Ap Euro Dbq

Sarmad Kako 7th period DBQ Essay The Thirty Years War devastated all of Europe from 1618-1648. The thirty Years war was principally fought throughout Central Europe and involved most of the countries in Europe. The origins of the conflict and goals of the participants were complex, and no single cause can accurately be described as the main reason for the fighting. Initially, it was fought largely as a religious war between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire, although disputes over internal politics and the balance of power within the Empire played a significant part.A major consequence of the Thirty Years' War was the devastation of entire regions, denuded by the foraging armies. Famine and disease significantly decreased the population of the German states and Bohemia, the Low Countries, and Italy, and most of the combatant powers were bankrupted. These statements and the thirty years war all led to: The fall of Spain, France’s aggression to win, and absoluti sm in France. In the two treaties of the Thirty Years War, France replaced Spain as the most powerful country in Europe. Spain was unable to recover so quickly from her great losses: she was not only without funds, but without credit, incapable of any great effort in terms of money or man-power†¦Her king was old and in dubious health; he had just one son, young and rather feeble†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Document 3, this was said by King Louis XIV. Louis XIV shows bias in this document by presenting the flaws and exaggerating Spain’s situation; making it seem like Spain was going to fall and no one will be/is there to rule it. He made it seem like there was no competition, only him left.The Spanish navy was badly crushed and Portugal revolted against Spanish rule, corrupting Ferdinand II. Louis XIV aggression to win most made huge statements across Europe. King Louis XIV in document 3 along with document 5 shows tons of bias; he only talks about how great France is and how they woul dn’t make it without his foreseeing and support. France had many allies during the thirty years war for example, France. King Louis XIV talks about how he couldn’t have won alone, but it was mainly his success. In the course of this war I flatter myself that I demonstrated what France, unaided, can achieve†¦All of my subjects supported me to the best of their ability: in the armies, by their valour, in my kingdom, by their zeal, and in foreign lands† Document 5. Louis XIV was very one sided and believed France was above everyone else. In addition, France was backed by Sweden, from what you see in Document 2 Sweden soldiers thought of peasants as sub-human and believed they freely act without judgment.After the thirty years war was over, France sprung into the age of absolutism. King Louis XIV fought to eliminate Protestants and the practicing of their faith in France. King Louis XIV’s ideas were always respected and no one dared to cross judge his ide as; as said in Document 7, â€Å"All the eyes are fixed on him alone; it is to him that all the wishes are addressed; he alone receives all the respects; he alone is the object of all hopes†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Even though France had a Protestant population, Louis XIV wanted France to be pure of Protestants and their believing’s.The Thirty’s Years war devastated all of Europe; financially, economically, and politically. So great was the devastation brought about by the war that estimates put the reduction of population in the  German states. Catholics and Protestants went to war in the Holy Roman Empire due to the power struggle that could hold on no longer. France was completely bankrupted (Document 9) and sent famine across Europe. The thirty years war all led to: The fall of Spain, France’s aggression to win, and absolutism in France.

All Consuming Images

What is Ewen trying to understand in regards to the ‘politics’ of style and what are his research questions? Which methods does he use to conduct this analysis? Ewen in his study of style is trying to understand how this came to be of â€Å"utmost† importance in our society. Obviously, considering himself a scholar and trying to make an impact on his students, Ewen is perplexed, when after reviewing the impact of the mass media on our society, the most important question a student can ask him, is â€Å"Where did you get your shoes? † Why does it matter? This is what Ewen wants to understand. When did style become representative of all that we are?And how did become tied to social power. Ewen, although able to recognize the symbols of style in our society, through images on magazines, fashion, interior design, found it difficult to define what style is, and the â€Å"universal preoccupation† with style in this society. Ewen believed that understanding this preoccupation, would ultimately provide an understanding of this contemporary culture. Ewen was curious of this notion, that made such an impact on our society, yet lacked concrete understanding. Style is elusive, yet craved by everyone. â€Å"This conception of style is both perceptive and confounding. The idea that styleis a way that the human values, structures, and assumptions in a given society are aesthetically expressed and received is a powerful insight. † Ewen found that the concept of style was often determined by current fads or modes of behavior. Style can be defined by its currency, and also defined by its consumption. â€Å"One of the main points of a style is that it will not remain current. † Ewen asked his students to write an essay entitled â€Å"What Style Means to Me. † He established the ground rules: †¢ No dictionary definitions †¢ No academic or research papers †¢ Draw on your own experiences and feelings about styleEw en believed that each of their essays would reveal how their definition of style was essentially part of their history and experience. â€Å"Every story could be pursued to reveal many things about the particular individuals and groups that are spoken for: the way people express themselves, the way they conform, the way they rebel. † Ewen found through their essays that their were similarities in that at some point, most of them equated style with consumption and the power of the mass media to define and influence popular notions of style. Ewen wants to determine the meaning of the prominence, significance andconsumption of style, and how it has come to be a contemporary phenomenon. Ewen is concerned about the ability of the mass media to define style and its ability to create a way of life. â€Å"The people we view apparently inhabit a universe of bounty. They wear dresses costing thousands. They live in castles. Their encounters with interior designers lead to unrestrained flights of fancy. Their desires, their fantasies, their whims are painlessly translated into objective forms. There are no conflicts. In the name of â€Å"good taste,† there is no mention of cost. There is no anxiety about affordability. †Style, in contemporary culture, appears to offer the opportunity to have all that one desires, without ever even questioning if it what should be desired. Question 2 Using THREE EXAMPLES from the book, explain at least two ways that personal experience (and/or identity) is related to the politics of style. According to Ewen, the power of style has become an increasingly feature in the lives of individuals. â€Å"Style is a visible reference point by which we have come to understand life in progress. † Take for example the invitation that an individual may receive from American Express, to receive their new Gold Card.â€Å"Only a select group will ever carry the Gold Card. So it instantly identifies you as someone specialâ€⠀œone who expects an added measure of courtesy and personal attention. . . . The Gold Card says more about you than anything you can buy with it. We think it's time you joined the select group who carry it. It is a gesture that speaks volumes. It says you are someone special–whose style of living requires very special privileges. Someone whose financial credentials rank among the nation's highest. Someone who appreciates–indeed, has come to expect–an extra measure of courtesy and personal attention. In fact, the Gold Card in your namesays more about you than almost anything you can buy with it. † This is a promise of â€Å"unspoken prestige. † You will be seen. You will be noticed. The symbols you display, your most valuable possessions, will permit you to stand apart from the crowd. You will be noteworthy and honored. You will be someone. You will have â€Å"joined the select group. † Only the faint remnant of perforations–at the top and bottom edges of the personalized letter–suggests that this promise of individual identity is being made, simultaneously, to a mass of others. This is a typical manner in which the mass media and consumerism do define style, asidentified by Ewen. It speaks to the quality of life that will be held by the person who has the â€Å"Gold Card,† as though being identified as royalty. This person not only has style and power, but already has the American Dream. â€Å"When a rising middle class of merchants began to appropriate the marks of style from the late Middle Ages on, it was a tangible expression of their increasing power, both locally and globally. When they took on the vestments, titles, and properties previously monopolized by the aristocracy, it was because they had assumed a central, increasingly decisive position in the world.While political structures took time to acknowledge their franchise, these merchant capitalists were becoming men of power. † Acc ording to Ewen, this middle class claiming of power, was a mask, to let them feel as powerful as the elite that claimed social power. â€Å"Its symbolic identification with power, this â€Å"middle class† performed, and continues to perform, a political function; it effects divisions among people who otherwise might identify with one another. † Ewen cites the impact of the mass media and its ability to convince the American public of their personal worth as evidenced by their style. â€Å"By the late 1950s, Fortunemagazine asserted, nearly all Americans had the option of â€Å"choosing a whole style of life†: A skilled mechanic who earns $7,500 after taxes may choose to continue living in â€Å"working class† style, meanwhile saving sizable sums for his children's college education; or he may choose to live like a junior executive in his own $17,000 suburban house; or he may choose to live in a city apartment house otherwise occupied by business and prof essional men. When the American â€Å"masses† have options of this breadth, . . . it is scarcely an exaggeration to suggest that we have arrived at a landmark in all the history of human freedoms.(1) people constantly express their personalities not so much in words as in symbols (ie: mannerisms, dress, ornaments, possessions); (2)most people are increasingly concerned about what other people think of them, and hence about their social status. Thus the taste of many Americans is expressed in symbols of various social positions. . . . people tend to buy things that symbolize their aspirations. Our social status and hence our social power are identified by our belongings and those personal possessions that we choose. Question 3 In the closing chapter, Ewen begins by suggesting that â€Å"In American Society today‘image management’ has become both a lucrative business†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and a necessity. He concludes that â€Å"in countless aspects of life the powers of appearance have come to overshadow, or to shape, the way we comprehend matters of substance. † What are his conclusions regarding this form of social control? What do you think of his argument? What began for Ewen as a quest to understand why one student found more importance in his shoes than his message, Ewen uncovered what is perhaps our failing in contemporary society. Image management in contemporary society is a billion dollarbusiness, with people being willing to do whatever it takes, to achieve the perfect status and the perfect image. The perfect image sells! Image is created by an individuals style. For most individuals, style is created by what is identified in the mass media as valuable, status enhancing, and important. Our priorities are in great part determined by what the mass media determines as important. This is a belief that is upheld by not only the commercial industry but our main sources of news: â€Å"If the news helps to promulgate an ongoing cognitiv e confusion, closely related are the dominant channels of political influence.As far back as the presidency of Andrew Jackson, when the vote was extended beyond the propertied classes, political style makers have negotiated between the objective power and interests of ruling elites on the one hand, and rising popular democratic aspirations on the other. Social inequalities of wealth and opportunity were transformed, by the hoodoo of political promotion, into a consensual notion of â€Å"common interest. † I absolutely agree that the perception or attitude represents â€Å"the ascendancy of politics as pure public relations. † If we continue to reduce all social issues to simply matters ofperception, that is the only place where we will see change. If that is how we address social needs, we will only see an image change, rather than real change that is needed. â€Å"The impulse to dissociate images from social experience, or to present images as a surrogate for experie nce, is reiterated throughout our culture. The perpetual repetition of this dynamic–affecting our sense. † Ewen represents a compelling study of the effect of image and style on contemporary society. The value of individuals in this society is determined by their image and their ability to project that image to others.

Philosophy of Emotion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Philosophy of Emotion - Essay Example In view of the prolifertion of incresingly fruitful exchnges between reserches of different stripes, it is no longer useful to spek of the philosophy of emotion in isoltion from the pproches of other disciplines, prticulrly psychology, neurology nd evolutionry biology. While it is quite impossible to do justice to those pproches here, some sidelong glnces in their direction will im to suggest their philosophicl importnce.In this ppr I will criticlly nlys th concpt of motion s it is rfrrd by svrl rsrchs nd philosophrs. I will py spcific ttntion to th dfinition of motion by Solomon nd Russll who invstigtd th phnomnon profoundly nd from diffrnt prospctiv s th mjority of uthors. Philosophrs hv bn concrnd nd oftn worrid bout th ntur of motion sinc Socrts nd th "prSocrtics" who prcdd him, nd lthough th disciplin hs grown up s th pursuit of rson, th motions hv lwys lurkd in th bckground, s thrt to rson, s dngr to philosophy nd philosophrs, s just plin unrsonbl. Prhps tht is why on of th most nduring mtphors of rson nd motion hs bn th mtphor of mstr nd slv, with th wisdom of rson firmly in control nd th dngrous impulss of motion sfly supprssd, chnnlld or, idlly, in hrmony with rson. But nowhr hv th unruly nd thrtning powr of th motions bn mor t odds with wht hs oftn bn clld "rson" thn in th rlm of justic, whr both compssion nd its vicious "ngtiv" countrprt, vngfulnss, hv bn condmnd s disruptiv, irrlvnt nd, t worst, downright dngrous (Jms, 1889). Robert Solomon (1980) spurred both interest nd opposition with his provoctive thesis tht emotions re judgments, lbeit judgments of prticulr kind, chrcterized by their mode of hste nd their evlutive content. Under the influence of (Srtre 1948), he lso dopted the view tht emotions could be understood s strtegic choices, collectively driven by the gol of protecting nd enhncing self-esteem (Solomon 1984). In his more recent work he hs lso written bout the emotionl dimension of justice, nd dvocted n enrichment of emotion theory through cross-culturl perspectives nd the integrtion of scientific perspectives (Solomon 1999). Th rgumnts tnd to focus on th llgd "cpriciousnss" nd "prjudic" of motions, lthough, ltrntivly, thy r ttckd for thir "intrctibility" nd thir stupidity. On th on hnd, consrvtivs lov nothing mor thn to lmbst th "do-goodrs" nd "blding hrts," nmly thos who xprss thir flings rthr thn stick by som bstrct nd oftn ruthlss, but in ny cs "hrd-hdd" thory. On th othr hnd, thr is th g-old insistnc on "th rul of lw," shrd by both librls nd consrvtivs, which insists on "not rturning vil for vil," nd, ccordingly, th forswring nd condmntion of rvng. But compssion nd rvng r but two sids of th sm coin, nd ginst th wisdom tht gos bck to Plto. Rson is not th mstr hr, nor should it b. (Nor, of cours, should it b slv.) Wht must b shown is tht th motions do not nd should not ply n infrior rol in dlibrtions bout justic, nd tht it is fls tht motions r mor primitiv, lss intllignt, mor bstil, lss dpndbl, nd mor dngrous thn rson. Rson nd motion r not two conflicting nd ntgonistic spcts of th soul. Rtionl motions constitut justic, which is nithr dispssiont nor mrly motionl. "I hd been dvised erly in life tht sound decisions cme from

Discussion Question Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 23

Discussion Question - Assignment Example Over 86% of the cities in America report violence each year. Women have also proven to be part of the violence adding up to 8% of the gangsters (ABC News). With this information, the community officials together with the community at large should coordinate to stop the violence. The first way to fight violence is making the youth busy. The government needs to create youth initiatives such as sports or games that will make them busy. The teens also need jobs. Lack of gainful employment makes them indulge in unauthorized activities that end up in violence. Hence, the community must condemn idleness especially in the streets (ABC News). Chicago being on the highlight in violence, the security force in the area needs enhancement. In as much as security is governments role, people in the neighborhood should also be on the watch out to report any suspected cases that can result in violence. Mainly, the residents should form mechanisms for reporting crimes and community policing. They should also help the authorities to inspect and flush out illegal gun holders among them. In addition, parents and guardians, being responsible for their small boys need to educate them on the ill effects of violence and warn them not to get involved (ABC News). In conclusion, enacting organization such as Fight Violence, with a group of youths moving around the streets educating the youths on the effects of violence can result in a positive outcome. Above all, the community needs to come together as one and fight

Philosophy - Article oppression by Irish Young - response

Philosophy - oppression by Irish Young - response - Article Example Exploitation generally depicts the conflicts between and haves and have-nots. It is a major trade union issue of all times, as most of the workers’ unions think that the management is their permanent enemy and the workers need to be in war with it always. In the extreme form of unionism, productivity is lost sight of, resulting in grievous loss to the economy. The working class also suffers in the long run. Marginalization is about those sections that are unable to bear with the stiff competition in the labor market due to variety of factors like loss of employment due to recession, disabilities, racial discrimination, etc. Powerlessness is about the plight of the workers, especially those who are unskilled and are unable to tap the alternative sources of employment due to lack of educational qualifications. Such classes of workers have neither autonomy nor authority and have less chances of improving their job prospectus. They have to carry on with the available facilities. Cultural Dominance refers to the dominance of one group over the other that goes in tandem with cultural expressions and interpretations on the basis of history. Iris Marion Young argues about such attitudes in her book â€Å"Justice and the Politics of Difference, â€Å"The Hebrews are oppressed in Egypt, and many users of the term oppression in West invoke this paradigm.†(41) Violence dominates over a big canvas of societal life. State sanctioned violence, racial segregation, harassment to women in workplace, are some of the prominent examples of oppression in these areas. In this materialistic world impacted by industrial and internet revolutions, Iris Young has correctly assessed the aspects related to various types of oppressions and the anguish they cause in the day to day life of the people in the concerned segments as stated above. Attitudinal differentiation on the basis of sex is the hallmark of societal interactions. In

Discussion Question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 13

Discussion Question - Essay Example In some occasions, family and friends who visited these patients would participate in the prayer sessions. The three patients, who were all Christians, engaged in prayer to get the necessary spiritual strength to deal with the pain and other limitations caused by the disease. These prayers attracted other Christians within the ward, who were suffering from different diseases. These prayers usually helped the patients deal with the pain, and trust God for their healing. The activity was well-received by other Christians in the ward, but there was some resistance from the Muslims. This came from the different beliefs and praying times followed by the Muslim believers. The Christians would pray in the morning and evening, while Muslims pray three times in a day. The Muslim prayers follow a predefined format whereas Christians do not follow given prayer format. This forced the Muslims to engage in their prayers separately from Christians. However, they were free to join the Christians, and some were involved in the Christian prayer. Patients require spiritual support from nurses, who can participate in their spiritual practices or reinforce their spiritual

Send in the Drones Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Send in the Drones - Essay Example A look at the coverage of the Lamont Lieberman senate race in Connecticut will confirm that pack journalism is alive and well and even more void of any creativity, insight, adjectives, or shame. Both Reuters and The Associated Press ran several stories in the hours after the election. The stories echoed the same adjectives and scenarios as they spoke of the anger, anti-war sentiment, and Lieberman's closeness with Bush. The wire services had indeed taken the stand that the vote in the Democratic primary in the land of steady habits was a referendum on the President. The major papers in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago echoed this story. Yet, as reported by Murray on August 9, 2006 in The Washington Post there were other issues on the minds of Connecticut voters such as labor unions, free trade, and women's rights. The mob mentality had left these issues behind because the story that had the legs was the story on the war. Sometimes you can see the mob move by just looking at the sheer volume of coverage on an event. By the first week of August 2006 the major news outlets had the nation riveted on the Democratic primary and focused on the race between Lieberman and Lamont. The Associated Press was pumping out 10 stories a day covering the race and the major dailies were following suit. The NY Times was contributing about 4 a day and the Washington Post was adding another 2 (LexisNexis). By the first week of October 2006 the AP had dropped to less than 10 stories for the entire week. That week, the Washington Post did not even cover the non-event. The last week of October 2006, with the election drawing near, had again seen a modest increase in coverage by both the AP and the New York Times (LexisNexis). By the beginning of September the news of Lieberman and Lamont was already getting scarce. It was often hard to locate the source of the story, but it was certainly getting incestual. Similar stories from Chicago and New York indicate that the news was being drawn from a common pool. The New York Times led a story on September 2, 2006 with, "An independent group, Vets for Freedom, will begin sponsoring television commercials [...] thanking him (Lieberman) for his support of the war in Iraq" (Medina, 5). On September 6, 2006 the Chicago Sun Times relayed the same story that led off with, "Vets for Freedom, an independent group [...] will air an ad in Connecticut [...] thank the incumbent for backing the conflict" (Miga). It's obvious that both papers were drinking from the same well. A September 9, 2006 AP story begins, "[...] Ned Lamont, who recently denounced Sen. Joe Lieberman for his public scolding of President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, lauded the senator at the time for his eloquence and moral authority" (Reitz). The New York Times of the same date worded it this way, "Ned Lamont, who this week chastised Senator Joseph I. Lieberman for his public rebuke of President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, wrote to Mr. Lieberman at the time praising the eloquence of his speech on the Senate floor" (Medina, 4). The NY Times took full credit for the story with no acknowledgment for the AP material. The majors had run out of wire stories and the Times was lost for words, but they hadn't lost their thesaurus. Unfortunately, the chain of evidence is not well

Travel agents Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Travel agents - Essay Example In this way, First Choice can offer discounts, but at the same time they will try selling through their First Choice Brochures as it is offering a greater profit. On the other hand, Althams and PR World are smaller setups with their presence in smaller areas. Companies like PR World relies on repeat orders from satisfied customers. They offer a personalized and customized service to its customers to take repeat orders. In this way, the loyal customers will be there. First Choice deals with tickets and bookings of various airlines and companies whereas PR World also deals with holiday package. In this way they are offering an additional service to its customers, giving them a higher value. Secondly, their service level and quality is better than the other two. This way, they can retain their customers. The First Choice offices have a high street presence which attracts more customers. This way they can offer a wider range of products to a greater number of people. But, Althams and PR World can accommodate customers in their narrow vicinity only, thus they have a narrow customer base to cater to. This difference leads the agents to have different target markets and different set of customers to work for. Ownership of business is another factor that contributes to the performance and working of the agency.

Medium & light industries Essay Example for Free

Medium light industries Essay Medium light industries have also received a significant portion of the industrial development funds because they are less capital intensive than heavy industry and they can generally turn a quicker profit. Chinas textile industry is the largest in the world, which is why its typically referred to on its own as opposed to being grouped within the light industry branch. Chinese enterprises have a competitive advantage in the textile industry because of the abundant supply of cheap resources, which includes labor and raw materials such as cotton. China ranks among the world leaders in the production of coal and oil. Coal is the primary energy source among petroleum, electric power, and coal in China. Therefore, a vast majority of the coal that is mined is consumed domestically. On the other hand, the petroleum industry has expanded beyond the domestic consumption capacity. Thus, the petroleum industry also services foreign markets with crude oil and other refined petroleum products to a certain extent. Services Chinas service sector (tertiary industry) includes many industries such as food beverage, banking financial services, retail trade, commerce, legal services, health services and insurance services. Similar to the manufacturing and industry sector, Chinas service sector has blossomed with the economic reforms of the last two decades. Before the reforms Chinas service sector was virtually non-existent. Today the service sector has grown to account for 33.8% of the countrys GDP (2002 est.). Retail trade has taken in Chinas urban areas. The roads are now lined with a multitude of privately owned shops and street markets. In the larger towns and cities immense shopping centers and department stores are also common. Western food and beverage chains such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and McDonalds are also popping up in residential areas. Before the reforms, tourism was very limited because government policies prevented almost all foreigners from visiting China. Today this industry is receiving more attention because the government sees this market as an opportunity to earn foreign dollars. To accommodate tourism many hotels have been built, airline destinations within the country have grown and historic sites, such as the Great Wall, have been opened to foreigners. The communications industry has also benefited from the economic reforms. The telecommunications industry boomed during the 1990s and now telephone service can be found in basically every locality although only 16.7% of households have a phone. Today there are many magazines and over 2,000 newspapers published across China. Radio and television broadcast are also in abundant supply reaching 75% of the population although only 1 citizen out of 3 owns a television. The States heavy hand compels the media to refrain from reporting on politically sensitive issues. As a result, the media adheres to a strict code of self regulation to ward off further government manipulation. Trends and Outlook According to the official figures reported for real GDP, Chinas economy grew to $1,405.95 billion, an increase of 9.1% which is higher than the rate that was forecasted. Government officials speculated that with the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus across China the consequences would be felt in the form of an underperforming economy, especially in the services sector. Therefore, an annual growth of 7-8% was predicted although many in the economic community felt this figure was too low. Chinese officials arent intentionally sandbagging the forecasts. Instead they are still acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to make accurate macroeconomic forecasts, which can be quite difficult in China whose economic statistics are generally misrepresented, especially at the provincial and local levels. The following 2 graphs illustrate Chinas GDP, CPI RPI since 1996. After falling 0.8% in 2002, Chinas consumer price index (CPI) increased slightly in 2003 by 1.2% compared to the previous year. By location, CPI increased by 0.9% in urban areas and by 1.6% in rural areas. The increase in CPI is somewhat misleading because of state interference. Although price controls for commodities are virtually nonexistent, the state indirectly influences the prices for 13 broad categories of items such as electric power, transportation, communication, and some services. Retail prices continued to drop by 0.1% from the 2002 level, which has been on a downward trend for 6 consecutive years. Analyst believe this downward trend is an indicator that China might not be able to sustain or create the needed high levels of consumption and investment required to fix the structural problems that plague the countrys economy, especially from the private sector. China essentially fixes (pegs) the exchange rate of the yuan to the U.S. dollar allowing it to float against other currencies in accordance with changes in the values of the dollar. Although officials recognize the need to eventually switch over to a market-based exchange rate mechanism, the time frame for implementing such a mechanism hasnt been defined. Consequently, the yuan exchange rate remained relatively stable in 2003. Chinas balance of payments remained in a strong position as a result of interest rates that fell for countries in the west (United States) and due to Chinas current account which continued its good standing. Although the trade surplus was $25.5 billion in 2003, this was a decrease from the previous year by $4.9 billion. The countrys foreign exchange reserves saw considerable growth to $403.3 billion, an increase of $116.8 billion compared with 2002 end of year figures. The following 2 graphs depict Chinas foreign exchange reserves and foreign direct investment. The principal growth sectors in China continue to be within the secondary and tertiary industries. The value added in the secondary industry for 2003 was $744.31 billion and $453.84 billion for the tertiary industry which represents an increase of 12.5% and 6.7% respectively over last year. Conversely the value added for the primary industry, which employs half of the labor force, was only $207.8 billion representing a meager growth of 2.5% year-on-year. The continued high growth rates in the secondary industries is fueled by government spending to build the states infrastructure, technical upgrades by leading enterprises, and a tremendous upsurge in the output of steel, which is needed to supply the construction materials and manufacturing equipment required to service real estate development. Although the SARS outbreak had detrimental effects on the retail sales and other service industries, this segment is expected to show signs of a rebound in the near future. This holds true esp ecially for the telecommunications sector. China is now home to the largest wireless and wireline networks in the world and preferential government policies have made this sector very attractive. Although its not reflected in official figures, Chinas labor surplus continues to be problematic for the economy. Income inequality is also an area of concern where urban residents annual disposable per capita income amounts on average to $928 compared to rural figures of $298 which is will below the World Banks $1 per day, i.e. $365, poverty line standard. Other main problems that quell economic and social development include energy shortages, a weak legal structure, corruption, nonperforming loans, inefficient state operated enterprises and most important a socialist system that interferes too much with pricing, interest rates fees, and general market control. TRADE China ranks 4th in the world for exports at $431.6 billion based on 2003 estimates, trailing the United States, German, and Japanese exports. On the other hand, 2003 estimates indicate that the PRC ranks 3rd in the worlds imports at $397.4 billion. The trade balance between the values of imports and exports continued Chinas long standing trend of having a trade surplus. As Chinas foreign relationships improve and barriers against trade fall, its projected that the trade surplus will eventually diminish in magnitude. The worlds economic community frequently had problems with Chinas human rights policies during the 1990s. American disapproval was particularly poignant to the point that the United States teetered on the verge of withdrawing Chinas normal trading status (historically referred to most-favored-nation trading status). Understanding how important the normal trading status was for the countrys continued growth, Chinese officials radically changed the regulations and rules governing trade and investment. The sweeping reforms were aimed at increasing international competition and investment, decreased protectionism for domestic enterprises by limiting previous barriers on U.S. imports of agricultural and industrial goods, and by decreasing tariffs. In turn, the U.S. Congress ratified legislation in 2000 granting the PRC permanent normal trading status based on the belief that improved trading relations will foster labor, environmental and human rights reforms in China. Regulations and Standards Chinas foreign investment and trade policies have historically lacked transparency. This has resulted in a system that generally creates a great deal confusion when it comes to trade and foreign investment because the rules and regulations governing business activity can not be obtained easily; therefore, they arent applied consistently and they often vary by region. Other downsides include poor protection of intellectual property, unequal treatment between domestic and foreign companies, and an inadequate mechanism for resolving disputes. December 11th, 2001, marked Chinas accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Even though China is now a standing member of the WTO, the PRC still has a long way to go to adopt all the necessary WTO regulations, which is being accomplished through reforms and the passage of new legislation. Chinas entry into the WTO has not only improved the countrys growth potential but it will also service the Chinese people by improving labor, environmental, and human rights conditions, which will ultimately affect the Chinese culture to a certain degree. Significant changes resulting from the WTO accession include tariff cuts and a dramatic expansion of trading rights in 2002. In 2003, China further reduced tariffs and reformed its tax system in an effort to lessen the distinction between foreign and domestic enterprises based on the principle of national treatment. Quotas on imported goods have also been considerably lowered. The latest change deals with the WTOs transparency requirement. As of July 1st, 2004, the Chinese government promulgated reforms for business licensing. In the past enterprises wishing to do business with China had to undergo an approval process through the Ministry of Commerce which was time consuming, cumbersome, and not clearly defined. The new system utilizes a registration process that is clearly defined and easily accessible with little or no barriers to trade for individuals or legal entities seeking import and or export licensing. Therefore, the registration process is expected to remove yet another trade barrier by making Chinas market more accessible to foreign entities wishing to operate within and to China.

Chemistry and Computers Essay Example for Free

Chemistry and Computers Essay But often the device simply acts as the electronic equivalent of an on-off switch. When on, it completes a circuit and lets current flow; when off, it breaks the electrical path. †¢ lone transistors suck- strength in numbers †¢ Transistors are possible because the semiconductors they’re built from—elements like silicon and germanium—have one strange and very useful property: They carry electricity better than insulators, such as glass, but not as well as conductors—aluminum for example. Scientists can push a semiconductor’s conductivity one way or the other by doping—adding small amounts of impurities. (Arsenic and boron are two of the commonly used elements. ) â€Å"When you dope silicon you make it act differently,† says Shahidi. â€Å"It can act like an insulator or as a metal. † Doping specific areas of a semiconductor in different ways is what creates a transistor enables its switching action. †¢ Experts have been working for many years to understand how to work with electronic material produced on an increasingly small scale. In the emerging field of nano-science and nano-technologies it is important for scientists to be able to control the structure and bonding of molecules that are used in creating small scale electronic components for products such as computers. Scientists have succeeded in imaging and forming a unique bond between a single gold atom and a single organic molecule called a pentacene. They managed to bind the atom to the pentacene and take images of rearrangements of the electrons participating in the formation of the chemical bond.

Design Of A PV-Diesel Hybrid System

Design Of A PV-Diesel Hybrid System Design Of A PV-Diesel Hybrid System And Its Comparison With Grid Connected System In Pakistan 1. Project Background And Introduction Introduction The project with respect to this thesis is to design a PV Diesel hybrid system and to compare it with already existed grid connected system. This system is designed for a Jamia Masjid (Islamic center) in Pakpattan, Pakistan. The exact site of the project is a colony of Pakpattan which is in the south-west of the city Pakpattan. The Pakpattan city is situated around 161 Km south west to Lahore. The climate and weather data is almost same for Lahore and Pakpattan. Furthermore it will be first project of its own nature in this area and it will help to design the systems for the residential areas by which a common person can get benefits and get rid of power failures. Pakistan is located between latitude 24 and 37 degrees North and longitude 62 and 75 degrees East. Pakistan has Afghanistan in the north-west, Iran on west boarder, India is on the east, China in the north and the Arabian Sea is on the south. Pakistan is ageographical centre of the Asian Continent because it builds a type of bridge between Far East and Middle East; also it has a continental type of climate which can be characterized by extreme variations of temperature. Generally the climate of Pakistan is arid, means very high temperature in summer and low temperatures in winter. High altitudes change the climate in the freezing northern mountains which are covered with snow. There is little rainfall. There are some differences exist distinctly in various locations, e.g. the coastal line along Arabian Sea is usually under warm conditions, whereas the Karakoram mountain range and some other mountains of far north are so cold, completely frozen and covered with snow that these are only visible and accessible by some international world-class climbers for a couple of months of May and June of each year. The variation of daily temperature could be 11 0C to 17 0C but in winters the minimum mean temperature is about 4 0C in January. Pakistan has tremendous recourses of energy but unfortunately due to mismanagement out of 170 million population just 65-70% has access to electricity. Demand is more than supply of energy to residential and industrial sector. Currently Pakistan is facing 3000 MW of power storage and it is expected that in year 2010 the demand will exceed supply by 5500 MW. The current power and electricity demand and supply gap shows that there is a big need to increases the current power generation capacity in Pakistan. Aim Of The Thesis The main aim of the project is to explain the design phase of a single home PV system. The procedures and details of the design are presented with step by step. There are main following aims which are supposed to be fulfilled by this thesis. a) To go through and grab the core knowledge of the designing process. b) To get familiar with different tools used for designing and make selection between them. c) Beyond from bookish knowledge, get to know some real and practical aspects of different PV systems and projects. The body and structure of the thesis is mainly divided into four phases. a) Calculation of the primary load for this specific project with the help of PVSYST version 4 b) Division of the load to PV and Diesel Generator according to boundary conditions and design parameters. c) Economical and technical look on already existed grid connected system. d) Comparative study between this newly design system and already existed grid connected system in terms of economics, availability and life time World Energy Situation There are different factors which effect and play an important role in the consumption, demand and availability of energy, for example the consumption by individual user and business is being increased, everyday growing population and new government policies are some of these factors. But the fossil fuels are exhaustible. There are two aspects of the fossil fuels, 1st is their availability and 2nd is those harmful environmental impacts which appear after using and burning of these fossil fuels. It is equally harmful for the present generations as well as for future generations. But with the passage of time more and more people and governments are getting awareness about these impacts. The current energy demand projections can be seen from the facts and figures provided by World Energy Administration (EIA) â€Å"The total world energy consumption increases from 472 quadrillion Btu in 2006 to 552 quadrillion Btu in 2015 and 678 quadrillion Btu in 2030—a total increase of 44 percent over the projection period† Renewable Energy Situation Of The World When the first Renewable Global Status Report was published in 2004, many indicators have shown dramatic gains. In the last four years from the end of 2004 to the end of 2008, solar photovoltaic capacity increased six times which is more than 16 gigawatts (GW). Wind power capacity has been increased 250 percent to 121 GW; the total power capacity from new renewable recourses has been increased 75 percent to 280 GW which includes significant gains in small geothermal, hydro, and biomass power generation. During the same period of time, solar heating capacity become double to 145 gigawatts-thermal, while the biodiesel production has been also increased six times to 12 billion liters per year and ethanol production doubled to 67 billion liters per year. The annual percentage gain for the year 2008 was also very amazing and more dramatic. The growth in Wind energy was 29% and grid connected solar PV by 70%. The capacity of utility scale PV plants also increased during this period. Solar hot water systems also grew by 15%. All around the world the governments are changing the policies about the future energy crises and energy markets and policy. In this race the United States of America became the leader and invested $24 billion for new capacity which is 20% of the total global investment. The United States is also leading in adding the total wind energy capacity and also surpassed Germany who was a wind power leader for a long time. Spain has added around 2.6 GW of solar PV, which is a full half of grid connected installations all around the global and five times increase over Spains 2007 additions. China has doubled its capacity to produce wind energy and now ranked at fourth place all around the world. Another significant and important milestone was that the European Union and the USA added more capacity to produce power from renewable recourses than from conventional energy sources (as gas, oil, coal and nuclear) and it happened for the first time. The industries of Renewable energy boomed mostly during 2008. Global solar PV production was increased by 90% to 6.9 GW in 2008. Energy Profile Of Pakistan The energy profile of Pakistan is inadequate and there are always short falls of energy (electricity) especially during summer. Pakistan needs around 14,000 to 15,000 MW electricity everyday to meet all residential and industrial demands. But Pakistan can produce around 11,500 MW, so it means there is around 3000 MW to 4000 MW short fall. This shortfall was experienced extensively and on its peak this year and affecting industry, commerce and daily life. During this year the shortfall for electricity in rural areas was around 12 to 16 hours and in urban areas it was about 8 to 12 hours. The reasons for this deficiency are limited fossil fuel resources, weak economy and mismanagement of the available energy sources. There are some commercial sources of energy available in Pakistan, they are: Hydro energy; Nuclear energy; Oil and gas; Conventional fuels like agricultural wastes, animal dung and wood fuel. Here, it is an overview of primary energy supplies in Pakistan in MTOE (TOE: ton of oil equivalent. It is an energy unit which is equal to the energy of burning of 1 ton of crude oil which is about 42 GJ) From fig 1.3 it is clear that energy supply of Pakistan is highly dependent on Oil and Gas. Both Oil and Gas contribute more than 79% of total primary energy supplied. The other sources of energy like hydro- electricity, coal, nuclear electricity and imported electricity contribute about 21% of the total share. As energy is essential for all types of production processes. Pakistan has been growing in agricultural and industrial sector during last decade and thats why energy demand is being increased. As population and industry is growing, the daily demand will increase up to 20,000 MW in 2010. Pakistan meets around 75% of its energy needs by oil, gas and hydro electricity production. Natural gas has played an important role to meet the energy needs in recent years. But Pakistan needs to expand its energy resource on permanent bases. In order to overcome this energy shortage, Pakistan needs to expand and develop its indigenous energy resources such as hydropower, wind and solar energy. Pakistan is one of the highest solar insulation areas of the world. Now we will briefly discuss the main energy sources in Pakistan. Natural Gas After the independence of Pakistan in 1952 Sui natural gas field resources in Baluchistan were discovered first time. The production at Sui started in 1955 and was on its peak in 1985. It was the most productive gas field of Pakistan in early 1990s. In FY 1993 it was accounting 46% of production. After that the second largest gas field was discovered which is also located in Baluchistan at Mari, which was contributing 20% of all production. Total 25 gas fields were fully operational in FY 1993. The estimation of recoverable natural gas reserves were estimated around 662.0 billion cubic meters, with an extraction rate around 14.0 billion cubic meters. In order to meet the increasing demand of energy and for future planning, efforts from government are being made to increase the production of gas in the country. To do this exploration activities are the first step. The estimation of recoverable reserves of natural gas was 29.671 trillion cubic feet in January 2009. During July-March 2008-2009 the average production of natural gas was 3986.5 mmcfd (million cubic feet per day) but during the corresponding period of last year it was around 3965.9 mmcfd which shows an increase of around 0.52%. At the moment 26 public and private sector companies are engaged in exploration and production activities of oil and gas in Pakistan. LPG The contribution of LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) is about 0.7% to the total energy supply of Pakistan. LPG is being supplied to many remote areas where the supply of natural gas is not technically suitable. To do this government has changed policies for energy supply and management and as a result of this modification the supply of LPG in 2007-2008 was 601,592 Metric Ton and in last few years the annual cumulative growth rate was 18.2%.years. Around 32,621 MT of LPG was imported during July-March, 2009. CNG The main reason of encouragement of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) use is to improve environment and to decrease the dependency on other fuels. The price difference between petrol and CNG is about 60.0 percent, thats why vehicles are being converted to CNG day by day and around 2.0 Million vehicles are using CNG. The numbers of CNG stations are also increasing day by day and there are around 2,700 established CNG stations in Pakistan which covers an investment of Rs.70 billion. At present Pakistan is the largest CNG user country. Oil The estimation of recoverable reserves of crude oil in total in Pakistan were around 313 million barrels in January 2009. The average production of crude oil during July-March 2008-09 was 66532 barrels per day. The average production of crude oil during last year was 70166 barrels per day which shows a negative growth of 5.2 percent. The average production of oil in Pakistan remained 67,438 BOPD in 2006-2007. Oil and gas development company and limited (OGDCL) was the biggest oil producing company in Pakistan with a production of around 13.261 million barrels which contribute around 54% of the total oil production per year of Pakistan with an average rate of 36,332 BOPD. After that British Petroleum (BP) is the second largest oil producing company with total contribution of 16% of total oil production in Pakistan. BP produces around 4.025 million barrels averagely with 11,029 BOPD. Pakistan oil fields limited (POL) produced around 3.231 million barrels. There are other small oil production companies as well in Pakistan. Coal The total estimation of coal recourses of Pakistan is more than 185 billion tones. Thar coalfield (Sindh province) is the biggest coal source which worth more than 175 billion tones. Pakistans coal is generally ranked from lignite to sub bituminous. The production of coal was decreased in during July-March 2008-09 by 28.8%. About 60.4% of the total coal production is being consumed by the brick kilns industry. Cement industry is also using a large fraction of coal which is around 37.4% and almost all cement industry is being switched on coal from furnace oil. As energy demand is increasing day by day and government is reshaping the energy policies. Due to high prices of imported energy government of Pakistan has decided to increase the share of coal from 05 to 19% in the overall energy mix up to 2030. In view of expected shortfall of energy resources and electricity during the next 10 years the maximum utilization of coal would be needed for power generation and gasification. Accordi ng to government energy security plan, a target has been set which is to generate about 20,000 MW power from coal by 2030 and 50% by 2050. Nuclear Energy: Pakistan is the 7th nuclear power of the world. In 2009, the nuclear power plants contribute up to 2.4% share to the total electricity production in Pakistan. Pakistan has two working nuclear reactors which produce about 425 MW power for the generation of electricity. The third nuclear reactor will be operational in spring of 2010. In Pakistan nuclear power contributes very small to the electricity production. The total generating capacity is around 20 GWe while in 2006; 98 billion kWh gross was generated. First nuclear power reactor was started in 1971 in KANUPP near Karachi and it has small capacity of 125 MWe and it is pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR). The second unit was started in May 2000 and is known as Chashma-1 in Punjab. It has capacity of 325 MWe. It is pressurized water reactor (PWR) and was supplied by Chinas CNNC under safeguards. It is also known as CHASNUPP-1. In December 2005 construction of its twin Chashma-2 was started. It is reported that it cost PKR 51.46 billion (US$ 860 million, $350 million were financed by China). But these sources are not sufficient to overcome this energy crises and Pakistan needs to develop renewable energy sources. Renewable Energy Sources In Pakistan Pakistan is situated in such a special geographic location that it is blessed with abundant and inexhaustible Renewable Energy (RE) resources. These resources can play an effective and considerable role for the contribution towards energy security of Pakistan. When we look into current world energy scenario in general and energy scenario of Pakistan in particular, the development and adoption of RE technologies makes better sense. Government policies and objectives to develop RE technology are also matching with this sense so that the share of RE in overall energy mix should be at least 5% by the year 2030. Wind potential: 0. 346 Million MW Solar potential: 2.9 Million MW Mini Small Hydel: 2,000 MW [9] There is a significant potential of wind energy in Pakistan especially in the coastal belt of Baluchistan and Sindh, and also in the desert areas of Punjab and Sindh. However this renewable energy source has not been utilized. AEDB collected the wind data of all Pakistan from Pakistan Metrological Department and was analyzed. On the basis of this collected data and analysis, it was stated that the coastal belt of Pakistan has a God gifted 60 km wide (Gharo-Keti Bandar) and 180 km long (up to Hyderabad) wind corridor. This wind corridor has the potential to generate 50,000 MW of electricity. AEDB has done other different surveys in Gharo and Jhimpir regions and some coastal area of Baluchistan. After these surveys it is concluded that in the south region most of the remote villages can be easily electrified through micro wind turbines. Furthermore it is estimated that in Baluchistan Sindh and Northern areas more than 5000 villages can be electrified through wind energy. Sincere efforts and aggressive lobbying has been done by AEDB with national and international investors to invest and to make them realize the tremendous potentials of RE. AEBD is in negotiations with international companies to set up their business in Pakistan. However large wind mills have not been installed yet but 30 wind mills for water pumping have been installed on experimental basis in different parts of Baluchistan and Sindh. In southern coastal areas of Pakistan remote villages are currently electrified with energy and so far more than 17 villages have been electrified using micro wind turbines. Around 95% of total electricity generation is from hydropower in Pakistan. But during summer in hottest and driest months of the year it becomes less productive and cannot meet the energy demands. Also, around 70% of the population lives in 50,000 villages. Many of these villages are very far from the main transmission lines and also it is not economically viable to connect these small villages to the main grid due to their small population. On the other hand solar energy has excellent and significant potential. Pakistan is one of those countries which receive solar radiations at high level throughout the year. Every day it receives an average of about 19 MJ/m2 of solar energy. Studies have been already done and solar systems have been developed and tested. There is a list of different projects which are completed by Pakistan council of Renewable energy technology. Potential Of PV In Pakistan The location of Pakistan is very ideal to take advantage of solar energy as a source of energy because Pakistan is in the Sun Belt region. Solar energy is available abundantly and widely distributed all around the country. Following figure shows solar insolation map for Pakistan. The map shows around 200-250 W/m2 per day. The Baluchistan province is very rich in solar energy. It receives around 19-20 MJ/m2 per day averagely which is equal to 1.93-2.03 MWh/ m2 per day with annual 8-8.5 mean annual sunshine hours. These conditions are ideal for PV and solar energy applications. Solar energy is very good option for off-grid villages. There are around 75,000 off-grid villages which contains 4 million homes and every home accommodates around 4-5 people. These off-grid villages are situated in the Baluchistan and Frontier Province. AEDB has set a target to electrify a thousand villages via solar technology by the year 2010. In this respect the first contract has been given to the Sehgal electronics group (Pakistan). Each home which is electrified with PV will have around 400 W power supply and lead acid batteries for overnight storage. There are also other plans to have local production using PV modules with and estimation of this production is around 3MW/year. Possible Routes For Solar PV In Pakistan The global demand of PV equipment is increasing day by day and due to this fact the prices for PV systems, equipment and electricity has gone down remarkably. PV could be exploited in Pakistan through following two routes. Off-grid Or Stand-Alone Sector Stand-alone systems generate electricity independently of the utility grid. Stand alone systems can be a very good option for the remote areas and very deep located villages, where the extension of power transmission lines would be more costly. Also it could be implemented in environmentally sensitive areas as parks, remote homes and cabins. In rural areas, it could be used for solar water pumps and farm lighting. [12] Grid-Connected Sector Grid-connected PV systems supply extra power when the home systems power supply is not sufficient to fulfill the load. These systems remove the need of battery bank. In some situation, utilities allow net metering, by which the owner can sell extra power back to the utility. Current Solar Energy Applications In Pakistan Both PV and solar thermal have a wide range of applications in Pakistan. Although the scale of utilization and adoption has been very small but it has been utilized for last 25 years in Pakistan. Different applications mainly PV and solar thermal applications are summarized as. Photovoltaics Eighteen PV stations were built by the government in the early 1980s to electrify different villages the country. The installed capacity was nearly 440 kW but due to the lack of technical knowledge and follow up, these systems could not perform as required. Currently in Pakistan solar energy is being used for telephone exchanges stand alone rural electrification, cathodic protection, highway emergency telephones and vaccine refrigeration in hospitals. In different parts of Baluchistan, about 20 solar water pumps have been installed for drinking purposes by The Public Health Department. The northern and western area of Pakistan are mostly hilly and mountain areas (Hindu Kush-Himalayas, HKH region), which are blessed with a lot of sunshine with 4-6 kWh/m2 daily average solar radiation. Seven solar stations were installed in this region in the late 1980s for lighting by different companies. The total capacity of these systems was 234 kW. They are not in operation now due maintenance pro blems. SIEMENS Pakistan has installed many stand alone solar systems in Pakistan. On the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway, it has installed power supply systems for many microwave-link repeater stations and more than 350 emergency call boxes. Solar Thermal Applications There are many applications which utilize solar energy directly by utilizing its heat characteristics. Such applications are much simple, low cost and easy to adopt. The applications include heating and cooling of homes and buildings, cooking, water heating for domestic and industrial use and drying agricultural products. A brief description of such applications in Pakistan is given here. Solar Water Heaters This technology is quite mature in Pakistan but very limited because of its higher capital cost as compared to conventional water heaters which operate on natural gas. But in last couple of years it has started to gain popularity because a number of public sector organizations are working to develop low cost solar water heaters. The prices of natural gas and electricity are increasing day by day, so people are adopting solar water heaters and also private sector has already started the production of such heaters. Solar Cooker Different public sector organizations have been working to develop low cost and efficient design solar cookers. In HKH region of Pakistan, more than 2000 solar cookers are in use. This number is very small. It needs to be more popularized. Pakistan needs to reduce the use of precious forest resources as fuel wood and to replace it with solar cookers. Solar Dryers Solar energy can be very good option for drying agriculture products. By this, we can get very good quality products at much less cost. Northern mountainous areas like Gilgit and Sakardu are very rich in fruit production like apricots which used to be wasted by tons every year. But now solar dryers are being used to dry large quantities of fruit, which is leaving a positive effect on the economy of this area. Different NGOs are working for the popularizing and the use of such dryers. Solar Desalination Drinkable water is unavailable in many parts of Sindh, Baluchistan and southern Punjab and it is very critical issue. Underground water is available but it is highly saline. This saline water is not fit for drinking at all and causes many dangerous diseases such as hypertension. Solar energy can be utilized to convert this available saline water into drinkable water. Solar desalination is very simple, low cost and easy to use. Also it is very easy to adopt. A successful solar desalination project is in operation and it is working very fine and helping to change the life style of the population of Gawader in the Baluchistan province. It consists of 240 stills and each can clean 6000 gallons of seawater per day. 2. Basics And Components Of A PV System Basics Of A PV System Photovoltaic is the technology which converts solar energy directly into electricity and this process is carried out though solar cells. Solar cell is a device which converts sun energy into electricity. We can say solar cell as photovoltaic cell as well but solar cell term will be used when the source of light is defined as â€Å"sun† but if it is not defined than we can say it as photovoltaic cell. Now days when entire world is looking for a neat and clean environment and want to meet huge energy requirements without disturbing and populating the environment, sustainable energy sources seems to play their important role. Researchers and scientists from all around the world are looking for these types of renewable sources. They are trying to get the energy needs from these renewable energy sources. The main advantages of using renewable energy sources are 1. Neat and clean environment 2. Yield of energy is higher 3. Safer for electricity production as compared to convention methods (low voltage) 4. Long life times 5. Low maintenance cost 6. Use of natural sources which are being wasted with time. These are the reason, why people prefer renewable energy sources. There are different types of renewable energy sources as 1. Solar energy 2. Wind energy 3. Tidal energy 4. Geothermal energy 5. Wave power 6. Hydropower 7. Bio energy We will discuss solar energy in detail and its related topics in this report. There are different units in a PV system and all these units combine to make a full working PV system. These are PV System Components 1. PV Panels 2. Trackers and tracking system 3. Array DC Disconnect 4. Blocking diodes 5. Charge Controller 6. Battery Bank 7. System Meter 8. Main DC Disconnect 9. Inverter 10. Kilowatt-Hour Meter 11. Backup Generator PV Panels PV panels are the defining components of a PV system, which uses sunlight to make direct current (DC) electricity. Wafers of semiconductor material are used for this purpose. They use light (photons) to produce electricity (photovoltaic effect). When the electricity is generated than it powers our electric loads such as lights, computers, and refrigerators. PV panels differ from each other on the basis of power rating in watts which is based on their maximum power generation capacity. Solar cell is the fundamental and basic building block in a PV system which acts as power conversion unit of this system. There are different types of solar cells now days available having different power about 1 or 2 watts. Usually solar cells are made of single crystal silicon and they are limited to about 25% efficiency. The reason is that they are most sensitive to IRL (infrared light), and the radiations in this region of electromagnetic spectrum are relatively low in energy. Another type of solar cells is Polycrystalline solar cells. They are made by a special casting process. In this process molten silicon is being poured into a mould, allowed to cool down and then it is sliced into wafers. By this process we can make relatively cheaper cells as compared to single crystal cells, but their efficiency is less than 20%. The reason is that there is internal resistance on the boundaries of silicon crystals which affects the efficiency. The third type of solar cells is amorphous cells and they are made by a special process in which silicon is deposited onto a glass substrate from a reactive gas such as silane (SiH4). These types of solar cells are used in solar powered watches and calculators, but now days bigger modules are also manufactured. They are also rather cheap and their efficiency is only up to 10%. The reason is, since amorphous silicon cell has no crystal structure and there are much internal energy losses. Solar cells are not just restricted to semiconductor materials; solar cells are available now days which convert sun light into electricity by organic molecules. Their efficiency is up to 10%. Apart from various types of silicon, other materials can also be used to make solar cells like cadmium telluride and gallium arsenide. There are different types of cell packings. The most common are raw cells, and they are often with cover sheet. Now we have discussed solar cells. These solar are combined together to make a module to get boosted power for practical purposes. Than these modules are combined together to make a panel, these panels are joined together to form a big array. Trackers And Tracking System Solar tracker is a device on which solar panels are fitted and the motion of the sun is tracked through this device. It ensures that the maximum amount of sunlight will strike to the panel throughout the whole day. Actually it is a mounting rack which follows the sun constantly. By using trackers, we can utilize maximum sunlight and thus can produce more electricity. In the morning time, it is low on eastern horizon while at the sunset it is low at western horizon. But at noon the position of sun is very high in the sky. This motion is due to the rotation of earth. Trackers keep PV modules perpendicular to incoming sun radiations and maximize the energy production. The increment in the energy production using trackers depends on the site and the type of tracker. Usually energy production increases 25 to 40% annually, which is shown in more detail in the following figure. To get maximum efficiency tracker must be placed in a suitable location. A good tracker site is that on which sun can be seen very early in the morning time and receive sunlight until sunset. There should be no solar obstructions like trees and buildings on the site or near the site in order to work perfectly. Before considering the tracker into system design, an evaluation of the site is done using Solar Pathfinder. Trackers are usually mounted on ground and use a heavy steel pole which is sunk into a concrete foundation. There are some systems where the trackers are mounted on the roofs, but it can create structural problems. There are two basic types of trackers. 1. Electrically operated 2. Thermally operated Thermally Operated Trackers These trackers are based on mass transfer from one side to the other side of the tracker to track the sun. This transfer of mass causes the tracker to turn from east to west by following the sun. Actually two tubes filled with Freon (which vaporizes and become gas) are mounted on east and west sides of the tracker. With the sunlight, the temperature of Freon becomes higher on one side of tracker, it starts to become vapors. These vapors take more space than as compared to the liquid Freon, which pushes Freon (liquid) to the other side. This transfer of mass from the one side to the other side of the tracker causes the change in the balance of tracker which eventually rotates it to the west. Usually they are slow Design Of A PV-Diesel Hybrid System Design Of A PV-Diesel Hybrid System Design Of A PV-Diesel Hybrid System And Its Comparison With Grid Connected System In Pakistan 1. Project Background And Introduction Introduction The project with respect to this thesis is to design a PV Diesel hybrid system and to compare it with already existed grid connected system. This system is designed for a Jamia Masjid (Islamic center) in Pakpattan, Pakistan. The exact site of the project is a colony of Pakpattan which is in the south-west of the city Pakpattan. The Pakpattan city is situated around 161 Km south west to Lahore. The climate and weather data is almost same for Lahore and Pakpattan. Furthermore it will be first project of its own nature in this area and it will help to design the systems for the residential areas by which a common person can get benefits and get rid of power failures. Pakistan is located between latitude 24 and 37 degrees North and longitude 62 and 75 degrees East. Pakistan has Afghanistan in the north-west, Iran on west boarder, India is on the east, China in the north and the Arabian Sea is on the south. Pakistan is ageographical centre of the Asian Continent because it builds a type of bridge between Far East and Middle East; also it has a continental type of climate which can be characterized by extreme variations of temperature. Generally the climate of Pakistan is arid, means very high temperature in summer and low temperatures in winter. High altitudes change the climate in the freezing northern mountains which are covered with snow. There is little rainfall. There are some differences exist distinctly in various locations, e.g. the coastal line along Arabian Sea is usually under warm conditions, whereas the Karakoram mountain range and some other mountains of far north are so cold, completely frozen and covered with snow that these are only visible and accessible by some international world-class climbers for a couple of months of May and June of each year. The variation of daily temperature could be 11 0C to 17 0C but in winters the minimum mean temperature is about 4 0C in January. Pakistan has tremendous recourses of energy but unfortunately due to mismanagement out of 170 million population just 65-70% has access to electricity. Demand is more than supply of energy to residential and industrial sector. Currently Pakistan is facing 3000 MW of power storage and it is expected that in year 2010 the demand will exceed supply by 5500 MW. The current power and electricity demand and supply gap shows that there is a big need to increases the current power generation capacity in Pakistan. Aim Of The Thesis The main aim of the project is to explain the design phase of a single home PV system. The procedures and details of the design are presented with step by step. There are main following aims which are supposed to be fulfilled by this thesis. a) To go through and grab the core knowledge of the designing process. b) To get familiar with different tools used for designing and make selection between them. c) Beyond from bookish knowledge, get to know some real and practical aspects of different PV systems and projects. The body and structure of the thesis is mainly divided into four phases. a) Calculation of the primary load for this specific project with the help of PVSYST version 4 b) Division of the load to PV and Diesel Generator according to boundary conditions and design parameters. c) Economical and technical look on already existed grid connected system. d) Comparative study between this newly design system and already existed grid connected system in terms of economics, availability and life time World Energy Situation There are different factors which effect and play an important role in the consumption, demand and availability of energy, for example the consumption by individual user and business is being increased, everyday growing population and new government policies are some of these factors. But the fossil fuels are exhaustible. There are two aspects of the fossil fuels, 1st is their availability and 2nd is those harmful environmental impacts which appear after using and burning of these fossil fuels. It is equally harmful for the present generations as well as for future generations. But with the passage of time more and more people and governments are getting awareness about these impacts. The current energy demand projections can be seen from the facts and figures provided by World Energy Administration (EIA) â€Å"The total world energy consumption increases from 472 quadrillion Btu in 2006 to 552 quadrillion Btu in 2015 and 678 quadrillion Btu in 2030—a total increase of 44 percent over the projection period† Renewable Energy Situation Of The World When the first Renewable Global Status Report was published in 2004, many indicators have shown dramatic gains. In the last four years from the end of 2004 to the end of 2008, solar photovoltaic capacity increased six times which is more than 16 gigawatts (GW). Wind power capacity has been increased 250 percent to 121 GW; the total power capacity from new renewable recourses has been increased 75 percent to 280 GW which includes significant gains in small geothermal, hydro, and biomass power generation. During the same period of time, solar heating capacity become double to 145 gigawatts-thermal, while the biodiesel production has been also increased six times to 12 billion liters per year and ethanol production doubled to 67 billion liters per year. The annual percentage gain for the year 2008 was also very amazing and more dramatic. The growth in Wind energy was 29% and grid connected solar PV by 70%. The capacity of utility scale PV plants also increased during this period. Solar hot water systems also grew by 15%. All around the world the governments are changing the policies about the future energy crises and energy markets and policy. In this race the United States of America became the leader and invested $24 billion for new capacity which is 20% of the total global investment. The United States is also leading in adding the total wind energy capacity and also surpassed Germany who was a wind power leader for a long time. Spain has added around 2.6 GW of solar PV, which is a full half of grid connected installations all around the global and five times increase over Spains 2007 additions. China has doubled its capacity to produce wind energy and now ranked at fourth place all around the world. Another significant and important milestone was that the European Union and the USA added more capacity to produce power from renewable recourses than from conventional energy sources (as gas, oil, coal and nuclear) and it happened for the first time. The industries of Renewable energy boomed mostly during 2008. Global solar PV production was increased by 90% to 6.9 GW in 2008. Energy Profile Of Pakistan The energy profile of Pakistan is inadequate and there are always short falls of energy (electricity) especially during summer. Pakistan needs around 14,000 to 15,000 MW electricity everyday to meet all residential and industrial demands. But Pakistan can produce around 11,500 MW, so it means there is around 3000 MW to 4000 MW short fall. This shortfall was experienced extensively and on its peak this year and affecting industry, commerce and daily life. During this year the shortfall for electricity in rural areas was around 12 to 16 hours and in urban areas it was about 8 to 12 hours. The reasons for this deficiency are limited fossil fuel resources, weak economy and mismanagement of the available energy sources. There are some commercial sources of energy available in Pakistan, they are: Hydro energy; Nuclear energy; Oil and gas; Conventional fuels like agricultural wastes, animal dung and wood fuel. Here, it is an overview of primary energy supplies in Pakistan in MTOE (TOE: ton of oil equivalent. It is an energy unit which is equal to the energy of burning of 1 ton of crude oil which is about 42 GJ) From fig 1.3 it is clear that energy supply of Pakistan is highly dependent on Oil and Gas. Both Oil and Gas contribute more than 79% of total primary energy supplied. The other sources of energy like hydro- electricity, coal, nuclear electricity and imported electricity contribute about 21% of the total share. As energy is essential for all types of production processes. Pakistan has been growing in agricultural and industrial sector during last decade and thats why energy demand is being increased. As population and industry is growing, the daily demand will increase up to 20,000 MW in 2010. Pakistan meets around 75% of its energy needs by oil, gas and hydro electricity production. Natural gas has played an important role to meet the energy needs in recent years. But Pakistan needs to expand its energy resource on permanent bases. In order to overcome this energy shortage, Pakistan needs to expand and develop its indigenous energy resources such as hydropower, wind and solar energy. Pakistan is one of the highest solar insulation areas of the world. Now we will briefly discuss the main energy sources in Pakistan. Natural Gas After the independence of Pakistan in 1952 Sui natural gas field resources in Baluchistan were discovered first time. The production at Sui started in 1955 and was on its peak in 1985. It was the most productive gas field of Pakistan in early 1990s. In FY 1993 it was accounting 46% of production. After that the second largest gas field was discovered which is also located in Baluchistan at Mari, which was contributing 20% of all production. Total 25 gas fields were fully operational in FY 1993. The estimation of recoverable natural gas reserves were estimated around 662.0 billion cubic meters, with an extraction rate around 14.0 billion cubic meters. In order to meet the increasing demand of energy and for future planning, efforts from government are being made to increase the production of gas in the country. To do this exploration activities are the first step. The estimation of recoverable reserves of natural gas was 29.671 trillion cubic feet in January 2009. During July-March 2008-2009 the average production of natural gas was 3986.5 mmcfd (million cubic feet per day) but during the corresponding period of last year it was around 3965.9 mmcfd which shows an increase of around 0.52%. At the moment 26 public and private sector companies are engaged in exploration and production activities of oil and gas in Pakistan. LPG The contribution of LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) is about 0.7% to the total energy supply of Pakistan. LPG is being supplied to many remote areas where the supply of natural gas is not technically suitable. To do this government has changed policies for energy supply and management and as a result of this modification the supply of LPG in 2007-2008 was 601,592 Metric Ton and in last few years the annual cumulative growth rate was 18.2%.years. Around 32,621 MT of LPG was imported during July-March, 2009. CNG The main reason of encouragement of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) use is to improve environment and to decrease the dependency on other fuels. The price difference between petrol and CNG is about 60.0 percent, thats why vehicles are being converted to CNG day by day and around 2.0 Million vehicles are using CNG. The numbers of CNG stations are also increasing day by day and there are around 2,700 established CNG stations in Pakistan which covers an investment of Rs.70 billion. At present Pakistan is the largest CNG user country. Oil The estimation of recoverable reserves of crude oil in total in Pakistan were around 313 million barrels in January 2009. The average production of crude oil during July-March 2008-09 was 66532 barrels per day. The average production of crude oil during last year was 70166 barrels per day which shows a negative growth of 5.2 percent. The average production of oil in Pakistan remained 67,438 BOPD in 2006-2007. Oil and gas development company and limited (OGDCL) was the biggest oil producing company in Pakistan with a production of around 13.261 million barrels which contribute around 54% of the total oil production per year of Pakistan with an average rate of 36,332 BOPD. After that British Petroleum (BP) is the second largest oil producing company with total contribution of 16% of total oil production in Pakistan. BP produces around 4.025 million barrels averagely with 11,029 BOPD. Pakistan oil fields limited (POL) produced around 3.231 million barrels. There are other small oil production companies as well in Pakistan. Coal The total estimation of coal recourses of Pakistan is more than 185 billion tones. Thar coalfield (Sindh province) is the biggest coal source which worth more than 175 billion tones. Pakistans coal is generally ranked from lignite to sub bituminous. The production of coal was decreased in during July-March 2008-09 by 28.8%. About 60.4% of the total coal production is being consumed by the brick kilns industry. Cement industry is also using a large fraction of coal which is around 37.4% and almost all cement industry is being switched on coal from furnace oil. As energy demand is increasing day by day and government is reshaping the energy policies. Due to high prices of imported energy government of Pakistan has decided to increase the share of coal from 05 to 19% in the overall energy mix up to 2030. In view of expected shortfall of energy resources and electricity during the next 10 years the maximum utilization of coal would be needed for power generation and gasification. Accordi ng to government energy security plan, a target has been set which is to generate about 20,000 MW power from coal by 2030 and 50% by 2050. Nuclear Energy: Pakistan is the 7th nuclear power of the world. In 2009, the nuclear power plants contribute up to 2.4% share to the total electricity production in Pakistan. Pakistan has two working nuclear reactors which produce about 425 MW power for the generation of electricity. The third nuclear reactor will be operational in spring of 2010. In Pakistan nuclear power contributes very small to the electricity production. The total generating capacity is around 20 GWe while in 2006; 98 billion kWh gross was generated. First nuclear power reactor was started in 1971 in KANUPP near Karachi and it has small capacity of 125 MWe and it is pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR). The second unit was started in May 2000 and is known as Chashma-1 in Punjab. It has capacity of 325 MWe. It is pressurized water reactor (PWR) and was supplied by Chinas CNNC under safeguards. It is also known as CHASNUPP-1. In December 2005 construction of its twin Chashma-2 was started. It is reported that it cost PKR 51.46 billion (US$ 860 million, $350 million were financed by China). But these sources are not sufficient to overcome this energy crises and Pakistan needs to develop renewable energy sources. Renewable Energy Sources In Pakistan Pakistan is situated in such a special geographic location that it is blessed with abundant and inexhaustible Renewable Energy (RE) resources. These resources can play an effective and considerable role for the contribution towards energy security of Pakistan. When we look into current world energy scenario in general and energy scenario of Pakistan in particular, the development and adoption of RE technologies makes better sense. Government policies and objectives to develop RE technology are also matching with this sense so that the share of RE in overall energy mix should be at least 5% by the year 2030. Wind potential: 0. 346 Million MW Solar potential: 2.9 Million MW Mini Small Hydel: 2,000 MW [9] There is a significant potential of wind energy in Pakistan especially in the coastal belt of Baluchistan and Sindh, and also in the desert areas of Punjab and Sindh. However this renewable energy source has not been utilized. AEDB collected the wind data of all Pakistan from Pakistan Metrological Department and was analyzed. On the basis of this collected data and analysis, it was stated that the coastal belt of Pakistan has a God gifted 60 km wide (Gharo-Keti Bandar) and 180 km long (up to Hyderabad) wind corridor. This wind corridor has the potential to generate 50,000 MW of electricity. AEDB has done other different surveys in Gharo and Jhimpir regions and some coastal area of Baluchistan. After these surveys it is concluded that in the south region most of the remote villages can be easily electrified through micro wind turbines. Furthermore it is estimated that in Baluchistan Sindh and Northern areas more than 5000 villages can be electrified through wind energy. Sincere efforts and aggressive lobbying has been done by AEDB with national and international investors to invest and to make them realize the tremendous potentials of RE. AEBD is in negotiations with international companies to set up their business in Pakistan. However large wind mills have not been installed yet but 30 wind mills for water pumping have been installed on experimental basis in different parts of Baluchistan and Sindh. In southern coastal areas of Pakistan remote villages are currently electrified with energy and so far more than 17 villages have been electrified using micro wind turbines. Around 95% of total electricity generation is from hydropower in Pakistan. But during summer in hottest and driest months of the year it becomes less productive and cannot meet the energy demands. Also, around 70% of the population lives in 50,000 villages. Many of these villages are very far from the main transmission lines and also it is not economically viable to connect these small villages to the main grid due to their small population. On the other hand solar energy has excellent and significant potential. Pakistan is one of those countries which receive solar radiations at high level throughout the year. Every day it receives an average of about 19 MJ/m2 of solar energy. Studies have been already done and solar systems have been developed and tested. There is a list of different projects which are completed by Pakistan council of Renewable energy technology. Potential Of PV In Pakistan The location of Pakistan is very ideal to take advantage of solar energy as a source of energy because Pakistan is in the Sun Belt region. Solar energy is available abundantly and widely distributed all around the country. Following figure shows solar insolation map for Pakistan. The map shows around 200-250 W/m2 per day. The Baluchistan province is very rich in solar energy. It receives around 19-20 MJ/m2 per day averagely which is equal to 1.93-2.03 MWh/ m2 per day with annual 8-8.5 mean annual sunshine hours. These conditions are ideal for PV and solar energy applications. Solar energy is very good option for off-grid villages. There are around 75,000 off-grid villages which contains 4 million homes and every home accommodates around 4-5 people. These off-grid villages are situated in the Baluchistan and Frontier Province. AEDB has set a target to electrify a thousand villages via solar technology by the year 2010. In this respect the first contract has been given to the Sehgal electronics group (Pakistan). Each home which is electrified with PV will have around 400 W power supply and lead acid batteries for overnight storage. There are also other plans to have local production using PV modules with and estimation of this production is around 3MW/year. Possible Routes For Solar PV In Pakistan The global demand of PV equipment is increasing day by day and due to this fact the prices for PV systems, equipment and electricity has gone down remarkably. PV could be exploited in Pakistan through following two routes. Off-grid Or Stand-Alone Sector Stand-alone systems generate electricity independently of the utility grid. Stand alone systems can be a very good option for the remote areas and very deep located villages, where the extension of power transmission lines would be more costly. Also it could be implemented in environmentally sensitive areas as parks, remote homes and cabins. In rural areas, it could be used for solar water pumps and farm lighting. [12] Grid-Connected Sector Grid-connected PV systems supply extra power when the home systems power supply is not sufficient to fulfill the load. These systems remove the need of battery bank. In some situation, utilities allow net metering, by which the owner can sell extra power back to the utility. Current Solar Energy Applications In Pakistan Both PV and solar thermal have a wide range of applications in Pakistan. Although the scale of utilization and adoption has been very small but it has been utilized for last 25 years in Pakistan. Different applications mainly PV and solar thermal applications are summarized as. Photovoltaics Eighteen PV stations were built by the government in the early 1980s to electrify different villages the country. The installed capacity was nearly 440 kW but due to the lack of technical knowledge and follow up, these systems could not perform as required. Currently in Pakistan solar energy is being used for telephone exchanges stand alone rural electrification, cathodic protection, highway emergency telephones and vaccine refrigeration in hospitals. In different parts of Baluchistan, about 20 solar water pumps have been installed for drinking purposes by The Public Health Department. The northern and western area of Pakistan are mostly hilly and mountain areas (Hindu Kush-Himalayas, HKH region), which are blessed with a lot of sunshine with 4-6 kWh/m2 daily average solar radiation. Seven solar stations were installed in this region in the late 1980s for lighting by different companies. The total capacity of these systems was 234 kW. They are not in operation now due maintenance pro blems. SIEMENS Pakistan has installed many stand alone solar systems in Pakistan. On the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway, it has installed power supply systems for many microwave-link repeater stations and more than 350 emergency call boxes. Solar Thermal Applications There are many applications which utilize solar energy directly by utilizing its heat characteristics. Such applications are much simple, low cost and easy to adopt. The applications include heating and cooling of homes and buildings, cooking, water heating for domestic and industrial use and drying agricultural products. A brief description of such applications in Pakistan is given here. Solar Water Heaters This technology is quite mature in Pakistan but very limited because of its higher capital cost as compared to conventional water heaters which operate on natural gas. But in last couple of years it has started to gain popularity because a number of public sector organizations are working to develop low cost solar water heaters. The prices of natural gas and electricity are increasing day by day, so people are adopting solar water heaters and also private sector has already started the production of such heaters. Solar Cooker Different public sector organizations have been working to develop low cost and efficient design solar cookers. In HKH region of Pakistan, more than 2000 solar cookers are in use. This number is very small. It needs to be more popularized. Pakistan needs to reduce the use of precious forest resources as fuel wood and to replace it with solar cookers. Solar Dryers Solar energy can be very good option for drying agriculture products. By this, we can get very good quality products at much less cost. Northern mountainous areas like Gilgit and Sakardu are very rich in fruit production like apricots which used to be wasted by tons every year. But now solar dryers are being used to dry large quantities of fruit, which is leaving a positive effect on the economy of this area. Different NGOs are working for the popularizing and the use of such dryers. Solar Desalination Drinkable water is unavailable in many parts of Sindh, Baluchistan and southern Punjab and it is very critical issue. Underground water is available but it is highly saline. This saline water is not fit for drinking at all and causes many dangerous diseases such as hypertension. Solar energy can be utilized to convert this available saline water into drinkable water. Solar desalination is very simple, low cost and easy to use. Also it is very easy to adopt. A successful solar desalination project is in operation and it is working very fine and helping to change the life style of the population of Gawader in the Baluchistan province. It consists of 240 stills and each can clean 6000 gallons of seawater per day. 2. Basics And Components Of A PV System Basics Of A PV System Photovoltaic is the technology which converts solar energy directly into electricity and this process is carried out though solar cells. Solar cell is a device which converts sun energy into electricity. We can say solar cell as photovoltaic cell as well but solar cell term will be used when the source of light is defined as â€Å"sun† but if it is not defined than we can say it as photovoltaic cell. Now days when entire world is looking for a neat and clean environment and want to meet huge energy requirements without disturbing and populating the environment, sustainable energy sources seems to play their important role. Researchers and scientists from all around the world are looking for these types of renewable sources. They are trying to get the energy needs from these renewable energy sources. The main advantages of using renewable energy sources are 1. Neat and clean environment 2. Yield of energy is higher 3. Safer for electricity production as compared to convention methods (low voltage) 4. Long life times 5. Low maintenance cost 6. Use of natural sources which are being wasted with time. These are the reason, why people prefer renewable energy sources. There are different types of renewable energy sources as 1. Solar energy 2. Wind energy 3. Tidal energy 4. Geothermal energy 5. Wave power 6. Hydropower 7. Bio energy We will discuss solar energy in detail and its related topics in this report. There are different units in a PV system and all these units combine to make a full working PV system. These are PV System Components 1. PV Panels 2. Trackers and tracking system 3. Array DC Disconnect 4. Blocking diodes 5. Charge Controller 6. Battery Bank 7. System Meter 8. Main DC Disconnect 9. Inverter 10. Kilowatt-Hour Meter 11. Backup Generator PV Panels PV panels are the defining components of a PV system, which uses sunlight to make direct current (DC) electricity. Wafers of semiconductor material are used for this purpose. They use light (photons) to produce electricity (photovoltaic effect). When the electricity is generated than it powers our electric loads such as lights, computers, and refrigerators. PV panels differ from each other on the basis of power rating in watts which is based on their maximum power generation capacity. Solar cell is the fundamental and basic building block in a PV system which acts as power conversion unit of this system. There are different types of solar cells now days available having different power about 1 or 2 watts. Usually solar cells are made of single crystal silicon and they are limited to about 25% efficiency. The reason is that they are most sensitive to IRL (infrared light), and the radiations in this region of electromagnetic spectrum are relatively low in energy. Another type of solar cells is Polycrystalline solar cells. They are made by a special casting process. In this process molten silicon is being poured into a mould, allowed to cool down and then it is sliced into wafers. By this process we can make relatively cheaper cells as compared to single crystal cells, but their efficiency is less than 20%. The reason is that there is internal resistance on the boundaries of silicon crystals which affects the efficiency. The third type of solar cells is amorphous cells and they are made by a special process in which silicon is deposited onto a glass substrate from a reactive gas such as silane (SiH4). These types of solar cells are used in solar powered watches and calculators, but now days bigger modules are also manufactured. They are also rather cheap and their efficiency is only up to 10%. The reason is, since amorphous silicon cell has no crystal structure and there are much internal energy losses. Solar cells are not just restricted to semiconductor materials; solar cells are available now days which convert sun light into electricity by organic molecules. Their efficiency is up to 10%. Apart from various types of silicon, other materials can also be used to make solar cells like cadmium telluride and gallium arsenide. There are different types of cell packings. The most common are raw cells, and they are often with cover sheet. Now we have discussed solar cells. These solar are combined together to make a module to get boosted power for practical purposes. Than these modules are combined together to make a panel, these panels are joined together to form a big array. Trackers And Tracking System Solar tracker is a device on which solar panels are fitted and the motion of the sun is tracked through this device. It ensures that the maximum amount of sunlight will strike to the panel throughout the whole day. Actually it is a mounting rack which follows the sun constantly. By using trackers, we can utilize maximum sunlight and thus can produce more electricity. In the morning time, it is low on eastern horizon while at the sunset it is low at western horizon. But at noon the position of sun is very high in the sky. This motion is due to the rotation of earth. Trackers keep PV modules perpendicular to incoming sun radiations and maximize the energy production. The increment in the energy production using trackers depends on the site and the type of tracker. Usually energy production increases 25 to 40% annually, which is shown in more detail in the following figure. To get maximum efficiency tracker must be placed in a suitable location. A good tracker site is that on which sun can be seen very early in the morning time and receive sunlight until sunset. There should be no solar obstructions like trees and buildings on the site or near the site in order to work perfectly. Before considering the tracker into system design, an evaluation of the site is done using Solar Pathfinder. Trackers are usually mounted on ground and use a heavy steel pole which is sunk into a concrete foundation. There are some systems where the trackers are mounted on the roofs, but it can create structural problems. There are two basic types of trackers. 1. Electrically operated 2. Thermally operated Thermally Operated Trackers These trackers are based on mass transfer from one side to the other side of the tracker to track the sun. This transfer of mass causes the tracker to turn from east to west by following the sun. Actually two tubes filled with Freon (which vaporizes and become gas) are mounted on east and west sides of the tracker. With the sunlight, the temperature of Freon becomes higher on one side of tracker, it starts to become vapors. These vapors take more space than as compared to the liquid Freon, which pushes Freon (liquid) to the other side. This transfer of mass from the one side to the other side of the tracker causes the change in the balance of tracker which eventually rotates it to the west. Usually they are slow