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Adoption of any form of
energy source since from the discovery of electricity,
particularly alternating electric current, and the transmission of
the energy have been by the transmission of electrical energy. As a
result there has been many technologies developed addressing the
conversion of energy from one form to another: Mechanical to
Electrical, Heat to Electrical, Heat to Mechanical and so forth;
and though many of these technologies continually undergo
innovations.
Besides in some cases the
conversion technologies find application as
energy converters by way of extension of the original object of
development. Remarkably however, these
energy conversion technologies also find common application in very
many different types of energy sources utilization in
Distributed Power Generation Systems; and of course, the
sequence of integration of these otherwise conversion
technologies is specific to the energy source being adopted for
utilization. However, irrespective of the integration sequence
of these technologies, the ultimate object is always to produce
electrical energy from the energy source of adoption.
Given that even green
technologies which adopt green energy sources also involve the
conversion of these forms of energies in one form or another,
these well-established energy conversion technologies therefore
are also available for use in the adoption of green energy
technologies as they have been for use with the fossil fuel
energy sources.
In general, the methods of conversion of
energy from one form into the useable electrical energy have been
undertaken by approaches that can be broadly classified as Direct conversions and Indirect Conversions.
Of course, these conversions approaches also have to be further
sub-classified based on the form of energy that is being converted
into which form, for example from mechanical to electrical, heat to
mechanical, heat to electrical.
By the Direct Conversions
methods, irrespective of the reference energy that needs to be
converted, the energy is converted directly into electrical energy.
So heat energy is converted directly into electrical energy, and
mechanical energy is converted directly into electrical energy. Of
course, the latter conversion is the most common being supported in
the basic sciences of electromagnets. The former |
approach, however, requires a level of creativity in
engineering the designs and as such is not common in applications.By the Indirect
Conversion methods, again irrespective of the reference energy that
needs to be converted, the energy is converted by default into
mechanical energy or potential, which ultimately gets converted into electrical potential
by any of the direct methods above. These are of several varied
forms and are of many designs as well, though probably of two types:
Impulse Design and Pressure Design. The Impulse Designs converters
are generally driven by reaction force. The Pressure Designs are
generally driven by expansion force, and the primary task is accomplished with a
unit-cylinder
engine that converts heat energy into mechanical work that
ultimately converts the mechanical potential.
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