The Capture Storage And Utilization Of Solar Energy In The Bio-Sphere

Solar energy is a massive source of free, clean energy and is soon to outweigh fossil fuels in the energy market. The capture of solar energy is a simple practice and many households and manufactures are taking advantage of such methods. The utilization of solar energy can only be a positive thing as it has no ill effects towards the earth. Where the burning of fossil fuels has had a destructive influence on the atmosphere it is said that perhaps we have had to come this far to realize that a new way of producing energy is needed. That and the realization that fossil fuels will not last forever. A virtually 100% safe form of energy, the general populous is more accepting of solar energy rather than the use of nuclear energy which has unfortunately and sadly caused destruction to many people and many acres of land and therefore comes with a dark taint around it and in the case of where wind and wave capture visibility is low. People would nearly not know if you had solar panels on your roof. But, they would know all about your 15 meter high windmill in your back garden.

Earth receives 174 petawatts of solar radiation at any one time. When it meets the atmosphere only 16$ is absorbed and 6% is reflected. The likes of clouds dust and other pollutants i.e. the greenhouse effect dramatically reduce the intake of solar rays eventually creating a minor portion of the spectrum via ultra violet light.The absorption of solar energy by atmospheric convection and vaporization and condensation of water vapor affects the wind and water cycle of earth. Oceans absorb sunlight as do land masses and plants. The light captured by the oceans drives the thermohaline cycle and is responsible for temperature driven ocean currents and wind driven currents such as the Gulf Stream.

The solar energy absorbed by earth along with the greenhouse effect warms the surface to about 140C. A portion of solar energy is captured by plants and converted to chemical energy via photo synthesis. The flows and stores of solar energy in the environment are vast in comparison to human energy needs.There are many technologies for harnessing solar energy. Applications span through the residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural and transportation sectors. Solar energy can be used to produce food, heat, light and electricity. The flexibility of solar energy is manifest in a wide variety of technologies such as cars, calculators, etc, even torches.

The Mojave Desert contains several solar power plants which supply power to its electricity grid. Built in the 1980’s these plants have a combined capacity of 354 megawatts making them the largest instillation in the world.Insulation (solar radiation) in the Mojave Desert is among the best available in the United States, and some significant population centers are located in the area. This makes the Mojave Desert particularly suitable for solar power plants. These plants can generally be built in a few years because solar plants are built almost entirely with modular, readily available materials

Where temperatures below about 95Ð'oC are sufficient, as for space heating, flat-plate collectors of the non concentrating type are generally used. The fluid-filled pipes can reach temperatures of 150 to 220 degrees Celsius when the fluid is not circulating. This temperature is too low for efficient conversion to electricity. In concentrated solar power plants, the solar radiation is concentrated by mirrors or lenses to obtain the higher temperature.

Since concentrated solar power plants generate first heat, it is possible to store the heat before conversion to electricity. With current technology, storage of heat is much cheaper and efficient than storage of electricity. In this way, the CSP plant can produce electricity day and night. If the CSP site has predictable solar radiation, then the CSP plant becomes a reliable power plant. Reliability can further be improved by installing a back-up system that uses fossil energy. The back-up system can reuse most of the CSP plant, which decreases the cost of the back-up system.

With reliability, unused desert and no pollution or fuel costs, the only obstacle for large deployment for CSP is cost. Although only a small percentage of the desert is necessary to meet global electricity demand, still a large area must be covered with mirrors or lenses to obtain a significant amount of energy. An important way to decrease cost is the use of a simple design. During the day the sun has different positions. If the mirrors or lenses would not move, then the focus of the mirrors or lenses would change. Solar tracking devices are used to follow the plot taken by the sun on a day to day basis. The tracking system increases cost. With this in mind, the different designs can be distinguished in how they concentrate the light and track the position of the sun.Solar collectors can be mounted on a roof but need to face the sun, so a north-facing roof in the southern hemisphere and a south-facing roof in the northern hemisphere are ideal. Also they are at an angle to suit the latitude of the location. Where sunshine is readily available, a 2 to 10 square meter array will provide all the hot water heating required for a typical family house. Such systems are a key feature of sustainable housing, since water and space heating is usually the largest single consumer of energy in households.

The biosphere can be thought of as a living organism. All things living under the biosphere are included so in this sense, solar energy is an essential part of this. All living things contribute and receive contributions from the sun and basically we would not have progressed as the life forms we are now would it not have been for this. The ability to convert light energy to chemical energy is a significant evolutionary advantage to living organisms. Early photosynthetic systems are thought to have been anoxygenic, using various molecules as electron donors. Green and purple sulfur bacteria are thought to have used hydrogen and sulfur as an electron donor. Green non-sulfur bacteria used various amino and other organic acids.