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A solar still is a simple way of distilling water, using the heat of the Sun to drive evaporation from humid soil, and ambient air to cool a condenser film. Two basic types of solar stills are box and pit stills. In a pit still, impure water is contained outside the collector, where it is evaporated by sunlight shining through clear plastic.
Inherent design problems face thermal solar desalination projects. First, the system's efficiency is governed by competing heat and mass transfer rates during evaporation and condensation. [1] Second, the heat of condensation is valuable because it takes large amounts of solar energy to evaporate water and generate saturated, vapor-laden hot ...
Using the Eco-indicator 99 points system as a yardstick (i.e. the yearly environmental load of an average European inhabitant) in Greece, [71] a purely gas-driven system may have fewer emissions than a solar system. This calculation assumes that the solar system produces about half of the hot water requirements of a household.
The efficiency of a concentrating solar power system depends on the technology used to convert the solar power to electrical energy, the operating temperature of the receiver and the heat rejection, thermal losses in the system, and the presence or absence of other system losses; in addition to the conversion efficiency, the optical system ...
In a solar-thermal power plant, like those of The Solar Project or the PS10 plant in Spain, a wide field of heliostats focuses the Sun's power onto a single collector to heat a medium such as water or molten salt. The medium travels through a heat exchanger to heat water, produce steam, and then generate electricity through a steam turbine.
Solar thermal energy (STE) is a form of energy and a technology for harnessing solar energy to generate thermal energy for use in industry, and in the residential and commercial sectors. Solar thermal collectors are classified by the United States Energy Information Administration as low-, medium-, or high-temperature collectors.
NASA patented a type of solar-powered Stirling engine on August 3, 1976. It used solar energy to pump water from a river, lake, or stream. [1] The purpose of this apparatus is to “provide a low-cost, low-technology pump having particular utility in irrigation systems employed in underdeveloped arid regions of the earth…[using] the basic principles of the Stirling heat engine“.
The hybridization of solar photovoltaic with pumped storage is beneficial in rising the capability of the two plant combined because the pumped hydroelectric plant can be used to store the high but unstable amount of electricity coming from the solar PV, making the water basin acting as a battery for the solar photovoltaic plant. [53]