TIME FOR SOLAR ENERGY
While there is no official definition of a solar farm it is essentially an area of land on which a large number of solar panels are deployed to generate electricity-producing with no noise and no harmful emissions. More specifically solar farms are large arrays of interconnected solar panels that work collectively to gain sunlight and convert it directly into electricity. I am ensuring some knowledge on solar farms below but if you require some extra acquaintance contact Insta Dissertation.
The
electricity so generated is cabled to one or more (depending on the size of the
solar farm) inverters, electrical power converters that change direct current
(DC) into alternating current (AC), electricity. The output can be utilised on-site
but it is usually fed into the national grid. A typical solar farm generates
some five-megawatt peak (MWp) which would provide electricity for up to 1,200
houses with a carbon dioxide saving of 500 grams per kilowatt-hour (g/kWh).
Such a solar farm would require 15 hectares of land with about 30 per cent of
the total area being covered by up to 20,000 solar panels. The individual solar
panels measure 1.6*1.0 meters and their upward-facing surfaces are made from
toughened glass with an anti-reflective coating to maximise the light captured
by the solar cells.
The
solar panels are mounted in arrays on aluminium and steel frames and inclined
at an angle of 25 per cent between 1.0 and 2.65 meters above the ground, thus
providing clearance for habitats and plants to remain in situ and they are
usually laid out in rows and interspaced to facilitate access and to minimize
shading. Solar farms usually have a secure perimeter fence and are often sited
behind existing or new hedges planted to screen them. Maintenance
is normally straightforward and relatively minimal involving performance
monitoring; defects analysis, diagnosis, and replacement; landscape
maintenance; annual inspections; and security.
The
world’s first small solar farms were built in California in the early 1980s but
development was slow until 2004 when changes in the financial incentives for
solar power generation was introduced in Germany which led to the development
of a new generation of solar power plants. Within the last decade, increasingly
large solar farms have been developed in a number of countries including China,
USA, Mexico, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, France, and the UK. The solar
farm developed on a former military airfield at Neuhardenberg in Germany and
opened early in 2013 is the world’s largest installation and has a generating
capacity of 145 MW and it provides power to some 48,000 homes. Spain also has
substantial solar power generating capacity and its largest development at
Olmedilla, in Castille-La Mancha, has a generating capacity of 50 MW, providing
electricity for 40, 000 homes and will displace two million tonnes of carbon
dioxide emissions during its 25-year life span. Globally the geography of solar
farms reflect a number of factors including operational economics, global
solar energy potential and access to the national grid. 177 Solar farm
development Downloaded by United Arab Emirates University on 12 March 2016 (PT)
The operational economics, more particularly consistently advantageous fiscal
financial support and grid parity, has been particularly important in
influencing the distribution of solar farms.
Looking
to the future, the geographical pattern of solar farms may change as different
regions achieve grid parity. Worldwide solar energy potential is at its lowest
in high latitudes and at its highest in desert areas of Africa and Australia
but access to national electricity grids, more particularly proximity to electricity
substations or power connectors is important because of power losses from
cables increases with distance. That said some of the world’s densely populated
areas including parts of Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, the southern USA, South America, Western Europe and the coastal cities of Australia
offer suitable levels of solar energy potential. Access to the national electricity
grids, more particularly proximity to electricity substations or power
connectors are important because power losses from cables increase with
distance.
The
solar farms are built in good quantity to resolve the electricity issues. Solar
energy is the most abundant of all renewable energy sources and the development
pressures for solar farms have grown rapidly in the last six years.
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