Collecting Solar Energy

Black cobalt oxide Co O is used as a coating on high-temperature solar collectors and for this purpose is superior to black chromium coatings, often used. CO3O, can be applied by plating, by pyrolysis of cobalt salts or simply by use of paints containing cobalt oxide. More sophisticated methods are also used, e.g. vacuum deposition. 

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J. H. Ashworth, Y. M. Bihun, and M. La2ams, Universe of U.S. Commercial-Scale Anaerobic Digesters Results of SERJ/ARD Data Collection, Solar Energy Research Institute, Golden, Colo., May 30,1985 J. H. Ashworth, Problems With Installed Commercial Anaerobic Digesters in the United States Results of Site Visits, Rev. ed.. Solar Energy Research Institute, Golden, Colo., Nov. 6, 1985. 

A solar pond does not concentrate solar radiation, hut collects solar energy in the pond s water by absorbing both the direct and diffuse components of sunlight. Solar ponds contain salt in high concentrations near the bottom, with decreasing concentrations closer to the surface. This variation in concentration, known as a salt-density gradient, suppresses the natural tendency of hot water to rise, thus... 

The interfaces of importance in SECS are the solid/solid (S/S), solid/gas (S/G), and solid/ liquid (S/L) (4). The area-intensive nature of SECS components was established in the previous section. The major problem is collecting solar energy at a cost that is competitive with other energy forms. Thus, low initial cost is required for the materials, support structures, and production processes in the SECS of interest in Fig. 1 (6). This requires, for example, using thin films in mirrors, in photovoltaic systems, for antireflection coatings on windows, for passive collection, etc. in addition, these films must be made from inexpensive, durable, and easily processed materials (5). Inexpensive long-life materials in flat-plate collectors and durable, stable absorber coatings are also necessary. 

Table 1. Cost, Performance, Durability, and Design Requirements in Multilayer Stacks for Collecting Solar Energy...

Insolation (the solar energy received by an area of 1 m2) varies with the geographic location, weather, orientation of the collectors, and with diurnal and seasonal weather variations. Solar power plants have been built on all five continents, mostly in the high-insolation areas near the equator. There are also plans to collect solar energy on artificial islands in the oceans and in other locations including space stations and solar satellites. 

Mono2 A process for making silicon cells for collecting solar energy. Developed by BP Solar from 2006 and expected to be commercialized in 2007. 

The energy from the sun incident on the surfece of the earth averages 2.0 cal/(min) (cm ). It has been proposed to use space stations in synchronous orbits 36,000 km from earth to collect solar energy. How large a collection surfece is needed (in m ) to obtain 10 watts of electricity Assume that 10% of the collected energy is converted to electricity. Is this a reasonable size ... 

An idea that received quite a bit of media attention in the 1970s was to collect solar energy by means of orbiting solar power stations, which would then transmit huge quantities of electric power to Earth in microwave... 

The shape of plants is optimized to collect solar energy in the presence of other environmental constraints such as temperature and water availability. 

There is also demand for better photodetectors that range from very fast photodiodes (PDs) for communications to charge-coupled devices (CCDs) for digital cameras to solar cells that are used to collect solar energy. 

In solar colleetor, the heat pipe is used to collect solar energy from a large area and transferred to a small area where the storage liquid is heated. There is no need to circulate... 

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