The efficiency of terrestrial solar energy conversion to electricity depends on their efficiency and the annual number of sunny days. 20 years ago the efficiency of silicon solar cells was equal to 15%. The efficiency of today’s GaAs element with three transitions is 34%, while promising devices with four conversions will probably be of 42% (theoretical value of the efficiency of four-element reaches approximately 50%). Today, 1 kg of solar panels provides 300 Watts. Capital cost for the panels of solar cells production has decreased from $ 50 to $ 5 / W in comparison to 80s, and the cost of energy consumption dropped from 0.9 to 0.2 $ / kW • h.

To overcome the dependence on weather conditions the project of creation of space solar plant located on the HIS, was advanced in the late 70′s, with the transfer of power to Earth using microwave radiation to Rectenna (that is antenna with built-in rectifier). The project was being elaborated on all components of the system, but has remained as just an interesting suggestion: although the station would be able to transfer 10 GW, which is equivalent to the output power of 10 nuclear power stations, the cost of the components raising on the satellite would have been $ 22 / g, and the mass of the satellite would have been 90 tons. Today, the picture changed. U.S. experts proposed major developments of such plants in the 35th Conference on Energy Conversion (IECEC) in July 2000.

According to these experts, new technology involving the use of high-performance solar cells, high-power semiconductor converters and magnetron generators, is capable to reduce the mass of the station significantly. Reusable transport aircraft invented by NASA, will reduce the cost of the components lifting into low Earth orbit to $2,2 / g (that is to say, in future it can reach 88 cents / g). Satellite solar power can be raised from low Earth orbit to geostationary one with the ion engine, fed by solar panels. The concept of an integrated symmetric concentrator (ISC) will reduce the mass of the controlling and power distribution system on the satellite, which constitutes a significant proportion of the mass of the whole station.

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Scientists estimate that hydrocarbon fuel will remain on the Earth during next 60 – 100 years, but it is a promising issue. At the moment the relevance lies in the fact that modern forms of energy change environmental conditions on the planet intensively, and unfortunately these changes are negative. The changes have become irreversible, and this often leads to casualties. Today the world uses over 12 billion kWh of energy annually. Such percentage is in materials using for energy production as: coal – 26 %, gas – 20 %, oil – 42 %, water energy – 4 %, nuclear energy – 5 %, and this leads to emissions of hundreds of thousands of tons of harmful substances into the atmosphere. As we see, we get most of the energy from fossil fuels.

Nuclear energy, which was considered recently as no alternative source of future, is almost at the top of the list of negative impacts on the environment due to constant threats of radioactive substances releases and as a consequence of long-term large adjacent territories pollution. Statistics show that almost all the energy is produced from minerals, and this makes 97%. And what is included in the other 3 %?

This is alternative energy – solar, wind, geothermal, installations that use the force of the tides etc. So the more and more attention and money are invested in innovative clean energy all over the world. The possibilities of solar energy converting into electricity` research and application in practice are being conducted extensively at this time.

Solar energy is the most environmentally friendly one and has infinite resource stock. Viability of this type of energy is confirmed by multimillion-dollar investments of oil giants such as UK-Dutch Royal Dutch / Shell Company, which has its research and development of alternative energy. It is going to invest amounts between $ 500 million to $ 1 billion annually in solar energy. Silicon is used for manufacture of solar cells. Because of the high cost of this material production, the first batteries were unprofitable. But we know that the progress does not stand still and every year the cost of it significantly reduces.

As for now, the payback of solar panels is more than 20 – 30 years, and the cost of 1 kW / m power obtained with the help of the sun’s rays is higher than that obtained from traditional energy sources. But solar energy is fully competitive in remote places or sites where electricity consumption is relatively high.

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According to current head of the company’s Ecoenergetics department Bill Vail, just now Google searches new materials for the heliostats to increase the efficiency of their performance and durability.

According to him, the company develops technologies, through which the construction of solar plants will cost a quarter less. Google plans to show them in a few months.

Usually, the structure of cost of a watt of energy capital costs amount to 2.5 – 4 dollars. That is to say, the installation of the plant with a capacity of 250 megawatts would cost between $ 600 million to 1 billion dollars. Thus, it turns out that the cost of electricity is 12-18 cents per kW / h.

Another trend, which Google also runs is technologies for gas turbines, which will run on solar energy, rather than natural gas. New ways will also help to reduce the cost of generated energy.

Within two or three years, the company will demonstrate a pilot grid of high-power scale, which can be used for mass production. With the help of the cost of electricity should be reduced to 5 cents per kW / h. Thus, the cost of alternative energy produced from the use of this system, decrease in 2.5 – 3.5 times.

In 2007, representatives of Google, announcing the program called “Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal”, which had the aim to reduce the cost of electricity below the price of coal per kilowatt – hour, indicated the following price horizon of alternative energy: the use of alternative sources of energy cost per kilowatt hour for the end user, ideally should not exceed 3 dollar cents. At the same time the company announced its intention to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the development of methods of solar power production, so as wind and other forms of energy from alternative sources.

The company had to invest about $ 50 million in the program on alternative power over the past two years. These funds were invested in, including in dealing with solar energy company eSolar and BrightSolar, which, however, are not engaged in the development of equipment and mirror systems for solar plants. Generally, there are not so many companies that operate in the field of alternative energy.

In recent years the market of solar energy has been growing up to 30 % annually. According to research of firm called Lux Research (USA), the total size of the solar energy market in last year amounted to 33.3 billion dollars, or about 5 GW.

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The absorber body is protected by a collector with a reinforced insulation that also minimizes heat loss. The amount of solar radiation that reaches the surface of the solar collector reaches its maximum only at noon when the sun is at its zenith. Speaking about morning and evening, sunlight falls on it at an angle, and the amount of absorbed solar radiation decreases.

Flat collectors do not work in winter, because even with a two-system` antifreeze, the maximum allowable operating temperature is about -5 ° C. With further lowering loses of heat reduce the result to a level of zero. The more solar collectors absorb solar energy and the less they lose it, the more efficient the system will work. Efficiency of the collector shows what percentage of solar radiation that falls on its base surface, can be converted into useful thermal output. This indicator is volatile and can be determined only in the specific operating conditions in a single moment in time. The lower the temperature to which you want to heat the water, the more efficiency is. Modern flat solar collector work with an average working efficiency of 50%, more obsolete models work with 20-40% of it.

And now we will compare flat collectors with those of high-vacuum tubes type. Their employment is based on a simple principle of a heat pipe, which is a hollow brass rod, soldered at both ends with the extension in the upper part. Non-toxic reagent is inside of it; it evaporates during boiling and in the form of vapor rises into the upper part – into the tip, where the temperature can reach 250 ° C. And it is condensed there, giving warmth, and condensate flows down the walls of the tube, and the process repeats then.

Heat removal can be carried out in different ways, for example, directly from the tip through the glass, soldered to the pipe through which the solar fluid flows. In a closed-circuit it can be freezing liquid-based glycol (warmth comes to storing tank), in an open system it may water (it goes directly into the boiler). Whatever it were, immediately after the absorption the heat is given to the coolant and does not go into the environment. This is the key difference between heat pipes and flat solar collectors.

The effectiveness of heat pipes with U-shaped tubes (the most simple, used in tubular systems) is a cut above that of flat collectors. Due to its cylindrical form, they work fine during the day, because their surface is always illuminated by the sun. This results in a stable energy at different angles of incidence of sunlight. The tubes are well protected from the adverse effects of nature (hail, wind and other things), but in any case, such systems also have weaknesses.

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