Build Your Own Solar Panels - The Time is Now to Learn How

What is solar power? Solar power is energy generated from the heat or light from the sun, which can be used to produce heat, light, hot water, electricity, and cooling in a wide variety of grid-tied and off-grid applications. Each hour, the sun radiates down sufficient solar energy to power the entire world for one year. Solar panels contain solar cells, the structure of solar power. Solar power is responsible for fossil fuels such as that of petroleum and coal, as these substances are the result of large masses of decomposed plants, during their own lifetime absorbed solar energy. The fact of the matter is solar energy has been in use in various forms for millions of years. Solar energy provides electrical production by way of heat engines or photovoltaic.


Solar panels and solar panel system are components including photovoltaic grid-tie, off-grid, and solar panel kits. During the day, your solar power system is generating electricity that is directed onto the main grid, sort of like a small power station. Solar panels, also known as photovoltaic, are used to change light from the sun. They are composed of particles of energy called "photons", and change sunlight into electricity that can be used to power electrical devices. Solar panels can be used for a large variety of applications including remote power systems for cabins, cars, boats, powering equipment for telecommunications, and of course for the production of electricity by residential as well as commercial solar panel systems. Today’s solar panels are complete solar panel systems are used to power a wide array of applications.


Building your own solar power system sound intimidating but is actually easier than you think. The richest source of fuel in our whole solar system is the sun. The first thing to consider in learning how to build a solar panel is whether you live in the northern or southern hemisphere. With of the huge cost of putting out thousands of dollars to contractors to purchase and mount solar panels some people are learning how to build solar panels themselves so that they can save money and still do their part for the environment and for their own self-reliance. Doing research on the Internet the DIY’er can read up on how to build solar panels from expert scientific journals and others that have build their own energy efficient solar panels for only a few hundred dollars. Decreasing income, global warming and still growing cost of energy, now more than ever people are looking to build solar panels and wind power generators as a means for a solution.

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Shell Energy Scenarios 2050, Towards A New Energy Future: Challenges in Energy and and Climate Change

The correlation between energy challenges and climate change is an increasingly interesting issue nowadays. The impacts of climate change gets more visible day by day in Indonesia. Energy efficiency could be one alternative to prevent its increasingly worrying impacts. These were small examples of the discussions in the studium generale on energy challenges and climate change by Shell Indonesia Country CHairman Darwin Silalahi last Monday (26/04/10) in Campus East Hall.

The discovery of oil and gas 100 years ago in Pangkalan Brandan, Indonesia, became a phenomenon. Since then, Indonesia's transportation sector has been developing rapidly. Due to that, Indonesia's carbon emission also increases over the years. A few decades later, the impacts of the increasing carbon emission to the environment was starting to be quite visible. Every 10 years, the world temperature would increase, which would result into an imbalance in nature and later on to climate change.

Human civilization depends heavily on earth's energy availability. But the utilization of alternative energy is still very minimum and the fossil fuel resources are getting scarcer while human needs and consumption increase. Due to these problems, researches on energy efficiency became increasingly popular.

Efficient energy is bound to be something very essential in the future. Shell, a multi-national oil corporation, predicts that in 2050 global carbon emission would reach a critical level if no carbon dioxide reduction is made from early on. "To prevent dangerous impacts of climate change, carbon dioxide concentration in earth's atmosphere cannot exceed 368 ppm in 2050," conveyed Darwin.

Continuing his previous explanations, Darwin also specified that climate change anticipation can be done using a blueprint scenario. A blueprint scenario is a plan of energy use, taking into account factors such as economic balance, human welfare, and environment. Beside the aforementioned scenario, there is also an energy usage plan that only takes into account the present consumption rate instead of the long term impact. This plan is called the scramble scenario. For the next five decades, significant distinctions in results will be found between these two scenarios.

"Based on experts' calculations, the blueprint scenario would be successful to reduce carbon emission to a non-dangerous level by 2050. While scramble scenario would only increase global carbon emission," Darwin explained. Absolute efficiency needs to be done if people's lifestyles don't change.

"Actual involvement from ITB was seen in its Mechanical Engineering Students' participation in this year's Shell Eco-Marathon Asia. The ITB team successfully manufactured a car prototype that was fuel-efficient to an incredible rate of 1000 km/liter. This is a very applaudable achievement and one that should be an inspiration for the rest of ITB," Prof. Dr. Ir. Djoko Suharto, MSc. said in the studium generale yesterday.

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ITB Rector Officially Launched Student-Manufactured Energy Efficient Cars

BANDUNG, INDONESIA - Three teams from ITB Mechanical and Aeroplane Engineering Faculty participated in Shell Eco-Marathon, a vehicle design, manufacturing, and building competition focused on producing energy efficient vehicles. The competition will be held on July 8-10th 2010 in Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ITB Rector, Prof. Dr. Akhmaloka officially launched the vehicles on Monday, (26/04/10) in Campus East Hall. In the launching, also present were Djoko Suharto, Vice Chairman of ITB Board of Representation and the teams' advisor, Hasanuddin Z. Abidin, Vice Rector of Communication, Information, and Partnership, Darwin Silalahi, Shell Indonesia Country Chairman, and team members.

The competition began in 1985 in Europe, and since then has been held annually in Europe and America. In 2010, Shell Eco-Marathon will be held in Asia. The winner would be determined based upon energy efficiency. That means that the vehicle would have to cover the most distance and spend the least energy.

"Energy crisis is a very crucial issue," Akhmaloka said in his speech addressing the event. "Right now, everyone is racing to create the most energy-efficient tools and the most effective alternative energy. In the eyes of Indonesia, ITB's position in this issue is very important. I am very proud to see ITB students' and their lecturers' positive contribution on the matter. I hope that this contribution can motivate even more students to reach higher."

The three teams competing in the event were Cikal, in 'Urban Concept' category and HEAVeEXIA and Rajawali, in 'Futuristic Prototype' category. In the press conference following the launching, Ananta, a member of one of the team, conveyed that one of his motivation to compete in the event is his high interest in the field of automotive and the urge to practice what was taught in classrooms. Beside the experience to practice theoretical lessons, team members admitted that the additional skills they acquire through their participation involve communication ability, emotional management, teamwork, and project management.

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