Solar Definition and 1000 Threads

Given: a ~3W monocrystalline solar panel, originally from a panel+battery+light pack from early 90s, spent a decade in a box, then a decade on the roof under the sun and elements, unconnected to anything. I wanted to finally put it to some use. The circuit is straightforward - the panel...

Does anyone have access to the current data about solar radiation reaching Earth's surface ? The most importaint is the UV range divided into UV-A, UV-B and UV-C. If not, then data from the past few years would also be fine. I need it for research but I cannot find anywhere such information.

Hello, We are a solar energy solutions provider and we are looking to explore CSP plants at smaller scales. I would like to understand the design better. Basically a CSP consists of: 1) steam turbine 2) solar energy collectors (mirrors) 3) water container (boiler) I would like to...

Hi, I'm working on a project to build a solar powered AA battery charger. This is definitely not my profession, I only have a small understanding of electrical engineering. Mostly from what I learned in high school electrical class. Here is what I'm looking to do: I want to charge 16 AA...

Hi, This is my first post here, so if I make mistakes please be gentle with me. I have a 'problem' with a solar system I'm developing for a series of stories I'm writing. Those stories have nothing to do with Earth, and are set in a system unlike our own. To introduce the system, the...

Here's the Cassini image from Saturn. Suppose I map an x-y coordinate system on that picture with the Earth (that pale blue dot down there) at the origin. Without looking at anything else, can you place points at the perimeter of the square picture, giving the angle pointing to where the sun...

I would like to build a small solar powered phone charger for when I go up to camp soon, I was planning on using a solar cell and I was wondering what I need to assemble a solar powered phone charger. Can someone help?

On an eclipsed day,for example,a partially eclipsed day,when I make a hole in a piece of paper and place it on the sunlight,I find that the shadow(Or whatever)of the hole appears like the eclipse.Why?

Stellar or Solar system Astronomy?? I'm an engineering student and next quarter I will have space for an elective class and I wanted to do something with astronomy. My options are stellar astronomy and Solar System Astronomy, my school only offers these two courses, and I don't know which one...

I live at 4000 feet above sea level and list night I saw some shooting stars, one real big one coming from the south so i thought I would star-gaze awhile and see if more meteors would come my way, no more came and after awhile I was admiring how well I could see the milky way and then I...

Any comments on the recent N. P. Pitjev and E. V. Pitjeva paper: Constraints on Dark Matter in the Solar System arXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.5534 MIT Technology Review article...

Homework Statement The given quantities are the shunt resistances across each of the 3 diode junctions,assume them to be Rsh1,Rsh2,Rsh3; Tunnel diode resistances as Rt1 and Rt2, Photocurrent for each of the junction be Ip1,Ip2,Ip3 and bandgap of each subcell be Eg1,Eg2,Eg3 are given.Let V & I...

Homework Statement I have to analyse the power output of a solar panel using a basic electrical engineering circuit analysis of a solar module if a complete row of solar cells in it is shadowed (For example, such shading might be caused by dust that slides down the surface of inclined panels.)...

Dear visionary inventors, megalomaniac engineers and audacious explorers, Chemical rocket engines aren't up to our desire to hop in the Solar system: go quickly to Mars, deviate Earth-threatening objects, and so many more missions. We need a higher ejection speed to save propellant mass, but...

Still going after 36 years. Voyager surfs Solar System's edge By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23075332

Hi everyone, I am humbly here to ask a question. I have no EE training or education (as will become apparent) but I couldn't sleep and my head was churning and now I need to know: Can you operate a city or country on solar power generated on the other side of the globe? i.e. Could solar...

I have a sailboat with 2 solar panels installed. They work well, except at the end of the season when the days are shorter, the nights are longer and the sun is lower, so I built a mechanism to tilt and rotate the panels so that they could be pointed directly at the sun. With low sun angles I...

Hi; Normally, the solar panel charges a 12V battery and battery provides backup to load via an inverter. The solar panel produces voltage which is directly proportional to sun light. So early in the morning and in evening, solar panel produces less voltage which is insufficient to charge the...

From Wiki. The pulsar and its neutron star companion both follow elliptical orbits around their common center of mass. The period of the orbital motion is 7.75 hours, and the two neutron stars are believed to be nearly equal in mass, about 1.4 solar masses. Radio emissions have been detected...

I have a solar calculator and it also has a battery what I want to know if this solar cell would charge the battery. The positive from solar cell is connected to battery, but the negative from solar cell seems to pass thru two diodes before connecting to battery. John

So I want to make a solar usb charger but am having some problems that i do not understand. I know that usb is 5v at 1 amp-ish and so I took 4 rechargable AAs and was getting just over 5v. I want to have the solar pannel charge the batteries when there is nothing being pluged into the usb...

Would it be incorrect to assume the amount of heat gained (ΔQ) for a sample of water in a solar oven would be the same for any substance in the same solar oven at the same time?

I've recently been assigned a project by one of my professors to animate a solar system style disc using real data computed from a simulation of his, and I'm wondering what the best angle of approach for this project would be. I have some experience in Cinema4D animating things, and I'm...

I want to build a usb charger that works with solar power (and later add a crank dynamo too). The photovoltaic cell will charge rechargeable batteries and they will charge the usb device, like my smartphone. The smartphone charges with 5V and 1500mAh. I'm planning to use 2 AA batteries 3.4V...

If two spinning, neutron stars in a tight orbit lose energy by giving off gravity waves, why don't other objects in orbit do the same? I don't understand what makes the two neutron stars unique. Why wouldn't the moon and the Earth give off gravity waves as well? I also know that the moon is...

I tried today to calculate the power that the solar cell produced, connecting it to an ammeter(digital) and a voltmeter(digital) in series, my initial idea was to use the P=IV formula. However as i carried out the experiment the ammeter gave a showed 0.00 whilst the voltmeter showed 0.56...

In 2018, NASA will launch "Solar Probe Plus" in an orbit that will swing by close to the sun. It is expected to reach speeds as high as 450,000 mph (0.067 percent the speed of light). At what speed would you (if you were inside the spacecraft ) start to see relativistic effects inside the...

The usual story is that after a solar flair (coronal mass ejection) towards the Earth the Earth's magnetic field gets strongly deformed. It usually takes a few days from the solar event to when the Earth is impacted. But I wonder if there is also a direct interaction: If there is drastic...

Hey Folks, I'm working on a new problem in a field I don't have much experience in at all and looking for some high level guidance to get me started. For a certain material I want to calculate how much that material ablates in the presence of steadily increasing radiation flux from the...

Perhaps the solar system is expanding with the Universe? For this idea to make sense one must assume that atomic lengths are constant. The current Universal expansion rate is given by: \frac{\dot a}{a} = H_0 where a is the current scale factor and H_0 is the current Hubble parameter...

Note, this is in the USA, where the street lines are 4,800vac (I think?)...and the lines from the pole are 220VAC to the panel. For example, let's say I'm making 225vac from a DIY solar array (connected to my main panel), and the amount of energy I'm currently producing is more than what...

Hello Forum, if we take a silicon solar cell, the open circuit voltage is about 0.5V. the current increases as the solar cell area and illumination increases. But the 0.5 V output voltage does not change as the area and illumination level vary...Why? It must have something to do with...

I am interesting to know about the manufactures of these products: crystalline silicon solar cells, thin-film solar modules, display screens like: Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), touch panel and plasma, thin film rechargeable lithium ion batteries, lithium ion batteries for electric car, fuel...

I am planning to install a Solar system of 6KW of electricity output enough for a water pump (submersible) and a small home. I need help in designing a mounting which can hold upto 24 solar-panels (20kg each) at a height of 6 meters from the ground, and I also need to make an adjustment...

urgent help regarding application of solar in conv. electric ckt hi there engg/experts I am having a project of applying 5 Kw photovoltaic along with conventional electric supply. The photovoltaic panel would be able to run 35-40 fans and cfls. The problem which i am facing is to club both the...

Homework Statement The problem given is...Calculate mI+1 and lI+1 at point xI+1 using equation (5), the values of the slopes at points xI+1 and xI from equation (4), and the values of mI and lI from the previous step. Here is a screenshot of my solar model Homework Equations The Attempt...

I'm writing a program that models objects in our solar system in 3D with lots of functionality. (Senor Project in Computer Engineering), since a lot of time an effort has gone into this software so far, I'd like to implement the most accurate details to configure several objects. By objects...

Hi, This is my first post here. I am planning to work on small project for my car, wherein I could power up a small inverter which would in turn start a fan / ac in my car. I am just confused on how many panels I would need to accomplish this project. solar panel output 4V -100 ma...

I'm trying to think of a way to calculate the power output of a solar panel by taking in information from hourly weather data from weather.com (e.g. sunny or cloudy?, temperature, etc.) and basic characteristics of the location and panels, but i cannot find or think of a way to do so. Basically...

Question: The Moon has an albedo of 0.05. What is the total power of the solar radiation reflected from the Moon in units of 10^15 W? My Answer: - To get my answer i multiplied the flux density of the sun measured on the moon, then multiplied it by half of the moon's total surface area...

And within the near-galaxy too. If we can find some in close proximity, there's tremendous potential for research. I found these two conflicting articles: (both a few months apart) Survey finds no hint of dark matter near Solar System Astronomers Detect Dark Matter Near The Sun...

Hi all, I live in Perth, Australia and have just moved houses to a place with a relatively small pool, unfortunately it is shaded for the majority of the day by a big tree and it is quite cold and unwelcoming (unless you have built of a sweat). I want to make a solar pool heating system to...

Hello. In my book with examples of astronomy, I found this: Calculate, around which the known celestial bodies in the solar system (with a diameter greater than 1000 km) do a probe one complete cycle fastest (without the use of engines). Other movements of these bodies is negligible. If...

hi i am currently designing a solar tracking system. i am confused at the point of calculating the torque required to rotate the solar tracker. i have a shaft in the cylinder which is rotating with 4RPM. i know that Power= Toque* angular velocity or 2*pi*RPM* Torque where Torque is=...

Hello i have a problem with this question if anyone could help me ,that would be great. Estimate the thermal velocity of particles in the solar corona (take a distance two times the radius of the sun and assume that the particules have only two degrees of freedom), thus the thermal energy is...

Homework Statement For a solar tower compare the total force on the air column in the tower (i) by calculating the pressure at its bottom and top (ii) from Archimedes’ Law. Hint: there is a temperature difference between top and bottom of the tower. I have to estimate height...

hello PFs, I am working on solar pump but unfortunately i am new to this. Confused which solar panel is best to buy for 1 HP pump. And even what type of pump to use. Want to make it as efficient and cheap as possible. Thanks.

can you tell me the basics of a solar inverter circuit and how it works? I'm a starter in engineering :P

I have been trying to understand how PV cells work in solar panels and have become a bit confused, here is what I have read so far: The PV cell is basically a PN junction diode with a conductive connection on the P and N material between this connection there is a load, a lamp for example...

I have three grid tie inverters connected to my grid thru standard AC plugs. The system pushes about 1kw to the grid during the day but during the night they draw a total of 45 watts from the grid. This has been confirmed by measuring the ac current in the ac cord with a multimeter and with a...