged devices and solar energy systems were the most efficient technology options for the provision of energy services to remote, off-grid locations in places like NWFP and Balochistan. He said that solar energy was the fastest growing energy technology in the world and as a result the amount of money required to produce solar energy was constantly on the decline.

Countries such as India, China, USA, Spain, Turkey, Germany and the rest of EU were already using solar energy for meeting future energy needs.

The participants were informed that the World Bank was assisting Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) in developing an Agricultural Solar Water Pumping Programme for Pakistan and that AEDB had signed two memorandums of understanding (MoU) with leading Chinese companies for solar energy. Zardari directed the relevant ministries to build on the MOUs signed with China and other countries.

The presentation was attended by Federal Minister for Water & Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Minister for Economic Affairs Division Hina Rabbani Khar, SAPM Kamal Majidullah, Secretary General to the president Salman Faruqui, Secretary to the president Malik Asif Hayat and other senior officials of the concerned ministries

Solar System Pakistan

n solar system the things you need is depend on what you want to do. If you want to turn on just lights, bulbs or lamps. So then what you need is listed under here.

1. Solar Panel
2. Solar Charge Controller
3. Battery
4. DC Lights

These are things that you must have to turn your lights on. Without them it is difficult to power up lights. Solar system works in this order. Solar Panel is giving current to charge controller. Charge controller charges a battery. And lights are powered up by a battery. In this case it is DC lights.

How Solar Cells Work

You've probably seen calculators with solar cells -- devices that never need batteries and in some cases, don't even have an off button. As long as there's enough light, they seem to work forever. You may also have seen larger solar panels, perhaps on emergency road signs, call boxes, buoys and even in parking lots to power the lights.

Although these larger panels aren't as common as solar-powered calculators, they're out there and not that hard to spot if you know where to look. In fact, photovoltaics -- which were once used almost exclusively in space, powering satellites' electrical systems as far back as 1958 -- are being used more and more in less exotic ways. The technology continues to pop up in new devices all the time, from sunglasses to electric vehicle charging stations.

The hope for a "solar revolution" has been floating around for decades -- the idea that one day we'll all use free electricity fro m the sun. This is a seductive promise, because on a bright, sunny day, the sun's rays give off approximately 1,000 watts of energy per square meter of the planet's surface. If we could collect all of that energy, we could easily power our homes and offices for free.

What hinders solar energy?

ACCORDING to Director General, Board of Investment a solar energy policy would soon be announced hoping that it would open doors for huge investment and lucrative returns in the country. Addressing the office-bearers of the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry he said investors would be encouraged to invest in solar energy plants up to 10 megawatts under the new policy.

The statement of the official indicates that at long last the Government has realised the potential of the solar energy and steps are being contemplated for development and application of this endless source of energy. Pakistan these days is not only facing energy shortage but also the rates of electricity are soaring every now and then making it extremely difficult for a common citizen to pay off monthly electricity bills. As there seems to be no respite in foreseeable future the problems of the consumers can be mitigated by resorting to other methods of generating electricity, solar being one of them. Most of the countries are doing it successfully for decades and their population is benefiting through the use of this free and environment friendly resource. In Pakistan too, some villages have been electrified through solar energy and their inhabitants are not only getting light but also powering fans. Similarly, some companies have introduced solar heaters and geysers but all these experiments are limited to pilot stages and no worthwhile plan has so far been initiated to take advantage of this massive source of energy on the commercial scale. This is despite the fact that we have an Alternative Energy Development Board and a number of countries and companies are keen to invest in the field. We would, therefore, urge the Government not to indulge in rhetoric and take practical measures for development of solar technology in the country, which can help overcome our energy woes to a great extent. Solar power can take care of household energy requirements and the energy so saved could be used for commercial and industrial purposes.