by Terry Daniels
Solar power has improved and increased in availability greatly over the past ten years. While the entire history of solar power is quite lengthy, solar power was not frequently used for various projects until the year 2000.
In 2000, BP Solarex created two new thin-film solar modules. These modules set a new standard in the area of performance. Each module was only 0.5 meters squared in size, but had a 10.8 percent efficient conversion. At the time this was the best conversion rate in the world for this type of module.
At the same time, the 0.9 meter squared module was able to achieve a 10.6 percent efficient rate of conversion. This module outputted 91.5 watts, which also set a record as the highest solar power output in the world for a thin-film module.
A family from Morrison, Colorado also decided to install a 12-kilowatt solar electric system for their home that year. This was the largest use of solar power in a consumer setting in the United States that was registered with the U.S. Department of Energy's "Million Solar Roofs Program" to date. The solar system provided most of the electricity for the family's home. The family consisted of eight people.
As solar power became more available to the public, Home Depot began to sell solar power systems in several of its stores in San Diego, California. By the end of 2001, it began to extend its sales of solar power systems to 61 stores in the nation to meet the demand for solar powered systems.
In 2001, NASA also launched a solar-powered aircraft named Helios. Helios set a new record for non-rocket-powered aircraft with a flight of 96,863 feet, which is more than 18 miles high.
In addition the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) stated their plans to create a satellite-based solar power system that could beam the gathered energy back to Earth for use. They planned to use a satellite that carried large solar panels to collect the energy.
The satellite would also employ the use of a laser to beam that gathered energy back to an airship that would hover 12 miles above the earth. This airship would then be able to transmit the power to the surface level of the Earth.
TerraSun LLC also was successful in creating a holographic film model of a solar cell that increased the concentration of sunlight onto the solar cell. In the past, Fresnel lenses and mirrors had been used to concentrate the sunlight. The unique thing about the holographic optics is that they allow the unneeded sunlight to pass through. This way, the solar panels would be able to be incorporated into buildings as skylights.
PowerLight Corporation also helped to develop one of the world's biggest hybrid power generators in Hawaii. The power system gathered energy from wind and solar power. The unusual thing about this hybrid system was that it was connected by a grid with the solar energy gathering capacity of 175 kilowatts being larger than its wind energy gathering capacity of 50 kilowatts.
Hybrid energy systems such as this are able to maximize the amount of energy gathered from both types of energy sources. The British Petroleum (BP) and BP Solar businesses also announced that they would be opening a service station with a solar-electric canopy in Indianapolis. This was the first "BP Connect" store in the United States. At the time, it was a revolutionary model that BP intended to use on all new or remodeled service stations.
As 2002 began, NASA continued its testing and improving of solar power efficiency. By July, their tests using the Pathfinder Plus aircrafts as high-altitude platforms for telecommunication technology proved a success. In September, they conducted another test that demonstrated the aircraft's usefulness as an aerial imaging system for coffee growers.
The Union Pacific Railroad also began to install 350 blue-signal rail yard lanterns that used a combination of solar power and LEDs in the largest United States rail yard in North Platt, Nebraska.
ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. in Canada also began to market a new way of producing solar cells, which they called Spheral Solar technology. This new technology used silicon beads bonded to two sheets of aluminum foil. This new method lowered the cost of production greatly because the amount of silicon used was greatly reduced. This method was originally developed by Texas Instruments in the 1990s, but they decided not to finish the development of the method despite adequate funding.
Terry Daniels has been working with alternative energy solutions for the past 10 year. He has written hundreds of articles dealing with solar power and alternative energy solutions. He recommends (http://www.simpleray.com) for sharp solar panels for sale.
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