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Solar Panel
A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct current (DC) electricity, which can be used to power various devices or be stored in battery (electricity), batteries. Solar panels are also known as solar cell panels, solar electric panels, or PV modules. Solar panels are usually arranged in groups called arrays or systems. A photovoltaic system consists of one or more solar panels, an solar inverter, inverter that converts DC electricity to alternating current (AC) electricity, and sometimes other components such as charge controller, controllers, Measuring instrument, meters, and solar tracker, trackers. Most panels are in solar farms or Rooftop solar power, rooftop solar panels which grid-connected photovoltaic system, supply the electricity grid. Some advantages of solar panels are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate change. The top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, largest annual emissions are from China followed by the United States. The United States has List of countries by greenhouse gas emissions per capita, higher emissions per capita. The main producers fueling the emissions globally are Big Oil, large oil and gas companies. Emissions from human activities have increased Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, atmospheric carbon dioxide by about 50% over pre-industrial levels. The growing levels of emissions have varied, but have been consistent among all greenhouse gases. Emissions in the 2010s averaged 56 billion tons a year, higher than any decade before. Total cumulative emissions from 1870 to 2022 were 703 (2575 ), of which 484±20 (177 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Micro-inverter
A solar inverter or photovoltaic (PV) inverter is a type of power inverter which converts the variable direct current (DC) output of a photovoltaic solar panel into a utility frequency alternating current (AC) that can be fed into a commercial electrical utility grid, grid or used by a local, off-grid electrical network. It is a critical balance of system (BOS)–component in a photovoltaic system, allowing the use of ordinary AC-powered equipment. Solar power inverters have special functions adapted for use with photovoltaic arrays, including maximum power point tracking and anti-islanding protection. Classification Solar inverters may be classified into four broad types: # Stand-alone inverters, used in stand-alone power systems where the inverter draws its DC energy from batteries charged by photovoltaic arrays. Many stand-alone inverters also incorporate integral battery chargers to replenish the battery from an AC source when available. Normally these do not interface ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California Energy Commission
The California Energy Commission, formally the Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, is the primary energy policy and energy planning, planning Government agency, agency for California. Created in 1974 and headquartered in Sacramento, the commission's core responsibilities include advancing state energy policy, achieving energy efficiency, investing in energy innovation, developing renewable energy, transforming transportation, overseeing energy infrastructure, and preparing for energy emergencies. The commission is a division of the California Natural Resources Agency, which is under the direction of Cabinet Secretary Wade Crowfoot. One of its prominent responsibilities is maintenance of the California Energy Code. History Charles Warren (California politician), Charles Warren and Al Alquist, California politicians, co-authored the 1974 Warren–Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Act that created the commission. The act required t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silicon
Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table: carbon is above it; and germanium, tin, lead, and flerovium are below it. It is relatively unreactive. Silicon is a significant element that is essential for several physiological and metabolic processes in plants. Silicon is widely regarded as the predominant semiconductor material due to its versatile applications in various electrical devices such as transistors, solar cells, integrated circuits, and others. These may be due to its significant band gap, expansive optical transmission range, extensive absorption spectrum, surface roughening, and effective anti-reflection coating. Because of its high chemical affinity for oxygen, it was not until 1823 that Jöns Jakob Berzelius was first able to p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several laboratories in the United States and around the world. As a former subsidiary of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), Bell Labs and its researchers have been credited with the development of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the photovoltaic cell, the charge-coupled device (CCD), information theory, the Unix operating system, and the programming languages B (programming language), B, C (programming language), C, C++, S (programming language), S, SNOBOL, AWK, AMPL, and others, throughout the 20th century. Eleven Nobel Prizes and five Turing Awards have been awarded for work completed at Bell Laboratories. Bell Labs had its origin in the complex corporate organization of the Bell System telepho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russell Ohl
Russell Shoemaker Ohl (January 30, 1898 – March 20, 1987) was an American scientist who is generally recognized for patenting the modern solar cell (, "Light sensitive device"). Ohl was a notable semiconductor researcher prior to the invention of the transistor. He was also known as R.S. Ohl. Russell Ohl's specialized area of research was into the behavior of certain types of crystals. He worked on materials research in the 1930s at American Telephone & Telegraph, AT&T's Bell Labs’ Holmdel facility, investigating diode detectors suitable for high-frequency wireless, broadcasting, and military radar. His work was only understood by a handful of scientists in the organization, one of whom was Dr. Walter Brattain (one of the trio who invented the germanium bipolar transistor in 1947, and who would be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956). Ohl, in 1939, discovered the PN barrier (or as it became known, the “P–N junction”). [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal-fired Power Plant
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate about a third of the world's electricity, but cause many illnesses and the most early deaths per unit of energy produced, mainly from air pollution. World installed capacity doubled from 2000 to 2023 and increased 2% in 2023. A coal-fired power station is a type of fossil fuel power station. The coal is usually pulverized and then burned in a pulverized coal-fired boiler. The furnace heat converts boiler water to steam, which is then used to spin turbines that turn generators. Thus chemical energy stored in coal is converted successively into thermal energy, mechanical energy and, finally, electrical energy. Coal-fired power stations are the largest single contributor to climate change, releasing approximately 12 billion tonnes of car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Fritts
Charles Fritts (1850 – 1903) was an American inventor credited with creating the first working selenium cell in 1883. According to CleanTechnica, the world's first rooftop solar array, using Fritts' selenium cells, was installed in 1884 on a New York City rooftop. Bellingcat attributes a photo of the cells to the roof of George Cove's laboratory. Fritts coated the semiconductor material selenium with an extremely thin layer of gold. The resulting cells had a conversion electrical efficiency of about 1% owing to the properties of selenium given the material's cost, was too low to economically use such cells. Selenium cells found other applications including as light sensors for exposure timing in photo cameras, where they were common into the 1960s. Solar cells later became practical for power uses after Russell Ohl Russell Shoemaker Ohl (January 30, 1898 – March 20, 1987) was an American scientist who is generally recognized for patenting the modern solar cell (, "Li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Grylls Adams
William Grylls Adams (18 February 1836 in Laneast, Cornwall – 10 April 1915) was professor of Natural Philosophy at King's College, London. He was active in research on subjects ranging from light, magnetism, and astronomy to electrical power generation and transmission. His research in optics yielded the discovery that certain materials, notably selenium, produce an electric current when exposed to light. Adams also actively participated in many academic societies and held major positions within the societies. Family William Grylls Adams was the youngest son of the seven children, four sons and three daughters, of Thomas Adams and Tabitha Knill Grylls. The astronomer John Couch Adams (1819–1892) was his older brother. Education Adams attended St. John's College, Cambridge, and graduated as 11th Wrangler in 1855. He subsequently held positions at several other institutions, including vice-principal of Peterborough Training College in 1859 and mathematics master at Mar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Selenium
Selenium is a chemical element; it has symbol (chemistry), symbol Se and atomic number 34. It has various physical appearances, including a brick-red powder, a vitreous black solid, and a grey metallic-looking form. It seldom occurs in this elemental state or as pure ore compounds in Earth's crust. Selenium ( ) was discovered in 1817 by , who noted the similarity of the new element to the previously discovered tellurium (named for the Earth). Selenium is found in :Sulfide minerals, metal sulfide ores, where it substitutes for sulfur. Commercially, selenium is produced as a byproduct in the refining of these ores. Minerals that are pure selenide or selenate compounds are rare. The chief commercial uses for selenium today are glassmaking and pigments. Selenium is a semiconductor and is used in photocells. Applications in electronics, once important, have been mostly replaced with silicon semiconductor devices. Selenium is still used in a few types of Direct current, DC power surge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willoughby Smith
Willoughby Smith (6 April 1828, in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk – 17 July 1891, in Eastbourne, Sussex) was an English electrical engineer who discovered the photoconductivity of the element selenium. This discovery led to the invention of photoelectric cells, including those used in the earliest television systems. Career In 1848, he began working for the Gutta Percha Company, London where he developed iron and copper wires insulated with gutta-percha to be used for telegraph wires. In 1850, Smith superintended the manufacture and laying of 30 miles of underwater telegraph wire from Dover to Calais. Though the first cable failed almost immediately, another laid the following year was a success and over the following decades, Smith and the company he worked for were involved with many other underwater telegraph cable projects. In 1866, Smith developed a method for continually testing an underwater cable as it was being laid. For his test circuit, he needed a semi-conducting materi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
