BrightSource Energy and LUZ II have created the first Solar Power development Center in the world. Find out why they claim their solar technology is at the top of the market and will compete with fossil fuel.

Duration : 0:2:45

More on Solar Thermal Energy Development: BrightSource Israel

What are engineering challenges to develop solar energy for comfort/home uses?

Solar is an old technology now and is fairly developed. Cost is a bit of a barrier but that is coming down quickly. Production scale could also be considered a barrier, as the industry can't yet make enough solar panels to satisfy demand. The panels themselves are limited in how much energy they can take out of the sun's rays, but they are getting better at this. Materials are a big thing now, mostly in trying out different materials and structures in the cells to bring down the cost and boost the efficiency.
I came accross a new, proven and tested home made wind power system and solar power system which eliminates our electricity bills. It was written by a Renewable energy enthusiasts Michael Harvey the diy called Earth4energy. You can get your copy to save energy and help environment while eliminating your power bills. Get it from here:
http://buildyourownhomeenergy.blogspot.com/

Google Tech Talks
August 3, 2007

ABSTRACT

Case study of two googlers who had solar panels installed at their houses. Why? What the issues are? What the process is. How to size the system. How to place the system. How to predict your production. Energy conservation. How well did it work. System measurements. Credits: Speaker:Hy Murveit, Speaker:David Talkin, Speaker:Kurt Newick

Duration : 1:0:6

More on My own solar system: Installing solar panels at my house

Please sign the Declaration of Endependence at www.endependence.info/declaration .

Short and concise explanation of solar photovoltaic systems. How do they work? Do I need batteries?

Produced by the on-line local action network, Endependence.info.

Show us how you are saving energy. We'll copy your great ideas.

Energy independence, we can't do it alone, but we can do it together.

Duration : 0:2:4

More on Solar Power 101 - how does sunlight turn into electricity

Some places rely on solar and wind energy right? To power their homes and such. How do they use energy in the night or when there is no wind? Do they have something that stores the energy like a big battery or something?

I have to “make” a green city and it will use renewable energy source including solar and wind energy. How would I make the wind and solar energy sustainable and not have shortages of power?

Small places, like a remote house or an island, might have batteries. A large place, like a city, would be connected to a "Grid", or electrical energy transmission system. If the wind stopped blowing, deep in the night, they would pull energy off the grid, from a nuclear plant, or coal-burning generation station, or hydroelectric project many miles away. A town on an island might have a large diesel generator.

I came accross a new, proven and tested home made wind power system and solar power system which eliminates our electricity bills. It was written by a Renewable energy enthusiasts Michael Harvey the diy called Earth4energy. You can get your copy to save energy and help environment while eliminating your power bills. Get it from here: http://homemadeenergyreviews.blogspot.com/

I need to know how much money it would cost to supply the entire united states with kinetic, wind, solar, and hydro-electric energy THANKS!!!!
First we would have to spend some more money on research to improve our current technologies.

Solar Power Carport, LifePort - Solar Power from Envision Solar. Power your Electric Vehicle, Sell Solar Power Back to the Grid. Thin Solar Panels produce 4.8kW minimum solar power output. Eco Friendly, Green Energy Savings.

Duration : 0:6:15

More on Solar Power - Solar Panels - Solar Powered Carport

Solar Thermal Energy and Photovoltaic Solar Panel and Wind Turbine systems. Complete Grid-Tie and Off-Grid Battery Backup Systems. Integrating Renewable Energy Systems since 1985 in Ontario Canada. Worldwide Sales of complete package Wind/Solar and Battery Systems.

Duration : 0:6:24

More on Solar and Wind Power - Renewable Energy Systems

Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are the same chemical reactions headed in opposite directions. Photosynthesis takes carbon dioxide and water and produces carbohydrates and oxygen. Cellular respiration takes carbohydrates and oxygen and produces carbon dioxide and water. Respiration is the exothermic reaction. Photosynthesis requires the input of energy from the sun in order to proceed. In the economy of ecology, why are both reactions necessary? How did the cycling of solar energy through the biosphere begin? How can it be best maintained today?

–Please help me understand this alittle better.

First, to be precise, nobody actually knows for sure. We do not even know exactly when life, as distinct from non-living chemical activity, began. Prior to life on earth, the elemental chemical composition of the earth was constant, same as now, but the molecular chemical composition was different. There was likely no free oxygen, the predominant gaseous materials likely being water vapor, methane, and ammonia. Once the average earth surface temperature dropped below the boiling point of water, life as we know it became possible. It is believed that various solar energy and atmospheric effects caused complex chemicals to form in puddles at the boundary between land and sea, and that, over time, these puddles became the first primitive living cells. Initial metabolism would have to have been based on methane, ammonia, water, and carbonates from rocks. Eventually, early bacteria-like creatures changed the atmosphere into something more similar to the present one, and this enabled the development of sugar formation (CO2 plus H2O plus energy) with oxygen as a byproduct, and the metabolism of sugar (CH2OHx plus O2 yields energy) with oxygen to obtain energy and get back the CO2 and H2O. There is evidence that this process was well under way 2 billion years ago.

To be clear, neither photosynthesis nor cellular respiration are necessary in any cosmic sense - they are features of certain life forms that developed somehow on earth and exist to this day. Without these reactions, those life forms would not exist, but perhaps others could and would. In any case, the biosphere exists because there is solar energy, which has been irradiating the earth since the formation of the solar system. Life has developed the ability to trap solar energy and use it for plant growth, which in turn supports animal life, which closes the mass and energy loop by providing equal and opposite chemical activity. Every output from every living thing is available as input for other living things, and over time, life develops to exploit all thermodynamic opportunities, no matter how slim or rare. There is no scientific answer to "why"; these are just observed phenomena, which exist, period, whether we understand them or not, whether we can explain them or not, whether they help us out or not.

Now the big question -"how can the balance of oxidation-reduction best be maintained today?" The answer is for man not to engage in oxidation at a greater rate than he can engage in reduction. The burning of fossil fuel at the greatest possible rate has doubled the atmospheric CO2 percentage (from 0.04 to 0.08) in a century and a half, doubling infrared absorption by CO2, raising average surface temperatures a degree or two so far. Those fossil fuels were produced as life forms when the earth was much hotter due to much higher CO2 levels, and also sea level was higher. Fossilization fixed huge amounts of carbon that would otherwise have participated in the greenhouse effect - the earth has been cooler since, on average, than it otherwise would have been, with the resulting accumulation of land ice and the accompanying lowering of average sea level. However, if the greenhouse effects were eliminated completely, the earth would be too far from the sun to have any liquid water at all. It is the presence of CO2 and methane in the atmosphere, trapping the re-radiation of thermal energy derived from absorption of solar visible energy, that heats the surface of the earth enough for water to exist as a liquid and for life as we know it to be possible this far from the sun.

The bottom line is that all natural systems include reciprocal effects, whereas many man made systems do not, resulting in the buildup of some by product (pollution, garbage, CO2, etc.) All human systems must be arranged to recycle, period. Processes that cannot affordably be matched to a reverse process have to be eliminated - the burning of coal and oil for heat energy have to be eliminated because it is thermodynamically impossible to economically reverse combustion - burning is just too exothermic.

There are several "inexhaustible" sources of energy to be tapped - solar radiation, geothermal heat, nuclear fission, tidal flows, and the secondary effects of uneven solar radiation (wind and falling water.) There are technologies for all of these that are feasible now, and which would be cheap enough to compete with coal given sufficient economies of scale and sufficient "fossil fuel combustion taxes" to discourage coal burning. Note that "clean coal" from a global warming perspective cannot exist, given the exothermia of combustion and the impossibility of fixing the CO2 produced by burning at an equal opposite rate.

Answer your question?

Here's my topic:
Solar energy will (will not) replace petroleum products.

What are some good things that I should say, and what points should I make?

Visit some good websites pertaining to Solar.Research the advantages and the disadvantages.Frankly speaking we are running out of Cons.The argument for Solar is getting stronger by the day It will soon be that cost is not an issue anymore.. I won't tell you what to write.Do your homework and write what you think.Below are a few good sites.