Tag Archives: solar

The beginning of the construction of the largest optical telescope in the world

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A promise to open the door to new astronomical research. Mountain Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii, Australia, South Africa, northwestern China, as well as the Atacama desert, located in Chile, the climate in these areas will be built immediately after several installations. vast expanses of space, but also consider.

One of such facilities will be the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) of the European Southern Observatory – the largest optical telescope of the new generation, equipped with a complex composite mirror with a diameter of 39 meters.

The main phase of the construction of the ELT began in May 2017, after several years of disputes and discussions on this topic. The object will be released in 2024. The total cost of the project is estimated at 1.12 billion dollars. In 2018, the cost of the telescope is 1.23 billion dollars. According to the latest forecasts, by 2024 the cost of the entire project should be about 1.47 billion dollars (with a inflation rate of 3%).

The construction of such a system is necessary in a higher region, where the effectiveness of observers will not depend on changes in the atmosphere and light pollution. The construction site must have an ideal flat surface. In search of years, the European Southern Observatory in this place and eventually decided to create their own – on top of Mount Armasones in Chile. As seen in the photos below, the builders have already laid the foundation for the future telescope.

 

 

The capabilities of the ELT will be in its main mirror, which will be constructed from 798 hexagonal parts, each with a diameter of 1.4 meters. A huge 39-meter mirror will be assembled from these pieces, which will receive data with the highest level of quality that none of the existing telescopes are capable of.

 

For example, the Very Large Telescope (VLT) – currently the largest and most technologically advanced optical telescope – is a design of four auxiliary 1.8-meter optical telescopes and four separate 8.2-meter telescopes, connecting in one system. The angular resolution of the VLT was equivalent to a telescope with a solid mirror up to 200 meters. The viewing area will be a hundred times larger, it will be able to observe immediately a huge number of light sources, also noting objects with a significantly lower level of brightness, which current telescopes are not capable of observing.

The resulting images will not need serious processing because the ELT diaphragm will be inseparable. According to the engineers, the ELT will be 200 times more efficient than the Hubble, making it the most powerful telescope operating in the infrared and optical ranges.

Project developers note that due to adaptive optics
and ELT will be able to conduct a direct observation of exoplanets located in the orbits of distant stars, which is currently very rare among current telescopes.

 

Due to the fact that the telescope will actually be the most powerful in its class and will be able to carry out observations on the partial for stony exoplanets, then one of its tasks will be to study the worlds of the atmosphere.
And this is not all of its potential opportunities. For example, with the help of this telescope, scientists will be able to directly measure the rate of expansion of the Universe, find out the role of dark energy in the evolution of space. There is an opportunity to more accurately study the past of space, astronomers will be able to create more accurate models of step-by-step development of the Universe.

 

Link : https://hi-news.ru/technology/zalozhen-fundament-samogo-bolshogo-opticheskogo-teleskopa-v-mire.html

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How to save 92% on your electricity bill? [CASE STUDY]

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Just about 4 months ago Tesla officially announced acquisition of SolarCityclick . Many people consider this as a giant leap towards bringing solar energy to the masses. Today we finally have a real-life case study of Tesla’s revolutionary solar system in use and it’s undeniable that Elon Musk’s company is on the right track to lead the solar energy revolution.

This week, a well-known consumer advocacy portal CHOICE – click, published an article describing the story of an Australian Tesla fan who used the Powerwall battery for the past year and experienced its saving potential.

Powerwallclick is a smart lithium-ion energy storage pack designed and produced by Tesla Inc. In short, this product is a battery pack for your home that stores energy from photovoltaic panels and delivers sustainable electricity, even when the sun isn’t shining. Powerwall is a great backup power device but it also gives the user the ability to sell excess of energy back to the grid. With its power management system, Powerwall is able to significantly decrease household energy bills spending.

 

The best proof for Tesla’s solar system cost cutting capabilities is the story of Nick Pfitzner described in CHOICE articleclick. Nick lives with his family in a four-bedroom home in Kellyville Ridge, Australia. This large residence is equipped with atelier, laundry, outdoor entertainment area and its own pool. Powering this home with electricity in 2015 cost Nick $2289 but in January 2015 Nick decided to invest in sustainable energy system. Nick invested $16,790 in buying 7kW Powerwall battery, a 5kWp solar array, a SolarEdge inverter and a Reposit monitoring system.

Nick Pftitzner standing alongside his home solar system

Source: www.choice.com.au

After implementation of this system Nick’s average quarterly bill dropped from $572 in 2015 to $45 in 2016. After a year of using his new power system Nick was able to save 92% on his annual electricity expenses. His annual electricity bill has dropped from $2110 in 2015 to $178.71 in 2016. This level of efficiency surprised the owner himself: “Before I crunched the numbers I was looking at what would be my return on investment. If it saved me 80% of my power bill, [I thought] it would be pretty good,” he says. Outstanding efficiency of Nick’s system topped original Tesla Inc projections estimating that their solar systems can pay itself off within 14 to 18 years. If Nick’s solar system will continue operating at this rate it will payback in just 8 years.

Isn’t it marvelous?

 

Remarkable results of Nick’s power system will undoubtedly ignite already booming market of solar power systems. This combined with Tesla’s progressing plan of building 3 more Gigafactiories – click in order to increase supply and lower costs of batteries and photovoltaic panels only amplifies the strong belief that solar will power our future.

 

 

Sources:

https://www.tesla.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Powerwall

https://www.choice.com.au/home-improvement/energy-saving/solar/articles/living-with-the-tesla-powerwall-for-a-year

http://www.repositpower.com/

http://www.solaredge.com/us/

 

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More than moon power!

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Solar panels have been around for a long time. Solar energy theory has been around since the 1800’s but the one of the first silicon based panels came out in the 1940’s, that was invented by Russell Ohl back in 1941. However it has a less than 1% efficiency.

This brings us to the present, we have tried so many different ways and configurations to get energy from the sun and to convert it into usable work. The main problem with solar panels is heat. Ironically the brighter the sun the more energy you get, however, the brighter the sun the hotter the panels get and this leads to a higher ohm resistance in the panel itself which means a reduced efficiency.

Enter the British company RawLemon. They have invented an orb that works similar to a Fresnel Lens. This clear water filled orb is able to concentrate the sun, with the help of a solar tracking device, and then create useful work from the concentrated solar rays. This orb is so good at concentrating light that it can even generate electricity from moonlight!

RawLemon sucking up moonlight, from IndieGoGo

RawLemon was able to make some smaller versions of the devise and they collected over 150% of their crowdfunding goal raising a total of $233,062 IndieGoGo. Unfortunately their website is getting “an upgrade” so you can’t purchase anything from them at the moment.

Rawlemon in the daytime.

Now let us move on to something that has a bit of controversy behind it. The V3Solar Cone.

The company claims that with this special design they are able to be at least 20 times more efficient than a traditional flat solar panel. As I mentioned before the hotter a panel gets the more inefficient the panel becomes. V3 gets around this because the solar panel is always spinning at the optimal speed. This allows, in theory, the panels to be exposed to sunlight just long enough for proper energy exposure but also the ability to cool down as it spins away from the sun as a “fresh” solar panel is brought around back to the direct sunlight.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQYXvNC5tpk]

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