STEP Solar Thermal Electric Panel

Summary of Phase I

Background

With increased energy costs, driven by a higher demand and dwindling supplies, the search for alternative and renewable energies to compensate or even replace the current energy production technology is very necessary. A properly sized and installed solar energy collection system can be a practical alternative to acquiring all or some of your energy from the power grid.

Solar energy collection is a clean source of energy. The production of solar electric panels do produce some pollution but over the panel’s lifetime it is not as prominent as polluting everyday like current energy production technologies. Although solar electric, or photovoltaic (PV), is still out of reach of having a reasonable payback period, solar thermal is affordable and yields a short payback period. A solar thermal collector can be as easy and inexpensive as a garden hose serpentined on you backyard.

Even if money was not an issue most consumers do not like the look of solar energy collection systems. Our main goal was to integrate the solar systems into the roof to demonstrate that solar can be aesthetically appealing.

The knowledge gain for the students working on this experiment is priceless. Theory and simulations are useful tools in the classroom but the challenge of implementing such a test can serve well in future situations in life. Also, people in the community have been very interested in the experiment we proposed and they can never get enough information on solar power. The interest has always been there, if the price was right more people would use solar technology.