SOLAR BALLOONS SUPPLY ENERGY IN REMOTE AREAS.

Giant solar balloons, high in the air can become one of the cheapest and easiest ways for providing electricity. This will be suitable especially for isolated regions where there is no appropriate infrastructure for constructing traditional energy systems. The world desperately needs renewable energy resources, which will substitute the old fashion damaging fossil fuels. The contractors on the other hand have become more ambitious to get a guarantee part in the pure energy market, which was more than 150 billions USD last year.

One of the pioneers in this field is “Southern California Edison”, which recently announced her plans for building the largest photovoltaic solar system in USA with power of 250 MW. This is enough for supplying with electricity of 162 000 households. As far as the sunniest places on Earth are located other in the middle of the oceans or deep in the deserts, the solar balloons (developed from the Israeli Institute “Technion”) are capable of harness this unused otherwise energy.

“The idea is to take advantage of the height dimension” Pini Gurful said. “In this way we will save a lot of land resources and also reach hard to get places”. The “Technion” solar balloons are full with helium and covered with thin solar panels; they rise to few hundred meters in the air and are connected with a wire for a transformer, which convert the solar energy to electricity. The system will be ready within a year, said Gurfil.

According to the researches a balloon with 3 meters in diameter can generate 1 KW electricity, the same as 25 sq. m. traditional solar panels. This amount of electricity I enough for feed a dryer or a washing machine. The 25 sq. m. solar panels cost at around 10 000 USD, the solar balloon though costs less than 4000 USD. The saving comes from the lack of supporting infrastructure, explained Gurfil. The balloons do not pollute the air, they do not have a negative influence on the environment. The helium, with which they are filled, exists in the nature and it is not dangerous. The system not only saves land, which in this case may be used for other purposes, but also material resources like metal, glass (used in the building process of the ground solar panels).

The system though may not become as popular as the development team hoped. One reason is that the solar panels can be installed on roofs and unusable land. The most expensive is the solar panel itself, but its price is reducing during the last years. Even in dark England there can be seen a lot of solar installations on roofs, said Jeremy Laggett, manager in “Colar century” company. There is plenty of low value land which can be used for solar “farming”, especially in the region of the Mediterranean.

According to John Loughhead, exclusive director at the UK Energy research Center, the project with the solar balloons can succeed but it can be used only in particular conditions. The advantage is if the land around is used for another purposes or if there is no land and the balloon is attached to a ship at sea. The balloons can fly a year before they begin to let out air and need to be inflated again. The solar panels with which they are covered are thick 0.2 mm, and the balloon’s weight is only 2.5 kg. According to the architect of the research team the balloons will purposely get more aerodynamic form in the future to decrease the wind influence and to increase the sun acceptance. The bigger version can be in the shape of zeppelins.

1. SunPower and Iberdrola Renewables Sign Contract to Build 30-Megawatt Solar Power Plant in Colorado

     SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWRA, SPWRB) has recently announced an agreement with Iberdrola Renewables to design and build a 30-megawatt...

2. Advantages And Disadvantages Of Solar Power

   Advantages Fuel source without limit Free main source is the sun Environment friendly, clean, do not contribute to global warming,...

3. Exelon and SunPower Together In US Largest Urban Solar Power Plant

   10-megawatt solar installation would turn Chicago South Side brownfield site into a source of low-carbon electricity CHICAGO (April 22, 2009)...

4. New Black-Framed String Ribbon™ Solar Panels from Evergreen Solar

   Evergreen Solar Introduces New Black-Framed String Ribbon™ Solar Panels at Solar Expo 2009 in Verona, Italy May 7, 2009 The...