Why Not Use Solar Power??

1. Why Not Use Solar Power?? By: William Aban David Orozco Aaron Castile Marilyn Urena Virginia Lopez

2. About Solar Power A power company would benefit for using solar power by the follow: • Solar power is pollution free during use. Production end wastes and emissions are manageable using existing pollution controls. End-of-use recycling technologies are under development. • Facilities can operate with little maintenance or intervention after initial setup. • Solar electric generation is economically competitive where grid connection or fuel transport is difficult, costly or impossible. Examples include satellites, island communities, remote locations and ocean vessels. • When grid connected, solar electric generation can displace the highest cost electricity during times of peak demand (in most climatic regions), can reduce grid loading, and can eliminate the need for local battery power for use in times of darkness and high local demand; such application is encouraged by net metering. • Once the initial capital cost of building a solar power plant has been spent, operating costs are low when compared to existing power technologies. • Solar Panels can be rented out to costumers.

3. Solar Panels • Siemens ST Series multiple-layer CIS solar cells with 12V Output. • Boulder, CO has 5.72 solar insulation in kilowatt-hours per square meter per day. • Three Solar panels will be connected in series to produce 60 Watts (17.1V x 3.5 A) of total power.

4. How it Works • In a sunny climate, you can get enough power to run a 100W light bulb from just one square meter of solar panel. • The sunlight reaching the earth's surface is plentiful compared to average power consumed by humans. Additionally, solar electric generation has the highest power density among renewable energies. • Position the Solar Panels so that they will acquire maximum energy from a light source.

5. How it Works • Store the acquired energy into batteries, and use the batteries to control the rest of the system when the solar energy is absent. • In no-light or low-light conditions design the system to go into sleep mode so that energy is not wasted.

6. Photovoltaic cells are made of special materials called semiconductors such as silicon, which is currently the most commonly used. When light strikes the cell, a certain portion of it is absorbed within the semiconductor material. The energy of the absorbed light is transferred to thesemiconductor by placing metal contacts on the top and bottom of the PV cell, we can draw that current off to use externally. Solar cells produce DC which must be converted to AC when used in currently existing distribution grids. This incurs an energy loss of 4-12% How it Works Part 2

7. Your Solar Power System Should Last for 20-30 Years. It cost about $18,000 after incentives and solar energy rebates. The state and federal incentive program provides fifty percent of solar power energy system costs in many states. How much does it cost?

8. Who offers the product? Who Offers Solar Power • BP Solar • One of the world's leading solar companies • Akeena Solar • The Nation's Leading Solar Power Installer

9. Who already has this product? Application Type: EnergyMax™ Tracking SystemLocation: Vallejo, CA Project Completion: June 2003Project Size: 256 kilowatt (peak)Electricity Production: 460,000 kilowatt hours per year. The solar power plant is located adjacent to a city water pumping station Its designed to provide 60-80% of the station's energy requirements. Saving the city an estimated $65,000 a year. In addition to installing the system, BP operates and maintains the solar electric system on behalf of the city. Who is Using Solar Power

10. Whole Foods Market, Inc., the world's largest organic and natural foods supermarket, has become the first major food retailer in the Northeast to introduce solar energy as a power source at its Edgewater, NJ store. • Date Completed: May 2004Size / Peak Capacity: 125 kWp • Type: EnergyMax™ Roof SystemElectricity Production: 115,000 kilowatt hours per year • The State of New Jersey and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) through the New Jersey Clean Energy Program, provided a $500,000 rebate on the cost of the system. • The cost was covered by system owner A-Net Energy through BP Solar partner, SunEdison. Whole Foods Market in return agreed to purchase energy produced by the BP Solar electric system over a 20 year period at a pre-determined rate. • Whole Foods Market received a guaranteed cost of electricity from clean solar power with no capital investment required.

11. Why We Do Not Use Solar Power Now? • Solar cells are costly, requiring a large initial capital investment. • Limited power density • To get enough energy for larger applications, a large number of photovoltaic cells is needed. This increases the cost of the technology and requires a large plot of land. • Like electricity from nuclear or fossil fuel plants, it can only realistically be used to power transport vehicles by converting light energy into another form of stored energy suitable for transport.

12. Why Should We Act Now • The environment is depleting rapidly with the use of non-renewable energy sources. • The longer we wait the more it will cost. • It will cost more to change infrastructure in the future.