ENG180.

02 Group TAB

How Can We Make Solar Energy Economical ?

TUNAHAN KILI AHMET YILDIZ BEREN UZUN

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Table Of Contents
............................................................................................................................................................................. 1 1) Introduction..................................................................................................................................................... 3 2) Make Solar Energy Economical ....................................................................................................................... 4 2.1) Importance to Address This Challenge..................................................................................................... 5 2.2) Current State Of The Challenge ................................................................................................................ 6 2.3) The Barriers to Solve This Challenge ........................................................................................................ 7 2.4) Benefits to Address This Challenge .......................................................................................................... 8 3) Problem Statement ......................................................................................................................................... 9 4) Search for Solutions ...................................................................................................................................... 10 4.1) Curved Panel Method............................................................................................................................. 10 4.2) Making Your Own Solar Panels .............................................................................................................. 11 4.3) Moving Panel Method ............................................................................................................................ 12 5) Methods ........................................................................................................................................................ 14 5.1) Pughs Method ....................................................................................................................................... 14 5.2) Pahl and Beitz Method ........................................................................................................................... 14 6) Improved Solution ......................................................................................................................................... 15 7) Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 16 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................................................... 17

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1) Introduction
Since old centuries, innovations of engineering have world-wide effects on humans lives and their thoughts, but the most important effects of these innovations are to cause ending the centuries and entering new centuries. In these days, people cannot catch up on newnesses of technology, because technology is evolving in an unstoppable way. With the help of evolving technology, peoples life style and their view of life are changing. Also, their demands for life are changing day by day. Nowadays, most of the people are still using fossil fuels for their household needs and in other fields, but fossil sources cannot be used everytime as the need of energy in the world is increasing everyday. Therefore, fossil energy sources cause air and water pollution although they can be found easily. They not only cause pollution but also cause to destroy natural resources, to increase a rate of global warming and to cause some health problems. So, engineers try to reduce these effects of problems through introducing solar energy to us. This energy source is renewable, sustainable and harmless by contrast with fossil fuels. It is used capturing the rays of sun and it can be stored and used when it is required. As we known, fossil fuels will be consumed and it is also harmful because of that poeple have to use alternative energy type which is solar energy. But it is not easy that it looks like. Because, installation price of solar panels which capture rays of sun is too expensive although it is cheaper than fossil fuels in long terms. As a result, Ahmet Yldz, Beren Uzun and Tunahan Kl who are the members of group TAB try to make solar energy economical and to increase utilization rate of it. We do researches about the topic and we will try to create good and effective solutions fort his challenge.

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2) Make Solar Energy Economical

Sun, as an energy source is so powerful that it cannot be compared with any kind of energy source that is produced by human technology. To verify that fact, we can consider the fact that the energy acquired by sun produces 10.000 times more energy than commercial energy sources used by people, although world is exposed only a little bit of sunlight. [8] Despite its importance on people's lives, and the fact that it is used world-widely and improving day by day with a market measured by billion dollars, it still has a 1 % percentage of energy production in the world. [8] However fossil fuels which are used often in our day, cannot be used everytime as the need of energy in the world is increasing everyday. And coal energy sources cause air and water pollution although they can be found easily. Solar energy brings great results and has great advantages in long term. But charging solar energy is not so easy to produce although it is free. Such as absorbing it, making it usable and storing it. Usually, solar panels made of silicone and their productivity is between 10-20 %. [8] It may seem low, but expected level for future is really promising. In our day, solar batteries' productivity is 31 %, because their material is silicone. But it is expected that it will reach 34 % with new materials and it goes beyond 40 %, with experimental batteries. [8] According to the recent experiment reports, the usage of nano-cristal substance provides great advantages. In regular batteries, electricity is produced out of moving photon, but a heat that is not used emerges. But batteries that have nano-cristal substances produces an another electron instead of heat and it helps the electric current production. New materials that can be used for solar batteries can reduce the cost of production. The cost of solar energy, can make great differences with innovative steps in the field of the materials of solar battery, science and technology. The most important point on the production of solar batteries is the purity of the materials. Because in our day, it is necessary for solar batteries to be highly pure. Because the materials that are not pure, can block the electric current. But if charge has a short distance, that can be solved by the thin surface of the material. On the other hand, thin material may not be able to absorb the solar energy that is required for the start. For this problem thin materials which can absorb light and intense can be used. That can be done with small cylinders and nanodros. For gaining affordable and efficient electricity, energy must be stored. But the biggest problem is the duration of the usage of solar energy. Because this is too short, it must be stored at nights and other necessary times. There are many projects on this subjects (such as production of large batteries), but these technologies encountered many problems. Such as the lack of the materials that is used in production of these. But if the quantity of the materials is increased, this problem can be solved. An other solution is using photosynthesis for producing fuels. For example, sunlight can produce hydrogen as a fuel with the electrolysis of water. But for this, improved chemical reactions and catalysts produced by engineers are necessary. Natural catalysts and enzymes, can produce hydrogen more efficiently than industrial ones. Developing catalysts, improves solar productions and fuel storage systems which makes solar energy more economical. And fuel parts have different advantages too, such as easy allocation. If engineers can develope the electricity production from solar energy, with the help of lowering the prices and easy emission, solar energy usage will definitely get more common than fossil energy sources, and other sources which make our civilization's lives more comfortable.

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2.1) Importance to Address This Challenge

The wave power, wind, biomass and hydroelectricity are the outputs of solar energy which are the accessible renewable energy that is existing on the earth. Although human beings have used the solar energy since old ages, it is used a little quantities the resources of solar energy. So, this situation has bad effects on the environment and natural resources because of the people who still use the fossil fuels for their needs. Contrasting to the fossil fuels, solar energy have huge amount of affirmative and helpful effect on us and the environment and also, it does not cause overly harmful pollutions that are in charge of the greenhouse effect which raises the rate of global warming. The usage of solar energy not only reduces the amount of environmental pollution and the waste of toxic substances, but also prevent the depletion of natural energy resources. Moreover, the best aspect about solar energy is that it is a renewable source of energy, which means that it is always existing on the earth endlessly as compared with oil, coal etc. Other aspects of solar energy are it is ultra clean, natural and a sustainable source of energy that we can exploit in the usage of making solar electricity , solar heating equipments, solar lighting equipments and solar cooling equipments. Except us, solar energy is incredibly essential for organisms to survive and it is necessary for photosynthesis, the process which plants produce energy and nutrients for their growth by converting solar light. Through this event, food is generated for other creatures along with oxygen for us to breath and permutation of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to balance World temperature and body temperature. As can be seen, whole living creatures from small to large are related with each others. These happening events between them provide all creatures with opportunity for living. In other words, unless the sequence of this process occurs, livings of creatures can be affected badly. In summary, while the climate is changing and causing the serious problems, it seems one of the best options is to create the use of solar energy as, we kill our planet because of the emission levels of carbon dioxide by using fossil fuels. Also, using solar energy provides us with clean nature, a life where we are not worried about the reducing resources. As a result, making solar energy economical is important to address and promote the rate of usage of solar energy in order to save natural resources and protect our world.

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2.2) Current State Of The Challenge

Today, many opportunities to benefit from solar energy technology has been developed and are continues to be developed. Common cause, is the direct use of heat and light energy. With solar chimneys, we can use electrical energy. But scientists want to use the energy of the sun more efficiently. There are some solar energy sources that are explored but not used often. These were acquired from Spain, France, Germany and U.S.A because, they have high technologies about solar energy. Especially U.S.A is the leader of it. In their states, thermal power energy systems still exist. In addition, by 2020 in China, the biggest solar energy plant will be established by American companies. Except these countries, the other countries need more energy so they are dependent to solar power. According to the international energy agency grid parity- equalization of the price of electricity produced from solar panels and the use of electricity price , does not seem difficult to achieve. By looking at the path maps, we can understand that by 2020, grid parity will be reached, and in 2030, it will be equivalent with the technology we use in our age. Our day, scientists are doing researches about deserts. This researches aim to produce energy for bigger cities, provided by deserts.

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2.3) The Barriers to Solve This Challenge

To make the solar energy we required to have the necessary materials and the appropriate temperature. The main obstacle to this topic is because the panels which used are very expensive. At the same time the materials which is used need to be pure, so this makes it difficult to find these materials. In addition, people are not moderate about the idea of using solar energy because of the cost of the producing and the building parts. However, the builders and the architects do not prefer this system when they organize a new home as the newness of the idea. Because, the advertising of solar energy and its benefits are not made sufficiently in there. In fact, this handicap creates another handicap in this subject. Beyond that the states are composing another problem, because they do not permit enough facilities to the people to establish their own systems and that is why the people are not moderate to this idea.

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2.4) Benefits to Address This Challenge

There are many advantages of using solar energy such as economical, environmental and social. The major advantage of solar energy is the money saving. All you have to pay is the installation costs of solar energy panels on top of the roofs of buildings to capture the rays of sun. It is installed easily and once it has been installed, solar power is essentially free. It does not need any extra payment without start-up costs. Solar energy is both cheap and silent producer of energy.
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According to the statistics released by World Health Organization (WHO), the effects of climate

change leads to the death of 160.000 people per year and the rate is estimated to be doubled by 2020. Solar energy is a kind of environment-friendly technology. While fossil fuels create large amounts of CO2 which cause global warming, alternative energy sources such as solar power generate zero CO2 emissions. In other words, solar power does not create any polluting emissions. Therefore it is commonly called as "clean energy" or "green energy". It is a natural source of energy that can be used to heat water, to light the places, to cook the meals. Thus, it is not damage the health of future generations. Not only is solar energy sustainable but also is renewable and this means it never runs out. It can be placed in virtually every geographical region where the sun is available. Therefore, it goes on producing electricity as long as sun is shining. Solar energy has also some social benefits. t creates brand new energy economy. Moreover, it decrease dependence on foreign sources such as fossil fuels. As it is used where it is generated. Inspite of the advantages that is mentioned above, this source of energy is used only about 1.5%of world. [8] As long as technology develops, renewable energies become widespread all over the World and get more cost effective. All in all, making solar energy economical affects thoughts of people about using solar energy in a positive way. So, it is very beneficial for saving money, protecting to world and natural resources and also, to protect people from death which is caused by climate change.

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3) Problem Statement
How can we make solar energy economical for people who live around the Mojave Desert, California which is the biggest solar power plant?

The reason that we choose the Mojave Desert for our project is it is one of the hottest spots for solar energy. Also, Mojave Desert is the biggest solar power plant with nearly one million parabolic mirrors to track the sun and powers 232,500 homes and saves 3,800 tons of fossil fuel pollution per year. However, The $2 to $3 billion dollar deal provides options for additional plants (up to 900 megawatts total), which would be enough to power 375,000 Californian homes.[1] Californias Mojave desert shows world-class potential to produce clean, efficient and beneficial solar power for citizens. There are lots of agreements with big companies like Bright Source to improve Mojave Desert solar power plant. The first plan for 2011 is to build new solar power plant which produce 246,000 megawatt hours of renewable electricity per year.

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4) Search for Solutions

4.1) Curved Panel Method
In these days, solar energy is not widely used because it is expensive and not efficient. Many people are working on this problem and one of them is our group TAB. Materials of production solar energy are very expensive. Firstly, we think that we should make it cheaper. In current technology that we use most popular production sources are solar panels, because it is partially cheaper, so we are working on solar panels. The working principle of this method is as follow; Solar panels convert the sunlight into electricity directly. Panels absorbs the sunlight then electrons seperates from the atoms then current electricity occurs. With connection paralel or serial, we can product electrical energy.

Nowadays, people are using flat solar panels commonly, but it is not efficient. We think that we can create a new design like using dish solar panels. Purpose is this,absorbing more solar waves. For this purpose we should build curved panels to catch the waves. More absorbation means more electricity. If we perform it well, we can achieve our goal.

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4.2) Making Your Own Solar Panels

Nowadays, the world is on a crisis and all of us are facing hard economical times. During this situation, making change in our life will be very economical about paying high amount of electricity bills. Although, solar power is free and can provide people enough electricity to power their electrical equipments, its installation expense costs a lot of money. Generally, an average requires 20-30 solar panels for adequate electric supply, so it is worth to make own solar panels. Cost of materials of making own solar panels (D.I.Y Do It Yourself Solar Panel) which are needed to build our own panels is $200 and sometimes, even less than that. In other words, we are able to save approximately $20.000 by making our own solar panels at home. Also, there are lots of tutorials by the experts on the internet for people who do not know how to build their own solar panels. People need solar cells, plywood, plexiglass, copper wire and unleaded solder to build their own solar cells in these days. However, in our project, we use same cost or less than now and effective materials. We use best conductive material, silver wire, instead copper wire. With the help of it, we contribute to energy transportation on the solar panels. For now, unleaded solders are used to make D.I.Y solar panels which are not cheap and effective. Instead of this, we use leaded solders which is very cheap and more effective while making solar panels. As we mentioned that people are able to save approximately $20.000 in these days, but with our project, people can save more than $20.000 compared to now.

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4.3) Moving Panel Method

Making solar energy can be more efficient and cheaper by increasing efficiency of solar panels. We can enrich photovoltaic (PV) which is used solar energy. Solar panels can make more efficient to photovoltaic cells with lenses by focusing sun. Firstly, we put the system under the panel to move. This system moves by the sunlights coming angle to left and right so lenses can more benefits from sunlight. The reason of we chose to glasses layer in a shape of circle with this step we can put more glasses layer in our panel. Also by the yearly movements of the sun we can move panel up and down to provide more benefit. For example, if we move panel to left and right, we make Panel of Cuess. This panel produce to 2100 watt (400 watt for electrical energy and 1700 watt for heat lead.) It makes the efficiency of this panel from 18% to 50%. However, new panel which will be produced by us increase these rates more than Panel of Cuess. [14]

LENS

PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL STRING

HEAT EXCHANGER

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Buy from the grid Import meter

AC/DC Inverter

Fusebox

Export meter Sell back to the grid

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5) Methods
5.1) Pughs Method
Solution 1 Solution 2
Feasibility Efficiency Economic Production Period Impressive Usability Plusses Same As Minuses S S S S S S 0 6 0 + _ + _ _ S 2 1 3

Solution 3
S + + _ + S 3 2 1

5.2) Pahl and Beitz Method

Solution 1 Criteration Feasibility Efficiency Economic Production Period Impressive Usability W 0.1 0.1 0.35 0.2 0.05 0.2 = 1.0 NV1 3 3 2 4 3 3 W.NV1 (3)(0.1) (3)(0.1) (2)(0.35) (4)(0.2) (3)(0.05) (3)(0.2) = 2.85 NV2 4 2 3 2 2 3

Solution 2 W.NV2 (4)(0.1) (2)(0.1) (3)(0.35) (2)(0.2) (2)(0.05) (3)(0.2) = 2.75 NV3 3 4 3 2 4 3

Solution 3 W.NV3 (3)(0.1) (4)(0.1) (3)(0.35) (2)(0.2) (4)(0.05) (3)(0.2) = 2.95

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6) Improved Solution
Under the influence of criterias which we determined with the methodsof Pughs and Pahl and Beitz, we chose Moving Panel Method for our aim. We aim to get more efficiency compared to old systems with the help of our new brand system. At the first step, we put lenses on the panels. Thus, when the lens refract the all sunlight whatever it is angles are our panel can absorbe more sunlight. Also we put the system under the panel. This system provides to us rotational accommodation like moving to left , right, up and down. In this way, the panel by the daily movement of the sun will increase efficiency which is taken by moving to right and left. The panel whisch move up and down is about the annual movement of the sun. So, people where they live in both polar on the world can benefit sunlight the most efficient way, when the sunlight comes to the earth with narrow angles. As widely known, this problem is the most important barrier for making solar energy economical. We overcome the problem with our system. Also, single troughs which stand tos ide layer of the panel that is made in a shape of circle by us unlike the examples that is tried before. Thus , we put more single troughs on the same plate system by decreasing area of the single troughs. For examples, if we jus the panel to right and left, we made panel of cuess. This panel produce to 2100 watt (400 watt for electrical energy and 1700 watt for heat lead). It makes this panel from 18 % to 50 %. New panel which will be produce by us increase these rates more than panel of cuess.

Single Trough

LENS

PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL STRING

HEAT EXCHANGER

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7) Conclusion
Finally, solar energy is high cost type of energy. Although it is free and sustainble, all expenses of the solar energy emerge from installation cost of the system. So, in these days, many people do not prefer to use solar energy because it is expensive.

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REFERENCES
1. "Solar Energy - Solar Power - Renewable Energy World." Renewable Energy World - Renewable
Energy News, Jobs, Events, Companies, and More. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/tech/solar-energy>. 2. "Benefits of Solar Energy." Benefits of Solar Energy. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://www.solarbenefits.info/>. 3. "Energy Saving - Solar Energy Advantages & Disadvantages." SunEdison Solar Electricity - The Solar Energy Company. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://www.sunedison.com/benefits--solar-energy-savingsadvantages-disadvantages.php>. 4. "Why Solar Energy - Importance of Solar Energy." Renewale Energy Sources - Solar Power Technology - Energy Renewable Sources. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://www.solarpowernotes.com/why-solarenergy.html>. 5. "Solar Energy." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy>. 6. "Solar Energy." The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia UP, 2008. Credo Reference. 7 Nov. 2008. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <http://www.credoreference.com/entry/columency/solar_energy>. 7. "WHO | Climate Change." Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://www.who.int/topics/climate/en/>. 8. "Make Solar Energy Economical - Engineering Challenges." Grand Challenges for Engineering. 2007. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9082.aspx>. 9. "Worlds Largest Solar Power Plant Coming To CA Mojave Desert Mojave4 Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World." Inhabitat | Design For a Better World! Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://inhabitat.com/mojave-desert-solar-power-fields/mojave4/>. 10. "Gne Paneli alma Prensibi - Gne Panelleri - Gne Enerjisi - Laterna Enerji." Laterna EnerjiAlternatif Enerji Kaynaklar-Yenilenebilir Enerji-Temiz Enerji. Web. 18 Dec. 2011. <http://www.laek.com.tr/gunes-enerjisi/gunes-panelleri>. 11. "How to Build Cheap Solar Panels." How to Make Solar Panels. Web. 18 Dec. 2011. <http://gomakesolarpanels.com/how-to-build-cheap-solar-panels/>. 12. How to Build Your Own Solar Panels Cheap, Easily, Super Efficient, Diy System. Web. 18 Dec. 2011. <http://buildyourownsolarpanelscheap.com/>. 13. How to Make Solar Panels. Web. 18 Dec. 2011. <http://gomakesolarpanels.com/>. 14. Quick, Darren. "Solar Panels Made Three times Cheaper and Four times More Efficient."Gizmag | New and Emerging Technology News. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://www.gizmag.com/cuess-solarpanel-photovoltaic/14507/>.

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