Natwerk Designs

how to design a solar panel to store energy and convert it into electrical energy?

first of all, to be honest i have totally no idea on how a solar panel works. my task is to design something like a solar powered street lamp which store sun energy during day time and convert it into electrical energy then light energy so that the lamp can work during night time. any ideas on how to design the solar panel? which can store enough or more enegry in case there is no sunlight another day. and low cost as well :D

Public Comments

1. solar panels are designed to charge 12v batteries, now depending on the power you need you can determine what kind to use there are many power ratings for the modules, for example if you want to charge two 12v batteries you can connect them in parallel, if you want to reduce the charging time you can use more than one module in parallel to increase the power.
2. solar panels change light into electricity, and do NOT store power. You need a solar panel capable of enough power to keep the light on all night. And that may be 6 hours of sun and 12 hours of dark. Then you need a set of batteries large enough to hold that energy. And a charge controller to regulate the charge into the batteries. And then a light that will operate on the battery voltage, say 12 volts. This is probably not practical due to the large solar panel required, and the large batteries. But here is a few numbers. Assume a 100 watt light at 12 volts. Assume you get at least 6 hours of sun every day and the light will be on for 12 hours. That means the battery has to store 100*12=1200 watt hours. divide by 12 and that is 100 amp-hours, a large auto battery size. Allowing for 20% losses in the battery and circuitry, that means you nee 1400 watt hours from the solar panel. Since it has 4 hours to operate, that means it has to deliver 1400/4 = 350 watts at 15 volts. So there it is: 350 watt panel 100 amp hour battery charge controller sized for above 100 watt light. If you have to allow for a day with no sun, then you need more batteries. Two nights means 2400 watt-hours, two batteries, a larger charge controller and a 2800/4 = 700 watt panel. cost: $400 for batteries $200 for charge controller $2000 for panel .
3. You can store solar energy in the form of heat using readily available materials with high specific heat capacities such as water, earth and stone. Phase change materials such as paraffin wax and Glauber's salt are another thermal storage media. These materials are inexpensive, readily available, and can deliver domestically useful temperatures (approximately 64 °C). The fluid containing the heat is transported to a heat engine where about a third of the heat is converted to electricity. Also ,Off-grid PV systems have traditionally used rechargeable batteries to store excess electricity. With grid-tied systems, excess electricity can be sent to the transmission grid. Net metering programs give these systems a credit for the electricity they deliver to the grid. This credit offsets electricity provided from the grid when the system cannot meet demand, effectively using the grid as a storage mechanism. I think these links ca be helpful: http://www.thermonamic.com/Pspec.html http://www.varmaraf.is/engl/prod.htm http://www.powerchips.gi/ http://www.dts-generator.com/ http://www.hi-z.com/ http://www.remote-site.com/thermo.com