Residential Solar Panels

Solar panels - Power the Future
Solar panel - is characterized as a source of electric current through the photovoltaic cells. The advantage of solar panels due to the lack of moving parts, their high reliability and stability.
On the market solar cells can be divided into several classes:
- Low-power solar panels used to charge cell phones, PDA and other similar electronics. They are characterized by small area of the photographic plates and the relatively high cost.

Parabolic Solar Cooker

Parabolic solar cookers are a simple to use. There are several models for parabolic solar cookers. Parabolic solar cookers are very efficient. However conventional parabolic cookers need frequent adjustment to track the sun.

Solar Pool Covers

Anybody that owns an out of doors swimming pool will definitely wish to keep care of it. The good way to prevent something from getting into the water can be to use a pool cover.

Solar pool covers can help keep your pool clean, also help reduce the size of a solar pool heating system, which can save you money.

Advantages of using Solar pool covers
Solar pool covers are designed to absorb the sunlight. One of the main advantages of coatings is that they prevent heat loss. Evaporation is minimized. Thus, pool covers not only help maintain a comfortable water temperature, but also reduce the cost of heating water in the basin.

Solar panels

Modules are implemented in a constructive manner as monolithic laminate welded single-crystal elements.

- Frame solar cell is designed as a panel, enclosed in a frame made of aluminum profiles. Panel represents a photovoltaic generator, consisting of laminated glass panels c her elements. For the housing unit attached diode unit, under the cover of which placed electrical contacts, designed to connect the module.

- No frame modules are laminate on aluminum, glass, and - without the substrate. Solar cells are located between two layers of laminating film EVA. The front side is protected by an optically transparent film such as PET,

Southampton airport gets solar-powered runway lights

Solar-powered lighting has been installed alongside Southampton Airport's runway.

Nick-named "Wig Wags" the flashing lights cost £25,000 in total and are used at junctions between the runway and taxiways.

Southampton is the first UK airport to install the lights which are also used by the US Air Force in Afghanistan.

An airport spokesperson said: "We've been able to minimise the environmental footprint and maintenance costs."

Solar energy

The five units, supplied by Systems Interface Ltd in Surrey, use solar panels to convert sunlight into electricity and ensure the lights operate 24 hours a day.

Their batteries can store enough energy to permanently operate the lights for up to 120 days without any solar charging.

The lights have also been installed in areas of the airport where there is no access to power supplies, saving the £170,000 cost of laying cables.

They were trialled during last winter as replacements for the conventional lighting systems.
Mark Gibb, director of airside operations admitted: "It's a drop in the ocean, but nonetheless it is part of our overall commitment to, wherever possible, identify possibilities to reduce carbon emissions.

August sees record rise in UK home solar panels fittings

A record number of homeowners had solar panels installed this month, according to energy regulator Ofgem.

The devices have been fitted to 2,257 homes so far during August, up from 1,700 in July and 1,400 in June.

More than 6,688 homes have had solar panels fitted since April, when the government's scheme to reward people who generate their own energy altered.

The feed-in tariff system now enables homeowners to receive 41.3p for every unit of energy they generate.

This is regardless of whether they use the energy or sell it back to the National Grid.

After the panels are installed, the tariff is paid for 25 years and increased in line with inflation.

This replaces the previous system, under which people could obtain grants to help cover the cost of installing the green technology.

According to the Energy Saving Trust, solar panels usually cost between £6,000 and £12,000 to buy and install, depending on their size.

The panels most commonly installed by homeowners, consisting of eight panels able to generate up to 2.5kW, cost between £10,000 and £12,000.

The Trust calculates such panels could generate about £700 a year from the feed-in tariff, as well as saving homeowners about £100 a year on energy bills.

In addition, people could make about £25 to £30 through selling unused energy back to the National Grid.

MIT boffins unveil self-healing solar cell

For years scientists have managed to develop solar cells that are highly efficient in laboratory conditions, but quickly deteriorate when asked to cope with direct sunlight – which constitutes something of a drawback for a solar panel.

Now a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) reckon they may have found the solution to the problem of deteriorating solar cells following the demonstration of a new cell design that manages to repair itself.

The cell mimics the ability of plants to convert sunlight into energy at the same time as continuously breaking down light-capturing molecules and reassembling them from scratch in order to avoid the debilitating effects of sunlight.

Michael Strano, the Charles and Hilda Roddey Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, who led the research team, said the cell was "basically imitating tricks that nature has discovered over millions of years", such as plants' " reversibility, the ability to break apart and reassemble".

The cell uses synthetic molecules known as phospholipids that form disks which then provide structural support to proteins that respond to light. The molecules then create "reaction centres" that release electrons when hit by light particles. When suspended in a solution these reaction centres spontaneously attach themselves to carbon nanotubes that hold the disks in place and also act as wires that can transmit the released electrons.

The research team then added a surfactant to the self-assembling mixture, which resulted in the seven components that make up the system breaking apart. Once the surfactant, which MIT said was similar to that used to break up the BP oil spill in the Gulf, was removed from the mixture using a membrane, the compounds spontaneously assembled once again into a perfectly formed, rejuvenated photocell.

The team then ran the cell through the same cycle of assembly and disassembly repeatedly over a 14-hour period and recorded no loss of efficiency.

Strano said that the initial experiment delivered very low levels of efficiency, because the concentration of the molecular structures in the solution was very low. However, the efficiency of each individual structure stood at around 40 per cent, double that of the most efficient solar cells currently available, while the team believes that, theoretically, the structures could reach close to 100 per cent efficiency. MIT said the team is now working on how to increase the concentration of the solution.

It is likely to take years to develop commercially available solar cells based on the technology, but the breakthrough suggests that one of the most significant technical challenges faced by emerging nanomaterial-based solar technologies could be overcome.