Solar ---> Hydrogen ---> Electricity

Solar energy to Hydrogen, to Electricity. This is the process that'll be used in future solar power plants, as I believe.

Currently, Electricity is directly generated by combustion of coal or gas, but in the case of Solar Energy it can't be done so.
Because, you know, Sunlight is generally intermittent and is unavailable at night, so a storage medium is required, which can be hydrogen. But, hydrogen, as you know, is difficult to store and is still a research topic.

If Offshore Solar concept is used then, there is no use of Hydrogen, as energy can be stored in Rig's own towers {legs}. Read the previous post to know more.
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I have nothing to write more today,
as I have to delve into some nice big books to study integration and electromagnetic waves.









And also, today was Solar eclipse. I used a pin hole camera to view it at my home. Camera was made using old ivory paper sheet rolled up and another sheet to view the projection. See what I saw,



and the apparatus;

Energy Storage >> Out in the Sea

Today, an idea developed into my mind while reading a physics chapter. Its about energy storage in the sea, to be used with the Offshore Solar {earlier post} project.

Its a quite intuitive idea. You might have observed a phenomenon while playing with water { I do it daily}, that when you try to put an inverted mug into bucket full of water, you have to push it downwards into water and it bounces back when let free.
While pushing it, you are actually trying to oppose a force applied by water from downwards. This force is called buoyant force {discovered by Archimedes}.

Now, I'm trying to visualize a similar thing, for sea.
Imagine a large and heavy hollow tower with closed top {say, a giant pipe with closed end}. Immerse this tower into sea water so that water goes inside and fills it up enough so that it floats. Lets call it "Energy tower"

This tower is now closed from the bottom too, so that water stays inside. Valves are used for opening and closing on both ends.

Imagine that we're generating huge amount of energy from the Solar Rig. To store some energy for night use we'll use a fraction of energy generated during the day to Pump out water from the Energy tower. As water is pumped out of the tower, it rises, due to buoyant force, just like a balloon rises in water, when inflated.
But, its huge weight tries to keep it down and so a very high water pressure starts to build outside the Energy Tower.

As Evening sets in, power production from the Solar Rig ceases and now, our Energy Tower comes to life.
All air and water valves are let open, and instantly, Water gushes in, with huge force.
Simply, place a water turbine at this end to produce power from the gushing water, just like turbines used in Hydro Projects {Dam}.

This I think, is an easy way to store energy at sea and it has virtually unlimited capacity.
I guess it'll work great with Solar Rigs

What do you Say? Tell us by clicking on "comments" below. I wanted to put some pictures here, but couldn't, due to lack of time. I'm preparing for college entrance tests these days.
Also, I've developed a Flash based "Easy read" feature to be used with text based sites like blogs, so that users can easily read text on screen. It's partially developed and it'll take some more time, due to my tests.

Knowing Parabolic Concentrators

This image shows a large parabolic concentrator focussing sunlight at the smaller parabola in the middle which in turn does the opposite i.e. it turns the focussed light into a parallel, but narrow beam of light.
{Click on the image for larger view; (will open in a new window)}



A word about the parabolic shape;
A Parabola is the name given basically to the shape generated when a conic section {A birthday hat oppositely placed over another} is cut by a plane {say a plane sheet of metal} along its side. Mathematical analysis of the cut surface shows a distinct property, every point on a parabolic curve is equidistant from a point and a line. The point is called Focus and the Line is called Directrix. See below.

This property of a parabolic curve leads us to an equation which is used to describe a parabola.

Where 'x' and 'y' are cartesian coordinates { see the big '+' sign in above graph, horizontal line is X-axis and vertical line is Y-axis}. And, 'f' is the focal point of the curve.


The parabolic concentrator you saw in the topmost image is an exact one. Its mathematical equation is:
If you compare this equation with the above one, you'll see that 'f' here is 5 units. So, the focal point of our parabola is 5 units.





Take a look once again, this time with the graph imposed on it {click on the image for larger view};



A parabolic concentrator needs to track the Sun to maintain focus. Sunlight at the focal point of a moderate size parabola is intense enough to cook anything.

Do you want to eat some food cooked on Sunlight, get a cooker first. For more info visit solarcookers.org

These type of reflectors are used in solar power-plants. Visit: www.energylan.sandia.gov/sunlab/overview.htm

All images in this post are my own!
Coming up in a few days a new "easy read" feature which I've developed for this blog. Reading paragraphs with the use of such technique will become very easy. It's a 'Flash' based feature.
Regular updates will continue.
Have your Say!, click on 'comments' link below.

An Entirely New Concept

The Second use of the "solar concentrating sheet" {let's call it} I discussed before (see previous post) is the generation of energy from traffic on road. I know you'd probably think I'm talking about some friction or speedbraker thing but..., here I have a totally 'out-of-this-world' idea about generation of electricity from traffic on road.

As you've read in the previous post; tiny reflectors on the sheet can align themselves to concentrate sunlight on any point in space above the sheet; visualise it like this:



Note that the reflectors are electronically aligned so as to concentrate on the focus.
Now,
imagine that the roof of the vehicles on road is covered with this kind of sheets. Then, whenever a vehicle enters a specific virtual zone marked by distinct radio waves, a reciever on this sheet sends a signal to the reflectors telling the to face the target. Sunlight falling on the roof of the vehicles gets concentrated on a point over the road.
A virtual zone marked by radio waves contains a single focus area.
Suppose that a 500 m long stretch of road comes under this virtual zone and in the middle of the stretch i.e. at 250 m there is a overhead post just like those traffic lights.
Now, if any vehicle enters this area, it's roof top sheet gets the signal to align the reflectors in such a way that sunlight is focussed on the overhead post in the middle of the stretch.

Did you get the idea?
Every vehicle entering the zone will focus sunlight on the post and an energy collector placed at the post will generate power.
So that's how we can get energy without even erecting a Solar power plant.

What are your views on this idea? You can provide feedback by clicking on the 'comments' link.
Thanks for reading. Share your ideas too!