UAE to go solar?

[docc]

Altin, i'm sorry but i just have to say this. Stop being SO FRIGGING RUDE!!! Whats your problem man? Try not to scare away the new members.

Also, thats a very good questions. Dubai and for that matter, most middle-eastern countries have the necessary ingredients for acquiring Solar energy. As Dubai-Steve mentioned, it will put Dubai on the Map for one more reason!

P.S. Can the moderators please give this dude a crash-course on Forum Etiquette?

[malec]

Well, solar power isn't very efficient at the moment but the least they should do is fund R&D. Once improvements are made it'd definitely be a worthwhile investment.

[smussuw]

Yep it is economically expensive and is not worth it right now. More research should be made to make it efficient and effective.

Dubai use solar power for parking machines and some radars.

[Dubai_Steve]

Australia building a 1600 ft solar tower that can power a small city

With a solar tower, there's no fuel to dig out of the ground, transport, or dispose of, no smog, no scarred landscapes from open-pit mining. The sun rises every day and is not subject to embargoes, geopolitics, or commodity markets.

And once the solar tower's capital costs are paid off, the price of producing electricity should drop dramatically, as operating and maintenance costs are expected to be minimal.


It's a dead-calm antipodean winter's day, the silence of this vast ranch called Tapio Station broken only by the cry of a currawong bird. Davey, chief executive of Melbourne renewable-energy company EnviroMission, aims to break ground here early next year on the world's first commercial "solar tower" power station.

"The tower will be over there," Davey says, pointing to a spot a mile distant where a 1,600-foot structure will rise from the ocher-colored earth. Picture a 260-foot-diameter cylinder taller than the Sears Tower encircled by a two-mile-diameter transparent canopy at ground level. About 8 feet tall at the perimeter, where Davey has his feet planted, the solar collector will gradually slope up to a height of 50 to 60 feet at the tower's base.

Acting as a giant greenhouse, the solar collector will superheat the air with radiation from the sun. Hot air rises, naturally, and the tower will operate as a giant vacuum. As the air is sucked into the tower, it will produce wind to power an array of turbine generators clustered around the structure.

The result: enough clean, green electricity to power some 100,000 homes without producing a particle of pollution or a wisp of planet-warming gases.

[docc]

Dubai has the money for R&D and if they can allocate funds for it, they can definitely speed up the process, not to mention the worldwide acclaim they will receive from bringing Solar power to mainstream.

[nitzomoe]

arent solar panels prone to damage from sand? if so it would make sense that developers wouldnt want to use it if they have to change the panels often.

[DUBAI]

Solar towers have very little net c02 gain, because of the shere size needed to make them feesable, and construction C02 outputs.

[AltinD]

Originally Posted by docc

Altin, i'm sorry but i just have to say this. Stop being SO FRIGGING RUDE!!! Whats your problem man? Try not to scare away the new members.

Also, thats a very good questions. Dubai and for that matter, most middle-eastern countries have the necessary ingredients for acquiring Solar energy. As Dubai-Steve mentioned, it will put Dubai on the Map for one more reason!

P.S. Can the moderators please give this dude a crash-course on Forum Etiquette?

[docc]

Originally Posted by AltinD

What? What are you rolling your eyes at? A simple apology to the original poster is whats required...not rolling eyes.

C'mon Altin, for someone who's so knowledgeable and respected, you should set an example rather be an egoistic know-it-all type. Give respect...take respect...how hard is that to comprehend? How would you like if the responses you provided were infact provided in a similar manner to you?

Sorry for going Off-topic, but things that are wrong need to be corrected.

[AltinD]

I registerted in this forum becouse I was interested in skyscrapers, and my first posts were scyscraper related. It sounded strange to me ... maybe I give to much importance even to the smallest details (everybody should but unfortunatelly it is not the norm)

[malec]

Originally Posted by docc

Dubai has the money for R&D and if they can allocate funds for it, they can definitely speed up the process, not to mention the worldwide acclaim they will receive from bringing Solar power to mainstream.

Exactly, this would bring the worldwide acclaim they want. Not only Dubai but also Abu Dhabi who have even more money. I'd definitely be something if they cancelled bawadi and used the cash to fund R&D into sustainable energy production.

[Dubai_Steve]

FROM National Geographic JAN 2005

Scientists have invented a plastic solar cell that can turn the sun's power into electrical energy, even on a cloudy day.

The plastic material uses nanotechnology and contains the first solar cells able to harness the sun's invisible, infrared rays. The breakthrough has led theorists to predict that plastic solar cells could one day become five times more efficient than current solar cell technology.

Like paint, the composite can be sprayed onto other materials and used as portable electricity. A sweater coated in the material could power a cell phone or other wireless devices. A hydrogen-powered car painted with the film could potentially convert enough energy into electricity to continually recharge the car's battery.

The researchers envision that one day "solar farms" consisting of the plastic material could be rolled across deserts to generate enough clean energy to supply the entire planet's power needs.

"The sun that reaches the Earth's surface delivers 10,000 times more energy than we consume," said Ted Sargent, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Toronto. Sargent is one of the inventors of the new plastic material.

"If we could cover 0.1 percent of the Earth's surface with [very efficient] large-area solar cells," he said, "we could in principle replace all of our energy habits with a source of power which is clean and renewable."

[Dubai_Steve]

Despite their allure, alternate energy systems have really not been able to displace conventional, non-sustainable, polluting or hazardous sources like coal, petroleum or nuclear. Reasons are cost and scalability. Take solar energy. It is estimated that several times the planet’s total energy need arrives from the sun but costs of gathering and effectively storing it are prohibitive.

Nanosolar Inc, in California, USA began with a checklist of seven stumbling blocks in the way of solar energy’s success and has in 5 years of work, been ticking them off as overcome. It is now ready for wide commercial sales.

What was the state of solar technology that Nanosolar has improved on? The first generation technology used bulky, brittle and expensive silicon wafers to convert solar radiation to electricity. Costs were so prohibitive that it never amounted to much more than proof of concept. The next generation thin-film cells used much lesser quantity of semi-conductor material but the fabrication method of vacuum deposition resulted in low yields and high costs. Fragility continued to be an issue. Neither approach was amenable to large scale production.

Nanosolar’s approach is to literally print solar cells on continuous rolls of flexible, inexpensive substrate. It begins with Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide [CIGS] , a semi conductor material proven in the thin-film cell. Particles of CIGS are dispersed in the ‘ink’ and because of the nano-scale they maintain the element-level ratio required for photo-voltaic action. At nano scale, photovoltaic semiconductor quantum physics occurs. The cells are able to abstract energy from a broader spectrum of solar radiation than in the earlier cells.

With this approach Nanosolar has achieved lower cost of semiconductor and substrate materials, nearly nil rejection rate of produce, continuous production with least human error and economies of scale. It’s a breakthrough in fabrication technology. Nanosolar is building a large production facility and mass sales will begin this year. It plans to make roofing panels with pre-installed solar cells. They will also sell flexible solar cell sheets. Because these cells are bendable one can conceivably unroll a carpet of cells on a desert and draw power from it.

You can evaluate the maturity of their business from the fact that Google’s legendary founders spotted it in 2002 and became angel investors. A senior executive from IBM joined them and Nanosolar has effortlessly raised $100 million to build a factory. It is targeting sales of $100 billion by 2020. Not inconceivable at all. Nanosolar

http://www.nanosolar.com/7areasofinnovation.htm

[DG]

Originally Posted by smussuw

Dubai use solar power for parking machines and some radars.

and also for some road lights..

[Durbsboi]

Solar power is the best way of haversting electricty, but the costs are madness, the panels & the storage batteries cost a fortune, & the power that does get stored are mainly used for things like lights & small plugs, never for big equipment.

I am making a small prototype here in SA, coz our nuclear plant is going thru crap & the country is suffering from ALOT of power cuts, so generators are being sold like theres no tomorrow.

[SunSet]

I think that there should be a law that for people who use a certain amount of electricity per week or more should install solar panels... i don't think that are alot of retailers providing solar power systems for housing in the UAE and the very few that ara available are very expensive... however i believe that they're an investment in the long run... i think that more and more people are becoming aware of this and are starteing to use solar panels... we have recently installed solar pannels in our farm house since its in the middle of the desert and there is a high abundance of sun and it works fine..however it was very expensive.

[Dubai_Steve]

The price is comming down fast. Soon it will extremely cheap to install with new panel technology.

[Naz UK]

Dubai needs to be worried about water-shortages before they begin worrying about renewable energy. Ok..maybe both at the same time..but I strongly feel the water issue is more paramount right now than energy.

[Dubai_Steve]

There is plenty of water in the sea. Use solar power to clean and desalinate it.

[M@lte]

imagine all villas on palm jumeirah and in jumeirah lakes beeing equiped with solar cells... that would save enough electricity to switch off a few powerstations in dubai