Today is a good day to save the world.
The climate crisis is the greatest threat to our world as we know it. If we want to preserve the livelihoods of our children, we will need an energy supply based exclusively on renewable energies in just half a generation. Science and industry have developed the solutions for us. We all have to act together. You can find more information about this on my website.
Technology Fundamentals
Understanding Solar Cells
Solar cell, photo effect, holes and photons? Explanations of the principles of a solar cell are normally hard to follow by non-experts. However, this is also possible in a clear and understandable way as you can see at the following book excerpt.
Photovoltaic Systems
This article describes the basics of direct solar electricity generation using photovoltaic systems, looking at the different cell and module types and the related technology.
Solar Thermal Water Heating
An enormous market in China, ambitious targets in the EU … but what are the basics of solar water heating? This article describes the principles and technology for using solar energy to heat water, and looks at applications for domestic hot water and space heating.
Solar Thermal Power Plants
Many people associate solar electricity generation directly with photovoltaics and not with solar thermal power. Yet large, commercial, concentrating solar thermal power plants have been generating electricity at reasonable costs for a lot of years.
Background Information
The Final Battle
The energy transition to renewable energies comes too fast for the big German utilities. They have ignored the upcoming energy transition for many years and had installed the wrong power plants. Solar energy is going to destroy their business model right now. This is why we see the final showdown between solar energy and the classical energy industry. Solar energy seems to kick them out of the grid soon.
The Sun as an Energy Resource
The sun is the source of the life on our planet Earth and, directly or indirectly, is the fuel for most renewable systems. Photovoltaic and solar thermal systems, as well as solar thermal power stations, convert solar irradiation directly into useable energy. This article gives an overview of the solar energy resource.
Data and Statistics
Statistics
Normally statistics are not very interesting. In the field of renewable energies and climate protection they show the ongoing development. This leads to trends that are surely not boring. Therefore, this data service offers material on different subjects.
Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Concentration in Atmosphere
Only 10 countries are responsible for about two thirds of the global carbon dioxide emissions. The global emissions from fuel combustion have more than doubled since 1970 and increased 15 times since beginning of the last century. If this trend continues extreme climate changes are unavoidable.
Specific carbon dioxide emissions of various fuels:
How to calculate carbon dioxide savings?Renewable electricity generation in Germany:
steady growthRenewable electricity capacity in Germany:
success story of wind powerOnline Tools
Online Tools
A collection of interesting tools helps with the calculations for several problems. If you need to convert energy units, calculate the performance of wind power plants or estimation the position of the sun, you will find the solution here.
Sun position calculation:
when is it sunrise where?Unit of energy calculator:
conversion of kJ, kWh, kcal and moreUS to metric unit converter:
Fahrenheit, cups and acresWind park performance analysis:
this amount of electricity can be expectedMiscellaneous
Data of Sun and Earth
The sun is the center point of our sun system and origin of all life. Even the fossil energy sources are stored solar energy. Most of the renewable energy sources also come directly or indirectly from the sun. The following table compares the most important data of sun and earth.
Conversion factors for units of energy:
look-up tablePublications
Publications
You can find books, journal papers, conference papers and more in this section.