How to generate Electricity
99What is Electricity?
Essentially, there are two kinds of Electricity: Static Electricity and Current Electricity. Both depend on electrons, the tiny charged particles that orbit the nucleus of an atom.
Static Electricity has been known about since earliest times, though it was not properly understood until the discovery of subatomic particles a little over a hundred years ago.
Static Electricity on a large scale causes lightning and on a much smaller scale can give you an annoying shock when you step out of a car. You can generate it simply by combing your hair with a nylon comb. The electrical charge transferred to the comb will cause it to attract the hair, or, if you like, to pick up little scraps of paper to entertain the kids.
Though interesting, static electricity is of limited practical use. For the remainder of this hub, we'll concentrate on current electricity which is a flow of electrons through a conductor (usually a copper cable).
Michael Faraday
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Michael Faraday Father of Electronics
Price: $1.95
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The Modern Alternator
Faraday's electrical machines were laboratory experiments. Technology has developed his ideas dramatically. The modern alternator does not use permanent magnets but an energised coil instead, to produce the magnetic field. Also, his invention has been turned inside out, with the field coils mounted on the armature (now called the rotor) and the electrical current induced on the stationary coils (the stator). There are normally three stationary windings in the stator, spaced 120° apart, to produce 3-phase alternating current, the modern standard for distribution.
A Little Science
But first, we need to talk a bit about Energy. In Physics, Energy is defined as the ability to do Work. (Everyday examples of Work are: climbing stairs, loading a truck. anything that involves moving mass).
Some of the common types of energy are: heat, light, kinetic energy (movement), chemical energy, gravitational energy and of course. electrical energy.
In Physics, the Law of Conservation of Energy says that energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transformed from one type to another. This means that to generate electricity, we have to use another kind of energy to fuel the process - in this World you don't get something for nothing!
Michael Faraday
In the 19th Century, Michael Faraday carried out the pioneering work that linked Electricity and Magnetism. In particular, he showed that an electrical current is generated in a conductor moving in a magnetic field.
The effect is greatly magnified if the conductor is replaced with a coil or coils of copper wire. If these coils are mounted on a rotating shaft or armature, continuous rotation will produce a continuous alternating electrical current. This is how nearly all electricity is generated today.
Now that we have a device (the generator, or alternator) that converts mechanical energy (rotation) into electrical energy, the next problem is how to obtain the mechanical energy to keep the alternator spinning. Here is a brief summary of some of the viable ways of generating electricity on a commercial scale.
The Commercial Options
Fossil Fuels
In a coal or oil fired power station, the fuel is burned (converting its chemical energy into heat) and the heat used to convert water into steam at very high temperature and pressure. This then drives a steam turbine, a device which harnesses the energy in the steam (heat and pressure) to produce rotational movement (mechanical energy). The rotating shaft of the steam turbine is coupled to the armature of the alternator, so the final result is electricity.
Wind Power
Windmills have been around for centuries and all have harnessed the energy of moving air (wind!) through rotating sails or fan blades. Traditionally, the mechanical energy was used directly, to turn a mill wheel. A modern wind turbine simply couples the rotating shaft to an alternator armature. The last link in the chain is always the same - electricity from mechanical rotation.
Hydro Electric Power
Here, the source energy (there always has to be one!) is gravitational potential energy. A mountain stream is dammed in a high place, to create an artificial lake or reservoir. Farther down the mountain, the power station is equipped with water turbines. These are simply highly efficient versions of the old fashioned water-wheel; effectively they harness the kinetic energy of a carefully channelled waterfall to produce mechanical rotation. The rest you know.
Tidal Power and Wave Power
These new technologies extract energy from the long-term bulk movement of water in a tidal estuary and from the short-term wave motion of the surface. The principle remains the same, to harness the 'free' natural energy in moving water to drive a mechanical turbine.
Solar Power - local
In a sense. all energy on Earth is solar energy, as even fossil fuels are chemical 'memories' of ancient sunshine. But we're talking here about generating electricity from solar energy, and strangely enough, it's not very easy. The problem is that you can't easily convert sunshine into mechanical rotation to drive alternators on a commercial scale. Solar panels have no moving parts, and so the electricity they produce is 'DC' or direct current. This is like the electricity from a battery. It's great for local use, e.g. running a small irrigation pump, but the big problem with DC is that it is hard to distribute. (No time to explain that now - maybe another hub!)
Solar Power - commercial
Photovoltaic units, as described above, are best suited to localised applications like space or water heating. However, commercial-scale solar power plants, though still expensive to build, are becoming viable, the more so as the price of fossil fuels increases.
No single design for commercial solar power has yet won through, but all are based on the same idea - a large array of reflectors to collect the sun's rays and focus them onto a receiver which is effectively pipe-work containing a heat-absorbing fluid. Technologies are already well developed to store the collected energy as heat and to convert it to electricity using steam or gas turbines at a steady rate, night and day. The biggest problem is that the sun moves (OK, the Earth rotates!) and so ingenious tracking mechanisms are needed to make the reflectors follow the sun through the daylight hours.
Ironically, the part of the world best suited for deploying this technology is the part that least needs it - the oil rich deserts of the Middle East.
Geothermal Energy
This is another underdeveloped source. If you drill down into the Earth's crust, at first the temperature drops, because the sun's warmth can't penetrate. But deeper, the temperature rises. Volcanoes are evidence of this - molten lava is pretty hot! That well of energy is there to be tapped. As always, the final conversion process is the familiar steam turbine. And, like solar energy, it is environmentally friendly, provided you don't accidentally trigger a local volcano! But it is not as simple as it seems. The process of taking heat from a hot rock cools the rock locally. There's plenty more heat surrounding it, but can it flow quickly enough to your collectors? Again, it's another technology whose time will come, but not a panacaea.
Nuclear Energy
This is the controversial one. Nuclear fission is a process in which unstable (radioactive) atomic nuclei break down, releasing energy in the form of radiation (escaping particles). By concentrating these nuclei together, a controlled chain recation is produced releasing huge amounts of energy which is used to convert water into steam. The process of generating electricity in a nuclear power plant is simply by steam turbine, exactly the same as in a fossil fuel plant. The public fear of nuclear power is twofold: the risk of meltdown - an uncontrolled nuclear reactor is not very different from an 'atomic' bomb; also the by-product, radioactive nuclear waste, is none too pleasant.
As an aside - Nuclear energy does not obey the classical Physics law of conservation of Energy. It does however obey the Modern Physics law of conservation of Mass-Energy which allows for interconversion of matter and energy according to Einstein's famous equation E=mc² This fundamental difference means that Nuclear Energy is potentially the most fruitful source of all. It is important that proper scientific research & development into nuclear energy, and Nuclear Fusion in particular, should be allowed to continue.
More hubs by Paraglider
- How to generate Electricity
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Living and working abroad is not for everyone, but if you have a touch of the pioneering spirit and a skill to offer, you could do worse than spend a few months in the Middle East. - 2 years ago
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Comments
Thanks Isabella, and for the diversity comment in another place!
This is fantastic! An entire lesson encapsulated in a hub!
Thanks Livelonger. It was a fun one to write too.
Thank you for a very informative hub.
My pleasure - thanks for commenting!
Very informative -- Many thanks. I believe, however, that a solar plant in a predominantly sunny area could serve the same function as a nuclear plant as long as adequate energy storage for non-daylight hours was available. I am talking about a heat collecting system rather than a primary electrical conversion.
you also might want to check out this url (one of many on the subject).
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/01
If this invention pans out solar technology has just taken a huge leap forward.
OneShot - yes. Heat collection systems e.g. those based on an array of large ground-based reflectors focusing solar rays onto a large conversion plant high on a tower block, are very interesting, and far more practical than local photovoltaic panels. They are weather dependent though, and not viable everywhere. Thanks for the link.
Very good hub, Paraglider. You have given much information within this short space. People are talking about solar energy for a long time now, but still it is not used to it full potential. I wonder even in countries like UAE where I live now, and sun light is available eccessively, it is not used properly. At least now the newly introduced parking meters are powered by solar cells.
Thanks Rmnathan, and welcome back - haven't 'seen' you for a few weeks. Large scale solar conversion is still expensive, but it's got to come. And you're right - there's no shortage of sunshine in Sharjah!
What a great hub. I like learning things and I'm glad I found your hubpage. I wish I could find more like this. Well, back to the search!
Thanks for telling me, dc64. It's always nice to be appreciated! Good hunting :)
do you have any thoughts on tesla?
Tesla was brilliant of course and a great inventor. He moved things forward in so many areas. But he was a good hundred years later than Faraday. Tesla helped to kick-start the modern age (i.e. 20th Century). I suppose Faraday was more of a scientist and Tesla more of a technologist.
Thanks for this Excellent article. I recently started selling the Forever Flashlight which uses The Faraday Principle of Electromagnetic Energy and I was wondering who Faraday was and how the Forever Flashlight worked. I came upon your Hub yesterday and found this article explaining it. I have made a link to this Hub from my webpage: http://volumediscountsonline.biz/HomeCarBoat.php Please review this and approve of my link. Thanks again, Steve
Thanks Steve - an earlier version of the flashlight used a tungsten bulb and a sort of hand crank to spin a miniature alternator to keep it lit. But because tungsten lighting is so inefficient, you had to keep pumping to keep the light shining. So not very practical (but good exercise!) The LED version makes sense.
I sell solar products also. I am interested in the Solar 12v battery charger. I would like to hook it up to my Water Pump and pump water out of the creek instead of usng County water (save on my water bill plus we have an extreme water drought here; we could run out of water). Could I use the solar panel to charge a car battery and at the same time hook the battery up to the electrical plug on my water pump and run it that way?
In principle, yes, but only if the water pump is a 12 volt model. Also, the charger is likely to deliver less charging current than the water pump consumes under load. So you could not use the pump continuously. Just as an example - if the charger delivers 0.5 Amps and the pump draws 2 Amps (both at 12 Volts), then you would need four hours of charging for every one hour of pumping.
Having just looked at your page - the bigger of the two chargers is only 5 Watts (which is just over 0.4 Amps at 12 Volts). Check the rating of your water pump. If it's 25 Watts your looking at 5 hours charging for 1 hour pumping.
Great energetic informative hub;)
Thanks C-S :)
Energy is defined as the ability to do work. So, the Creator of the Universe, in making all of this energy that we see since the Big Bang was really about doing work. Since everything in the universe is energy, then the entire meaning of the universe is the limitless ability to do work. We humans have such a poor power of understanding. It's fun to revisit these simpler days in the scientific thought process. Albert Einstein said. "Religion without Science is short-sighted. But, Science without Religion is blind."
Mike - thanks for commenting. You'll forgive me if I don't comment on your views on Creation. I don't feel qualified to make a definitive statement!
I absolutely love you hub. I am an electricity,magnetism freak. Awesome...
You mentioned Faraday and it reminded me a tragedy that happened with poor Farady when he first dicovered electricity.People used to ask him what would he
get from that electricity that he could not show us and what purpose it had.He always replied what purpose your coming baby had.
Newton's Rival & topstuff - thank you, both, for these positive comments :)
Good one…
Thanks for sharingvery good thanks...
best of the web (that's quite a name!) and youtube - thanks both :)
what is electron
Electrons are tiny charged particles that orbit the nucleus of an atom, rather like the the way the planets orbit the sun. That's an oversimplification, but OK for starters. Electric Current is a flow of electrons, usually in copper wire, but many other conductors exist.
this web help me alot for my electronics research
Very informative hub! I've always been facinated with electrical tools and equipment, my dad being an electrical engineer. My mom wants me to be a nurse though so here I am taking up nursing. You might find this site about getting an electrician course interesting: http://www.electricianweb.com/electrician-course.h As an electrician, you get to work closely with electricity. I would have pursued this course or that of my dad's if things had gone differently. Cheers!
They had an interview on Science Friday on NPR a few weeks ago about commerical scale solar power plants that were being built in the desert that, as you point out above, convert the solar to hear and power something like normal turbines. I found it quite encouraging since it seems like a way to harness solar that is not totally out of the mainstream, and could be cost competitive in the not too distant future.
Cecile - good luck with the nursing!
John - Yes, these large scale conversion plants are springing up especially in desert areas. It's a good technology.
need more info on solar cells, its for my project...assignment thingy!!
whats a hub??
i have nooo idea what it means?
can any one here tell me?
'. echo "HI" .'
melody - you have to do your own research, or ask a specific question. 'More info on solar cells?' OK, they don't smell of turpentine. Do half the work before asking for help woth the second half :)
fantastic...many information and knowledge...
what is thisssssssss..........cannot understand
but thanks.it helps me during physics...
An excellent essay. However, I must take issue regarding nuclear energy. Barring a discovery verging on the miraculous nuclear energy will never be worth the risks in both production and waste disposal. The astronomical costs are also prohibitive. Beyond that it’s simply not necessary. Solar, wind and maybe a little geothermal are all that we need. Here is a new development that you should find of particular interest.
CWB - thanks. Nuclear technology should have been more advanced by now than it is, but it has had a (deservedly) bad press which has militated against research. Solar collection in the most suitable places coupled with the new technologies for long distance DC distribution is also looking very strong.
Interesting read!
Very timely topic, as Ohio is without electricity for a week, thanks to the idiots at AEP Ohio. Time for alternative power - -and an alternative power company. Adios, AEP. You stink!
Very good summary paraglider.
vietnamese_translator, esocial, talford - thanks for commenting. Here in the Middle East, power cuts are fairly rare but when they happen in summer it gets very nasty. With no air conditioning, houses quickly reach sauna temperatures in the relentless desert sun. Our power cuts are caused by poor maintenance, as there's no shortage of cash!
hello again paraglider...you material is so professional and on center, that it is self-evident...i am grateful to have the priviledge of being a recipient...pylos26
Thanks pylos26, and welcome.
Paraglider,
I can't think how I've not seen this hub before, as I've looked at so many that talk about energy, and alternative energy, but this is a great hub, explained in language that even I can understand!
You may have seen in the British news that more new coal-fired generators are planned, and it seems as though Green Energy is back on the back-burner in the face of Britain's escalating energy requirements. I'd love to see a more determined effort to use solar and wind powered energy in the UK, but I do understand that the density of our population, and our frequently indifferent weather probably makes this just an idealists fantasy.
Hi Amanda - yes, in UK it's the densely populated SE that uses most of the energy. Scotland has a better balance with hydroelectric power contributing. But nowadays it's not so easy to get agreement to dam a river to create artificial lakes. Lots of environmental issues raise their heads.
Very interesting Paraglider and well done. More specifically, have you ever wrote a hub about solar power generation in the Middle East as I think that would be very interesting.
Hi SweetiePie - thanks for the idea. There have been a few flagship projects here, but it's still not the norm because gas/oil is so cheap. (Cheaper than water in many places!)
shut up u squars
the enviroment is being damaged pwb
Garry & Mark - thank you for your considered offerings!
pitar-hub - you're welcome to comment again, but please don't post links to commercial websites. Thanks.
I have seen some website which mention home made solar electricity kits not sure how effective they are. Good hub and hopefully we have largescale cheaper/cleaner/greener electricity in the near future.
countrywomen - they can be effective, especially in sunny climates of course. Thanks for commenting.
that's great. Nevertheless, I couldn't help wondering why paraglider is writing on power. Any inputs?
paragliders are polymaths ;)
Shocking indeed! I mean high voltages are. :)
Hi Paraglider, an excellent hub indeed! It was like a refresher course for me. I was a great admirer of Faraday, Ampere, and the rest. It was nice to see a picture of Michael Faraday after many years. I believe it was Volta who made the first wet cell battery, by sandwitching strips of blotting paper dipped in salt water, between copper and zinc coins.
Previously I was not aware of how radioactive substances produced electricity. I was under the impression that when radioactivity was focussed on to a junction where two unlike metals were brought close together, a current was induced.
Thanks for enlightening us. :)
Hi Quicksand - you're right. The 'voltaic pile' was a wet cell pile of dissimilar coins. Thanks for the read & comments.
I am proposing that "LOVE is an energy" and it is producing life...which is making as alive... another kind of energy which we must recognize and acknowledge.
Paraglider.. Great Work... All about Energy at a single place.. looking forward for more articles...thanks
Dear Paraglider,
It (How to generate Electricity)seems to be very much informative and interesting one. I enjoy it and learned a lot about the generation of electricity.
Anyway, can you feed me the difference between a `engine' and `machine,
Thanks.
A Machine is any device that can do work. The simplest machine is a lever.
Engine usually means a machine that uses fuel to produce mecanical energy, e.g. steam, oil and petrol engines.
Dang, you went and brought up that pesky first law of Thermodynamics, there goes my plan for a perpetual motion machine. ;)
Seriously, very, very well explained.
Thanks BD - Thermodynamics puts the damper on most something for nothing schemes!
no good to me
this really inspires me to read more about it.
Thanks alot
what is the best way to generate electricity
There is no single best way. It depends on the scale of the operation and the available resources.
thanks but what are some good recomended ways
by that i mean efficient ways
by the way this is a good website
In the right environment, solar plants win out and are eco friendly after the initial installation.
This is great! It really helped me with my school project! But don't worry, I won't plagurize!
well this site sucks!!!! jk. me and c are students at osu. we LOVE this site. were doing a project on electricity aone!!nd this is the best site yet, besides this one other one. its WAY better than this
Sorry Paraglider. My friends are kinda rude. I am working ALONE! Well with my Boyfriend Drew W.
I LOVE CHRISTIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
=)
I'm the student council president, and i think this site is good. you did a good job.
If you make anymore sites heres my number~
614-575-0877
wat up peeps. shout out 2 acadia and anna. go to this site it rocks. everybody should use this site. by the way the girl with the naked photo is gross and innapropiate. kids use this site!!!
OK guys - you're all writing from the same IP address. Unless you've got a sensible contribution to make I'll delete you from now on. Have fun :)
f.y.i paraglider i am doing a project on electricity. and i have told all my friends to go here. i am not just writing random things!! so BACK OFF!!!
i have a question. how old are you? because theres some NASTY things on here!
~?!?!?!?!?!99
Dear Paraglider, i am sorry u think that we r just playing around. that is my friend writing the stuff about going to osu. i ma just doing a science project. we apologize!!!
This is great! Are there more energy-efficent ways to generate electricity? Are some better than others?
Thanks Again! Swimgirl101
I'm not a site inspectir its just a name. and by the way if i was a site inspector you would get an A+!!!
wazz up
thanks for the info. i have a question though. are there other ways to generate electricity? and if so are some better than others? it was part of one of my quetsions for my project. everything else is great though!! thnak you sooooo much!!
Other ways? I've described all the important ways of generating electricity on a commercial scale. But there are other ways too. Chemical energy is converted to electricity in batteries, for example. Then there's the piezo-electric effect - electricity from mechanically stressing certain crystals. And the Hall effect in semiconductors. All of these have their uses, but not in power plants. Google them to find out more.
thanks i will look it up. this will really help me.
Hey, are these my students writing on this? if you are...
GET OFF!!! look up things on wikapidia or google or something. not this.
why shold we? huh... WHY!!!!!!! this is a good site and i like it!
Are some ways to generate electricity better than others? More efficent than others? Thanks Paraglider!
i wish i had electricity. it seems so great. im at my friends house tonight. i sleep over at her house alot when the monster wearing black come over. i think their called police. daddy tells me about them all the time. The side of their car says "Cops" in all caps. It has pretty lights on the top. they flash all the time. They play music for us to dance to also. But they only come every other day. thats why im usually at brittneys house with her family. i love her computer. Thanks for the site. I WANT ELECTRICITY!!!
64.113.184.2x
Very informative Hub. Thanks for all the information.
Thanks livelovecoffee (interesting name!)
By the way, what does 64.113.184.2x mean? Just curious!
It's the IP address of the school that the last half dozen comments all came from.
Paraglider, I need your help. I know you think we are a bunch of stupid kids but this site really helped. Can you help me? Okay, here is my question. How does electricity generate sound and magnetic forces? PLEASE HELP PARAGLIDER!!!! I need as much as I can!
OK, here's the deal: When you talk or sing into a microphone your sound waves cause the microphone's diaphragm to vibrate. The diaphragm is connected to a coil of wire, so that vibrates too. The coil of wire is very close to a magnet. The magnetic field generates an electric current in the moving coil. The current is the same frequency as your original soundwave. Now, a loudspeaker is just like a microphone in reverse - you squirt the current into the coil which produces a magnetic field. This field reacts with the permenant magnet, causing the coil to move. The coil is attached to a cardboard or plastic 'cone' so that moves too, causing the air to move, giving you a soundwave you can hear.
You can't connect a microphone straight to a loudspeaker because the electrical signal from the mic is very small. That's what amplifiers are for, to take the very small microphone signal and multiply it a few hundred times until it is big enough to drive a loudspeaker.
Suggest you google the following terms for some pictures and details: "moving coil microphone", "moving coil loudspeaker", "audio amplifier". Good luck!
Paraglider, I am currently looking into options for generating my own electricity. I'm considering both windmills and solar panels.
I have a generator that runs on propane, as well as being connected to the local electric coop. I have my own well, with an electrical pump. An older friend (she is 85) suggested that I could start out very simply by allowing the mechanical energy from a single windmill to pump my well water. However, I'm not sure how effective that would be since I want the water pumped as needed, not all the time (or only when there's wind.)
Any practical suggestions?
Thank you soooooo much paraglider. I will tell my friends not to bother you with stupidness anymore. This really helped. Bye! Swimgirl9899
Hi Aya - I don't think a mechanical wind-powered water pump is very practical. I think it would almost certainly have to be customised for your well and besides, maybe you don't want a windmill located at the well. Wind generators are usually best on higher ground away from buildings and they can be noisy. The good thing about solar panels is you can use existing roof surfaces (if the elevation is suitable) There's a hubber called solarshingles with a product of the same name. I've no experience of it but it sounds interesting. http://hubpages.com/profile/solarshingles
Paraglider, thanks. I'll take a look at solar shingles.
It is very nice knowledgs.
How wouild a steam driven generator be made?? Biomass heating has tremendous potential, but has suddenly dissapeared from all the alternative energy conversations. Corn ethonal was a very bad idea, I realize. However, corn burning for heating homes, in my opinion is excellent. About 14 Homes in Michigan, like mine, could be heated for the entire winter with the same amount of corn to fuel and SUV for one (1) year. The corn used is NOT corn that is food grade corn. In fact, if 10% of a person's diet were to be of #2 yellow field corn, they would not be hungry, but would still have a great deal of pain, CONSTIPATION!! Just a totally different type of corn than the type human's consume!
I am interested in generating electricity with the steam from the biomass burner, to be totally energy independent, if possible, and sell back to the Elect. Co. Can you give me any insight as to how I could do this?
eneree7
very bad
Good stuff Paraglider. you can lay it all out in plain English.Thank you
Faraday's student - you've chosen a good teacher ;)
Eneree7 - most steam turbine systems generate steam by boiling water in a closed vessel, so that a pressure can be generated. I don't know of any way to harness steam given off at atmospheric pressure by burning biomass fuel. (Unless I'm not understanding the question?)
omg acadia and anna i can't believe your making up random names and comments and putting them on here!!
if mr. staley found out you were doing this doring research time he would hang you by your finger-nails hahaah jk
up2
Wow that Really Helped! i needed a grade In Science and that Was Fantastic!
Who ever wrote this Is genius
Abigail - no genius, just an old engineer! Thanks :)
THANK YOU!!!
Hello Paraglider, I found your writing and comments very inspiring. I want to get into the energy generating business in the near future for large commercial use e.g a Whole state in a country. I would like to know if you have any idea about how much it may cost to start up a large commercial project. It seems that most of the things needed are naturally produced e.g water, sun. All that is needed is to build a dam, and install turbines to send to a grid. Any suggestion helps. Thank you
Crown Prince - you'll need a team of civil & electrical engineers to build a dam and install turbines. The theory is easy; the practice is extremely specialised!
Good read. I want to find out how a micro wave works. It seems like it would use a lot of electricity but it does not.
Thank you soooooo much paraglider. I will tell my friends not to bother you with stupidness anymore. This really helped.
so im trying to learn how to use my stream from the mountainside to produce electricity, it already has a five foot waterfall, nicely channeled. I like the idea of a dam at the top of it then channeled into a turbine, but where would i ever get one? any info would be very appreciated. thanks, water
Really informative and I like the lesson taugh on electricity
thats good but it's costly .Don't you have some cheaper ideas for generating energy?
my dad is moses and he was pushed down the river nile in a basket aand found later. jesus was betraid by barabus
Not Barabbas, my young friend - Judas Iscariot.
bit
Hey,
Do you think that Solar energy should be used in places like ethiopia where they have a lot of draught?
If not, what type of energy do you think is best suited to help out ethiopia?
Tokuchi - yes. They have a lot of sunshine. Smaller scale solar plants can power local irrigation schemes. Larger plants could provide National distribution. Unfortunately, nothing can generate water! Solar powered desalination plants can help, but not if a country is land-locked.
That was great! Tons of info, makes it clearer to understand how electricity is porduced.
Thank you very much!
your answer was a great help!
irrigation was a great idea =D,
Do you have or know any very detailed/extended explanations (e.g. hubs or sites) on solar power or tidal/wave power and how they function?
Thanks very much.
Also, do you know any mathematical calculations or equations involving solar energy?
E.g. variables like Area of the panel, and things like that? in order to calculate the potential energy produced.
Tokuchi - apart from the pretty obvious formula that the energy collected is proportional to Area.cos(angle of incidence), no, but any manufacturer should be able to provide data sheets.
Thank you really much for the information. Could you please please tell me what is 'Generate Electricity'??
'Generate' means 'make', OK?
u guys are nerd!!!
good hub but you forgot to mention hydroelectricity
my bad you did mention hydroelectricity
Isabella Snow says:
2 years ago
Now that's neat!