Why Do Marines Need Solar Energy?

Energy, Power, and Planning

Marines need portable power sources for small equipment. They need to operate their equipment from remote conditions. The renewable power sources should be able to operate all the power equipment. Power management is very important for marine troops. To use renewable energy efficiently, they need to have a good idea of how much power they need. They have to be knowledgeable of inclement conditions. The effectiveness of renewable energy depends on the understanding of peak power demands. Storage capacity also play a very important role when dealing with solar energy.

Marines use a variety of electrical components such as laptops, projectors, printers and LED lights. Each equipment has different power consumption rate. Laptops consume the maximum power. Power consumption by one laptop is insignificant, but the marines use many laptops for different purposes. Power generation and distribution costs depends on what kind of technology is used.

Photovoltaic System

The effectiveness of PV module depends on how perpendicular the sunrays fall on the PV. If PV is facing toward the sun, it produces maximum power. Stationary solar panels cannot face toward the sun all day as sun moves. However, maximum radiation depends on two other aspects of stationary solar panels. One is the direction and the other is the tilt angle of the panels. A meter long panels can generate maximum of 1000W, if sunlight strikes directly on it. Few factors affect the sunlight strikes a PV panel. When the sunlight passes through the air, air molecules such as dust, vapor, clouds, volcanoes can absorb some of the radiation. This absorbed part of radiation is known as diffuse solar radiation. Atmospheric conditions have great effect on solar radiation. The solar radiation can decrease 10% to 100% depending on