Solar Thermal and solar PV complete set up

Automatic Dual-Axis Tracking Solar Dish with Stirling Engine: Off-Grid Demo:

Solar thermal technology and solar PV technology are two main types of capturing and using the sun’s energy. When we use the heat or concentrated heat of the sun, the technology is called solar thermal. While when we use photo-voltaic cells to generate direct current electricity, the technology is called solar PV. This setup helps in training solar photovoltaic installers

Setup Includes:

GREENBMG's off-grid demonstration setup shows the fundamentals of solar PV and solar thermal energy in the same setup. It is composed of:

● A PV panel

● charge controller

● 12 V battery

● Inverter

● automatic sun tracker that operates a Stirling engine.

How It Works

● Sunlight first is received by the panel and a DC current of 12-17 volts is generated

● The current is sent to a charge controller.

● The charge controller charges a 12-V battery and it prevents the battery from overcharging.

● An inverter changes the DC current from the battery to 110V AC electricity.

● The tracker motors use this electricity to track the sun.

● The sun rays are concentrated by an off-center dish.

● The Stirling engine changes the concentrated heat into mechanical work and rotates a flywheel.

● The flywheel rotates a generator to generate electricity.

Definitions

Charge controller:

A device that regulates the voltage or current to keep the battery from overcharging

Inverter:

A device that converts direct current (DC) into alternating current (AC).

Multimeter:

an instrument designed to measure electric current, voltage, and resistance

Lux meter:

A device used to measure the amount of light, or brightness

Solar power meter:

A device that can measure solar power or sunlight in units of W/m2