This document provides an overview of solar energy and its applications. It discusses that solar energy from the sun can fulfill the planet's energy requirements with just 0.1% of the solar energy that reaches Earth. It then summarizes several applications of solar energy including solar water heaters, solar cookers, solar ponds for heat storage, solar photovoltaic cells for electricity generation, and solar refrigerators. The document also provides details on the world's largest solar power plants and India's growing focus on solar energy, with a target of 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022.

1. A PRESENTAION ON :
SOLAR ENERGY AND ITS
APPLICATIONS

2. Solar energy
 The sun is a source of enormous energy
which is at a distance of about 150 x 106
km from earth.
 The energy from the sun in form of radiation
is called solar energy.
 It is estimated that with 0.1 % of 75,000
trillion kWH of solar energy that reaches
the earth, the planet’s requirements can be
easily fulfilled.


3. 1. Solar water heater
Solar water heaters use the sun's heat to provide hot water for a
home or building.
A typical 100 LPD (litre per day) system is sufficient to provide
approximately 100 litres of hot water at an average temperature of
65°C every day on all sunny days.
A typical direct solar thermal system consists of collector, pipes
and an insulated tank.
There are two types of collectors used in a solar hot water service:
1. flat plate collectors
2. evacuated tubes

4. Flat Plate Collector system

5. Evacuated Vacuum Tube system

6. 2. Solar Cooker
1. A solar cooker consists of a rectangular wooden box which is lined from inside with some
insulation material, such as thermocol or glass wool. The insulating material prevents heat
losses due to conduction and convection.
2. Within the wooden box is placed a light fitting metallic box, whose inner surface is painted
black, as black surface are good absorbers a heat energy.

7. Solar ponds are large-scale energy collectors with integral heat
storage for supplying thermal energy.
The solar pond works on a very simple principle. It is well
known that water or air is heated they become lighter and rise
upward e.g. a hot air balloon. Similarly, in an ordinary pond, the
sun’s rays heat the water and the heated water from within the
pond rises and reaches the top but loses the heat into the
atmosphere.
3. Solar pond

8. 5. A solar pond has three zones. The top zone is the surface zone, or UCZ (Upper
Convective Zone), which is at atmospheric temperature and has little salt content.
6. The bottom zone is very hot, 70°– 85° C, and is very salty. It is this zone that
collects and stores solar energy in the form of heat, and is, therefore, known as the
storage zone or LCZ (Lower Convective Zone).
7. Separating these two zones is the important gradient zone or NCZ (Non-Convective
Zone). Here the salt content increases as depth increases, thereby creating a salinity or
density gradient.
8. This gradient zone acts as a transparent insulator permitting sunlight to reach the
bottom zone but also entrapping it there. The trapped (solar) energy is then withdrawn
from the pond in the form of hot brine from the storage zone.
9. Though solar ponds can be constructed anywhere, it is economical to construct them
at places where there is low cost salt and bittern, good supply of sea water or water for
filling and flushing, high solar radiation, and availability of land at low cost. Coastal
areas in Tam

9. The first solar pond in India (6000 m²) was built at Bhuj. The project was sanctioned
under the National Solar Pond Programme by the
Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources in 1987 and completed in 1993. The
solar pond successfully demonstrated the expediency of the technology by supplying
80,000 litres of hot water daily to the plant.
Solar pond

10. I. A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell (PV), is an electrical device that converts the
energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect.
II. It works on the principle of photoelectric effect- when light falls on certain
metals like silicon, the electron gets excited and escape from metal, which are
then collected by another metal and passed through wires in a stream; the
electron flow thus constitutes the electric current.
III. Photovoltaic (PV) cells are made of semiconducting materials such as silicon.
There are two basic types of semiconductor material, called positive (or P type)
and negative (or N type).
4. (i) Solar electricity-photovoltaic

11. Photovoltaic cell

12. 6. Solar refrigerator
1. Solar refrigerators can be classified into two types: Solar refrigerators that use
batteries and ones that don’t.
2. A solar fridge that uses batteries uses a combination of solar panels and lead
batteries. The batteries serve as back up overnight and on sunless days. These
fridges have many disadvantages. These are expensive; the batteries are heavy and
deteriorate quickly in hot climates.
3. Solar power fridges that don’t require batteries can be made from basic household
materials. These are modern and better suited to developing countries. Although
these fridges are technically solar powered, they don’t use solar panels for power.
They rely on conduction, convection and evaporation and operates at an even
6°Celsius.

14. World Scenario of Solar energy
As of January 2015, the largest solar power plants in the world are:
 For PV, the 550 MW Desert Sunlight Solar Farm and 550 MW Topaz Solar Farm, both
located in southern California.
 For CSP (solar thermal), the 377 MW Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, located in
California's Mojave Desert.
 Other large solar thermal power stations include the 35 (MW) solar energy generating
systems power installation in the USA, Solnova solar Power Station (Spain, 150 MW),
Andasol solar power station (Spain, 150 MW) and the first part of Shams solar power
station (United Arab Emirates, 100 MW).
 Other large PV farms include the 320 MW Longyangxia Dam Solar Park in China, the
224 MW Charnka Solar Park and the 166 MW Solapark Meuro in Germany.

15. UNESCO REPORT

16. 1. India is densely populated and has high solar insolation, an ideal combination for
using solar power in India.
2. In the solar energy sector, some large projects have been proposed, and a 35,
000 km2
area of the Thar Desert has been set aside for solar power projects,
sufficient to generate 700 to 2,100 GW.
3. In July 2009, India unveiled a US$19 billion plan to produce 20 GW of solar power
by 2020. Under the plan, the use of solar-powered equipment and applications
would be made compulsory in all government buildings, as well as hospitals and
hotels.
4. In January 2015, the Indian government significantly expanded its solar plans,
targeting US$100 billion of investment and 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022.
5. In India 10,000 domestic and 5,000 industrial solar water heating systems have been
developed.
Indian Scenario of Solar energy

17. THANK YOU !!