Child’s learning and development

Identifying the beliefs of Children ‘s Learning, Development, and the Social Influences that shaped them.A kid ‘s acquisition and development Begins from the minute they are born, the early old ages from birth to five are an of import milepost in a individual ‘s life, what a kid experiences in the early old ages has a major impact on their hereafter opportunities in life. A safe, secure and happy childhood is of import in its ain right. We can determine a kid ‘s acquisition from an early age, kids learn through experience and grownup engagement, hence interaction with babes and immature kids is basically of import, it helps to construct thoughts, creates believing and helps them develop as scholars. Babies are born with an involvement in people and a thrust to happen out about their universe. Detecting and measuring babes and immature kids is an of import footing in their acquisition and development. ‘Watching kids learn can open our eyes to the capacity of how they learn ‘ ( Pugh, 2001, p. 66 ) , and this shows us the importance of these first few old ages in a kid ‘s life. Over the decennary ‘s early instruction, policies and patterns have seen important alterations. We still use many of the earlier theories and methods through the Early Years Foundation Stage ( EYFS ) in our early instruction scenes today. The EYFS is portion of a 10 twelvemonth Childcare Strategy introduced in 2008, it relates to the Childcare Act 2006, and its purpose is to give immature kids the best start in life, it sets criterions to enable early twelvemonth ‘s suppliers to implement the rich and personalised experience many parents give their kids at place. It provides legal demands associating to larning, development, appraisals and public assistance. The EYFS rules which guide all practicians consists of four subjects ; a Unique Child, Positive Relationships, Enabling Environments, Learning And Development. It implies that all kids from birth to five will get the same accomplishments and cognition in readying for school while at the same clip recognizing that all kids are persons that require single acquisition schemes. The building of early instruction and attention of kids and immature people dates back many old ages, every bit early as the seventeenth century. Friedrich Froebel a major theoretician was born in 1782 in Thuringia what is now Germany and was good known for stating â€Å"play is a kid ‘s work† , he formulated the thought of kindergarten intending ‘children ‘s garden ‘ as a agency of educating immature kids. Play and the out-of-door environment were of import in Froebelian kindergartens. His attack emphasized that kids are able to develop their capacity for larning through drama, and that active acquisition is indispensable with counsel and appropriate way. He believed that preparation of workers within the early old ages was indispensable, and the importance of parents as spouses in the instruction of immature kids. The influence of Froebel‘s methods are good established in early old ages scenes to day of the month, his work was one of the theories that made the footing of early instruction. Many recent theoreticians based their work on these early findings, and state, he was in front of his clip as one of the EYFS subjects and committednesss, of today provinces active acquisition. Active larning it is implemented through the acquisition and development rule of the EYFS, it provides physical and mental engagement, decision-making and individualized acquisition, and it occurs when kids are acute to larn and are interested in happening things out for themselves. Play is a dynamic procedure that develops and alterations, it provides kids with chances for developing cognitive, societal, emotional and physical accomplishments. ‘Froebelian kindergartens were seen to be in-between category ; despite this his methods were adapted for usage with deprived kids and households ‘ within developing twentieth century baby's room and infant schools. ( Pound, 2008, p. 16 ) . The first nursery school opened in Scotland in1816 by Robert Owen ( 1771-1858 ) , he was a factory proprietor who refused to use kids less than 10 old ages of age, he believed that instruction should be a common right for all kids, and that kids are inactive, contrived and by due readying and accurate attending can be formed into any human character. He managed their behavior through kindness, which in the19th century was unusual, kids every bit immature as 2 old ages attended his school. The gap of his nursery school influenced altering attitudes on kid labor, and set the footing of early instruction for immature kids. The start of the course of study method was one of Owens ‘s thoughts, his vision on education-inspired coevalss of militant ; he recognised the nexus between societal public assistance and early instruction this is an of import portion of pattern in modern twenty-four hours scenes. ‘His committednesss to instruction were extremist as were his thoughts on t he importance of equality, although his policies were a bold measure frontward, he was criticised as being rooted in his desire for net income. ( Pound, 2008, p. 13 ) ‘ ‘In the UK the development of early instruction was really slow compared to Europe, it was In 1870 that publically funded instruction became compulsory for kids age 5, the demand to understand these early childhood services is of import as they laid down the foundations of our instruction system ( Pugh, 2001, p. 8 ) ‘ During the 1960 ‘s the voluntary playgroup motion emerged. A missive sent to the Guardian by Belle Tutaev, a immature female parent of a four-year-old expressing concern to the deficiency of appropriate nursery proviso within our instruction system. For many old ages the chief agencies of early instruction was province primary schools, and this was aimed at kids over 5 old ages, after runing to the governments to no help she opened her ain playgroup, this progressed and by the 1970ss playgroups became a recognized signifier of pre-school proviso. Over the following 2 decennary ‘s the altering household forms and employment forms meant early old ages proviso were a much needed beginning, this saw the growing of private baby's rooms. Merely after a reappraisal in 1988 on early childhood and instruction services, ( The Education Reform Act ) did the authorities realise at that place was a turning job. It found defects, in uncoordinated services, which varied between different parts of the state, compared to the remainder of Europe there were low degrees of public support. It had different services ran by a diverseness of different administrations, this meant a broad scope of clients used them, all with different purposes and intents. The instruction system needed the authorities to step in. A figure of national studies was to be published, one of them the Rumbold study published in 1990, expressed concerns about instruction and the deficiency of entree to Early Years services. It highlighted the demand for the development of good quality proviso in the early old ages, and ‘believed it to be critical that all that work, or are involved with immature kids recognize the importance of their educational function and carry through it. She urged those who make proviso recognize the turning demand for and the enlargement of high quality services to run into kids and parents demands ( rumbold, 1990 ) . The study besides highlighted the manner in which immature kids learn are every bit of import as what they learn, and argued against the debut of formal acquisition. At the clip, this study was ignored but it is now used as a footing for best pattern in today ‘s Early Old ages scenes. ‘The constitution of the Early Childhood Education forum in 1993 meant conveying together all national bureaus working in the field, ‘ ( Pugh, 2001, p. 11 ) it clarified that an early twelvemonth ‘s policy is needed, and an enlargement in services, the forum gathered strength with over 45 national administrations by 1998. Its purposes were to defend kids ‘s rights and entitlements, back up the preparation development and instruction of early childhood practicians, and all those who work with kids and their households. The authorities took action and in 1995, funding for the instruction of 4 twelvemonth olds was introduced this was in the signifier of verifiers that could be redeemed in private, voluntary, or local authorization baby's rooms, the verifiers were highly criticised at the clip and was abolished in 1997 when Labour Government was elected. The election of the Labour Government brought large alterations in the manner our whole Education System was run, particularly Early Education ; its cardinal issue is to eliminate child poorness, and supply more household friendly policies and kids ‘s Centres. The Certain Start enterprise, launched in 1999 under the National Childcare Strategy plays a major function in making this, by assisting households in local communities of demand with kids under 4years old. The authorities pledged 1.4 billion lbs over 6 old ages. This meant that parents had entree to a multi bureau of services within the Certain Start Children ‘s Centres. They are now a cardinal influence within our communities assisting kids, households and society, by larning and developing life accomplishments in the early old ages so that immature kids turn up to be happy, healthy and are able to accomplish their ends in life. The Centres are at the Heart of the Every Child Matters Change for Children 2004. The green paper Every Child Matters was published in 2003, in response to a study by Lord Laming in 2001, into the decease of Victoria Climbie. Victoria was a immature miss who was horrifically abused, tortured and killed by her great aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao and spouse Carl Manning ; they were the people who were supposed to be caring for her. Black weaknesss within a figure of systems meant on 12 occasions over 10 months the opportunities to salvage Victoria were missed. Evidence from this Inquiry demonstrated the dangers of staff from different bureaus non carry throughing their separate and typical duties. The decease of Victoria showed a cardinal demand for an incorporate service that would be portion of a political docket for many old ages, despite the Children Act 1989 commissariats, kid protection schemes and services stayed within the societal service system, and the degree of communicating and co-operation between these and other services in wellness and instruction were v ariable. The Every Child Matters docket is recognised by five results ; be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, do a positive part, and achieve economic well-being ; these results are a cosmopolitan aspiration for the authorities, and organize a strong footing for the EYFS course of study used in Early Education Settings to day of the month. The transportation of duty for kids under 8-years-old were made from the Department of Health, to the Department of Education and Skills and from 2001, an incorporate review service was introduced, conveying together all the services, enabling multi-agency working, which was an of import measure frontward. The Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership in local governments were besides introduced, assisting to increase degrees of proviso in Childcare. Working in partnership with the Local Education Authority, each authorization completed an audit, with a program to make the authorities ‘s marks for early instruction topographic points for all 3- and-4year-olds. This was made easier in the alteration of policy earlier, that allowed not maintained sectors to use for baby's room grants, ‘children in private twenty-four hours baby's rooms, pre-schools and some childminders could now entree their free half-day nursery proviso. In this manner the scheme started to undert ake the long-run split between Early Years instruction services and the child care services. ‘ ( Macelod- Brundenell, and Kay 2nd edition 2008 pg 352 ) . It has been without uncertainty that Early Education has come a long manner since Froebel in the seventeenth century, and the gap of Owen ‘s nursery school in 1816, but non many things have changed, it was apparent so that kids learn through drama and geographic expedition, and early acquisition is of import in the first five old ages. Possibly many coevalss of kids have missed out the opportunities given to immature kids of today. The EYFS has been an of import milepost for early instruction and immature kids, and is now the manner frontward in fixing a kid for school, but its existance is still in the primary phases, and many little nursery scenes may happen accommodating to these alterations and prolonging them quiet hard as the criterions and public assistance demands set are extremly high.Mentions( Department of Children Schools and Families. ( 2008 ) . The statutory Framework for the Early old ages Foundation phase Every kid affairs change for kids. Puting the criterions for Learning Development and attention for childeren from birth to five. Macelod-Brudenell Iain and Kay Janet ( 2nd Edition 2008 ) . Advance Early Old ages And Education For Foundation grades and degree 4 & A ; 5. Heinemann Oxford Pound, Linda. ( 2008 ) . How Children Learn From Montessori to Vygotsky. London: Step frontward publication. Pugh, Gillian ( 2001 ) . Contemporary Issues In The Early Old ages. Paul Chapman. London

Jesus and Bible

Introduction to Bible The Bible is one of the world's oldest books. Its oldest sections were written about 1500 years before the birth of Christ. Even its newest sections were written about 1900 years ago. Clearly, then, having been written over a period of about 1600 years, the Bible was not written by one person. No one knows precisely how many people contributed to the Bible. It is estimated there were about forty authors. What is the Bible? The Bible is the account of God's action in the world and his purpose with all creation.The writing of the Bible took place over sixteen centuries and is the work of over forty human authors. It is a quite amazing collection of 66 books with very different styles all containing the message God desired us to have. This compilation of booklets contains an astonishing variety of literary styles. It provides many stories about the lives of good and bad people, about battles and journeys, about the life of Jesus along with letters written to groups of Christians that met in homes.It comes to us in narratives and dialogues, in proverbs and parables, in songs and allegories, in history and prophecy. The accounts in the Bible were not generally written down as they occurred. Rather they were told over and over again and handed down through the years before someone finally wrote them down. Yet the same themes may be found throughout the book. So along with the diversity there is also a remarkable unity. So what is the Bible? Well, in addition to all the above, the Bible is this: It is a guide for living life to the full.It gives us a road map for the perilous journey of life. Or to put it another way, on our voyage through life's ocean, we find our anchor right here. It is a storehouse of wonderful stories for children and grownups. Remember Noah and the ark? Joseph's coat of many colors? Daniel in the lion's den? Jonah and the fish? The parables of Jesus? In these stories we recognize the triumphs and failures of ordinary people – and we may even see ourselves! It is a refuge in trouble.People in pain, in suffering, in prison, in mourning, tell how they turned to the Bible and found strength there in their desperate hours. It is a treasury of insight as to who we are. We are not meaningless robots, but we are magnificent creatures of a God who loves us and gives us a purpose and a destiny. It is a sourcebook for everyday living. We find standards for our conduct, guidelines for knowing right from wrong, principles to help us in a confused society where so often â€Å"anything goes. â€Å"

Features a of Successful School Essay

The way in which U. S. schools are ran today are not adequate for the growing needs of students in the 21st century. According the Darling-Hammond (2010), if these trends continue, by 2012, America will have 7 million jobs in science and technology fields, â€Å"green† industries, and other fields that cannot be filled by U. S. workers (p. 3). Other nations have figured out how to educate their youth, and those students will take the jobs of their U. S. counterparts if the U. S. does not change the ways in which we educate our youth. Darling-Hammond (2010), found that higher-achieving nations are more focused on quality teachers, and development of curriculum and assessment that encourages continuous reflection of teachers and students (p. 8). There is a need for change in the current education system, which was designed to educate students in the 20th century. According the Darling-Hammond (2010), â€Å"At least 70% of U. S. jobs now require specialized knowledge and skills, as compared to only 5% at the dawn of the last century, when our current system of schooling was established (p. 2). Now that a need for change has been identified, it is up to the districts, schools and teachers to implement the changes. Through much research Darling-Hammond (2010), has identified five essential features of education that need to be changed to help prepare students for success in elementary though college. These five features include: small school size or learning communities within the school, personalization and strong relationships among teachers and students, challenging and relevant instruction, performance based instruction, and collaboration of teachers (p. 244). Features Defined  The aspect of small school size and learning communities are important to schools success, because it allows students to feel important in the school system. Studies have been done by Darling-Hammond (2010), and have identified that there is less violence in smaller school compared to larger schools, because everyone knows each other and there is more accountability for a student’s action (p. 245). When the school and or class sizes are smaller the teachers get to know each of their students and have the ability to identify with each student, where as larger schools the students just ecome a number with little to no individual attention. Darling-Hammonds research states: These experiences underscore evidence accumulated over several decades that suggest that, overall, smaller high schools are associated with greater safety more positive student attitudes about school, higher levels of student participation and attendance, much lower dropout rates (p. 245). The reduction of school size alone will not solve the education problem our nation is facing, but merely an aspect that will help with the problem. The second aspect to a successful school according to Darling-Hammond (2010) is the need for â€Å"structures that allow for personalization and strong relationship† (p. 244). The way that teachers and students gain these strong relationships is through an advisory class, teachers are given a small number of students and in many cases these students stay with the same teacher over a number of years. Because of these factors of small class sizes and extended time with the teacher, teachers are able to gain strong relationships with their students. By knowing students well, teachers are more able to tailor instruction to students’ strengths, needs, experiences, and interests† (Hammond & Friedlaender, 2008, p. 17). According the research done by Darling-Hammond: †¦ we found that strong relationships between and among students and faculty were central to participants’ views of what enabled them to succeed. Students often compared their school to a family and linked their achievement to their caring relationships with teachers (p. 248). Another equally important aspect to a successful school touched on by Darling-Hammond (2010) is â€Å" intellectually challenging and relevant instruction† (p. 44). Since the beginning of time teachers have taught curriculum and given students assignments based on what was taught, but is the assignments relevant to the students learning? Darling-Hammond, (2010) says teachers should be getting away from fill in the blank worksheets and having students produce more meaningful work such as research reports, discussions of problems, and open-ended questioning to challenge students more (p. 249). These types of challenging assignments help prepare st udents to become critical thinkers, and get them ready for college. Successful schools also ensure that teachers are giving performance-based assessments, Darling-Hammond (2010) states: All of the schools engage students in completing complex projects and investigations of various kinds, and most of them require the completion of portfolios for graduation, which include high-quality work illustrating disciplinary inquiry in each of the major subject areas (p. 257) These types of assessments are helping create students that are critical thinkers, rather than just recall and memory, which were previously performed. These high-quality assessments are beneficial to students in helping them be more prepared for success in college and beyond. The final aspect of Darling-Hammond plan to improve education is â€Å"highly competent teachers who collaborate in planning and problem solving† (2010, p. 244). The idea of collaboration allows teachers and students significant time to discuss, problem solve and create valuable lessons. If teachers were just left to their own means they could teach lesson with little to no results. There is the need for collaboration to identify ways in which they can teach lesson to better help their students. When time for professional development is built into teachers’ working time, their learning activities can be ongoing and sustained and can focus on particular issues over time (Wei, Andree & Darling-Hammond, 2009, p. 39). In the U. S. very few hours are build in to the work week for teachers to plan and many times the planning is done individually and not collaborative with other educators. Many high achieving nations provide the opportunity for continued staff development as well as a wide-range development to teachers, where as the United States give one day workshops with little to know follow up (Wei, Andree & Darling-Hammond, 2009, p. 1). The small amount of time by U. S. teachers spend on collaboration has an adverse effect on students achievement. Prioritizing the Essential Aspects The most important of Darling-Hammond’s aspect is providing students with highly competent teachers that are given the opportunity to collaborate with their peers. As addressed by Darling-Hammond and Richardson (2009): Current research suggests that providing intensive, content-rich, and collegial learning opportunities for teachers can improve both teaching and student learning. When schools support teachers with well-designed and rich professional development, those teachers are able to create the same types of rigorous and engaging opportunities for students—a foundation for student success in school and beyond (p. 52). Teachers are one of the key features to the important of student’s education, therefore they need to be given the opportunity for collaboration with their peers to gain the knowledge needed to reflect and plan to become better at their profession. Research done by Darling-Hammond shows that professional communities are an aspect that is important to schools that are achieving high levels of student learning (2010, p. 261). The next important aspect is providing instruction that is challenging and relevant to instruction. Teachers need to have high exceptions of their students and give students experience through task that are relevant to the real world and future success. Students are placed in internships and volunteer work as young as 11th grade to provide students with real-world experiences (Darling-Hammond, 2010, p. 257). According to Darling-Hammond (2010): Students reported that, even when they found they did not like the work or setting they had chosen, or when they experienced conflicts on the job, their internships made them feel more capable, responsible, and confident about solving problems and succeeding in their world beyond school (p. 256). These skills that students are learning from their internship are helping them become more prepared for their future. Keeping instruction relevant helps keep students interested in learning. Just as important as instruction is on education is the types of assessments used. It is important that the school system gets away from memorizing and gives more performance-based assessments, where students are involved in the revision of their work. Students need to be given more authentic assessments that are relevant to their learning and then have the opportunity to present their portfolios to communities of students. In the study by Darling-Hammond (2010) â€Å"†¦a deep sense of accomplishment from their experience, and, having repeated it several times before graduation, a growing sense of confidence† (p. 260). These types of assessments are giving students the skills needed to be successful in life. Schools that allow for personalization and strong relationships are important to students’ growth in school. Today students are cranking through each day like an assembly line (Darling-Hammond 2010, p. 250). Teachers know very little about the potential of each of their students, and therefore the students suffer. Students from the study by Darling-Hammond have said that they feel like teachers care about them and their work as well as pushing them to perform at their ability (2010, p. 50). The last aspect is also related to personalization of students, it is small sized school and or classes. With the small class sizes teachers are better able to know each of their students to help tailor their learning to meet those needs of the students. It is not a surprise that smaller schools have the ability to have a focus on safety. These smaller schools have an increase in safety a decrease in incidents, because the adults know the students in the school and hold them accountable for their actions (Darling-Hammond, 2010, p. 45) Implementation The changes that need to be made to school system are something that is not going to happen over night by one teacher. These changes need to start at the state level with help of the district, schools and teachers. Teachers cannot implement all of these changes on their own. The aspects that teachers can control are changing the way that they teach to create students that are more critical thinkers and provide students will more meaningful assessments. Teachers can also help guide students to assess their own learning. Another aspect that teachers can control is the amount of time they are spending collaborating with colleagues to share strategies, and solve problems. Teachers can so also try to get to know each of their students, but this a daunting task with such large class sized. There are many changes that need to be made that are out of control of the teacher’s hands. One of these changes is the amount of time they spend collaborating with other teachers. The district and school site needs to make this a priority and give those teachers the time they need to become more effective teachers. The district and school also needs to implement more meaningful staff development training. As teachers can start implementing more meaningful assessments for students, it is the district that will need to set graduations requirements associated with these assessments. To more effectively tailor students learning it will be the districts responsibility to lower classes sizes or implement an advisory period. Teachers can try to get know each of their students’ strengths, but with such large class sizes it is very difficult to individualized instruction. The aspect that teachers have no control over is the school size. If the district wants students to feel safe and accountable for their actions, this is something they will need to implement. Conclusion The traditional model of education that was designed for the 20th century is not working to educate the youth in the global world of the 21st century, and changes need to be made to better reach the needs of the students today. Some schools have already implemented and embraced these changes and have seen great results in achievement of students. By making the necessary changes to the education process students will become better prepared with skills to help them be successful beyond high school.

Google in china Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Google in china - Case Study Example In return, the users have viewed its advertisement messages and images. As Google aims at making information useful and acceptable via its search engine, the online community has been useful to the company in promoting its performance and competitiveness within the global market. The company’s mission has also allowed it to participate in circumventing censorship of information by governments. The success of implementing the marketing strategy within Google is determined by its effectiveness in promoting access to information by societies, especially in countries, such as China, where the government is determined to suppress access (Jones, 2011). It is however notable that Google’s China operations are not aligned to its mission. In its endeavor to make information useful and acceptable within China, the company has been limited by the censorship of the government. Regardless of the dilemma surrounding the company’s values, principles and mission, the company entered the Chinese market. The company’s entry into China was motivated by the irresistible and large Chinese market, which would promote its advertising revenue. After Google’s online services in China were restored, the company officials claimed that it had not changed anything in its service offering (Jones, 2011). Users were hopeful that the company was able to maintain its mission for enhanced access to useful and acceptable information via its search engine. Nevertheless, the company’s users in China realized that they could not access some information. This revealed that the company’s searches were being censored even more by the government. For instance, sites on political information would not be accessed. These illustrations reveal that Google’s Chinese operations were not congruent with its mission. This is due to the fact that the information that was acceptable and useful to the Chinese people was still

Behavior plan final 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Behavior plan final 1 - Essay Example This can result into lack of happiness as well as life enjoyment. As a human being, I have struggles with changing two behaviors, exercising irregularly and getting inadequate sleep, that are negatively affecting my life and school performance. In this behavior modification plan my goal is to maintain a healthy lifestyle by exercising regularly and getting sufficient sleep. Indeed, I believe that if I exercise more, I will be able to sleep early at night and feel better about myself. This will as well make me more confident. In order to achieve my first goal of regular exercise, I am planning to seek the assistance of a personal trainer and go to the gym three times a week. This will encourage me to keep up with practice and because I pay for sessions with my personal trainer, I will be less likely to skip or cancel classes. For my other target of getting adequate sleep, I will reduce the frequency of using my phone at night. I realized that I spend a lot of time texting and surfing the internet before sleeping. In week one, I will use my phone for one hour before going sleep in order to dedicate enough time for sleeping. In week two, I will use my phone for 30 min before going to sleep. As for my second behavior, I will go to the gym regularly. The sub-goal for changing the second behavior is to go to the gym without canceling or skipping any session in week one. For week two, my sub-goal is to go to the gym at least three times with the personal trainer and two times by myself. I will monitor this by taking notes in my private journal app â€Å"What a Wonderful Life.† Moreover, with the help of my classmates and their feedbacks on my plan, I was able to improve my sub-goals for both behaviors as reflected in the following schedules for the first goal, which is going to the gym: Through the week of observation, I used the private journal â€Å"What a Wonderful Life†

Nursing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Nursing - Assignment Example The nurse failed to follow the 6 rights prior to the administration of a medication. This went against the required nursing practice. The consequence of this act put the patient’s life at risk because the patient had a negative effect from the dosage administered. The nurse went ahead and ignored filling out the incident report. The physician and the supervisor get information from filled incident reports. Failing to fill implied that the nurse was concealing certain crucial information. The nurse’s act to ignore the incident report violated rules of practice in caregiving. It further put the patient’s life at risk which is opposite to what nurses should do. Patents are entitles to a healthy life, and the caregivers should do their best to see this done. However, the nurse’s actions did not match this requirement. Failing to fill out the incident report did not depict an aspect of duty to care, since it encompasses all that is required of the nurse. The nurse who failed to verify the correct dosage as a witness is also implicated in the failure to fulfill duty to care. This is a procedure carried out in order to ensure that the patient’s life is not endangered, given the practices undertaken by the nurses. This nurse ignores her duty and the result is a negative effect on the patient. This does not only raise concerns in the care giving institutions, but also externally, since patients have a right to proper treatment and administration of medication. Concealing what had unfolded during shift change would complicate the matter even further. During shift report, the nurse had already presented what had happened, evidenced by the fact that the patient was in ICU. Contradiction of information between that presented during shift report and the one the nurse is to present by filling out the incident report would require that investigation into the matter be undertaken. Nursing ethics require transparency and accountability (Ginny, 2009).

The compensation and benefit strategy of an organization Coursework

The compensation and benefit strategy of an organization - Coursework Example The research studies show that company managers are not focusing on these kinds of additional benefits for the employees. Compensation can include monetary and non-monetary terms. The additional component to basic salary includes health insurance, performance bonuses, retirement investment opportunities, awards, gold medals and many other benefits, which actually motivate employees and attract the potential capable people to become a part of the organization. These compensation packages actually help any organization to increase the job satisfaction level of the employees, to decrease the absenteeism rate of the employees and enhance organizational commitment towards the mutually shared goals. All of these ultimately help to achieve the main milestone of low employee turnover rate in the organization. Here we are taking the example of the famous pesticide Company Bayer. Bayer Crop Science is a multinational Company having its widespread operations in many countries including Asian countries. The strategy and policy making for the multinational companies is a little bit different from other companies. All the multinational companies have to make their policies and strategies in the way that they can be fit according to the norms and values of different cultures. For this purpose, they can go for a standard set of the policies and the strategies, which can help them to cop up with the problems. Another solution can be the flexibility in the decision making process and the strategy making so that they can be changed according to any specific geographical area or territory. Bayer Crop Science is working hard on the improvement of the compensation packages and other benefits plans. The Human resource managers at Bayer Crop Science truly know the importance of these compensation plans and their beneficial impacts on the employee’s

Nepotism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Nepotism - Essay Example There are several concepts that should be engaged in the analysis while considering the nature of nepotism. To begin with, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that the notion of integrity is something that is heavily damaged by the issue in question (McNamee, 2004, p. 87). Indeed, granting positions or preferences to family member can hardly be compatible with integrity of an organization. The next concept that is of great important when it comes to a fair examination of it is the idea of competition. As it has already been noted, people have to fight for their success and should be rewarded accordingly. The practice of nepotism grants a person an advantage that ruins the entire system of competition in the society and does not allow people to advance. Finally, the concept of meritocracy is something that should also be engaged while considering the impact that nepotism has on the society. It certainly would be an ideal situation when people are rewarded according to their mer its, but it is something that the social environment should be moving forward to; however, the practice of nepotism just makes this state of affairs unrealistic and reinforces the inequality among the people. In other words, the very existence of it does not allow the society evolve properly. That is why nepotism might be seen as a direct result of the inertia that has been guiding the process of development of the society for a considerable time. Nevertheless, it is quite obvious that is this practice is not taken care of, it will lead to a dead end. Keeping in mind that people will never want to stop evolution of their civilization, there is no other way but to deal with nepotism. That is why nepotism might be seen as a direct result of the inertia that has been guiding the process of development of the society for a considerable time. Nevertheless, it is quite

Choosing successful industry in Saudi Arabia Assignment

Choosing successful industry in Saudi Arabia - Assignment Example The equipments extracted petroleum from within Saudi Arabia’s territory. Consequently, the Saudi Government hired employees from the other countries. The Saudi government targeted employees from countries plagued with high unemployment rates. The countries include India, and other Asian countries. As expected, huge groups of job applicants flocked into Saudi Arabia to get high paying petroleum industry jobs (Kane 2). Employees of the petroleum companies enjoy comfortable working conditions in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s labor law article 146 and article 147 clearly requires the employer to exert extra efforts to comply with the benefits prescribed in the Saudi Arable labor law. The benefits include housing, camping, suitable healthcare facilities, and free meals. The schools are set up in order to fill the school needs of the petroleum workers and the school needs of the children. Saudi Arabia hires laborers to extract and export the Saudi Petroleum products. The oil field employees include low skilled oil labors. In addition, the Saudi Government hires engineers who will ensure smooth oil production (Kane 14). Knowledge resources. Saudi Arabia hired the expertise of engineers from other countries to help ensure smooth petroleum productions. With the expertise of the Saudi ARAMCO engineers and other labor employees, Saudi ARAMCO continues to successfully extract petroleum from within Saudi Arabia’s borders. Similarly, the expertise of the Saudi ARAMCO engineers and experienced petroleum employees contributed to the successful export of the country’s petroleum products to other countries (Wynbrandt 200). Saudi Arabia hired the petroleum research knowledge expertise of the United States firm, Standard Oil Company of California (SOCAL) to find petroleum. Consequently, the hired American company discovered oil in Saudi Arabia in 1932 in Bahrain. An entity, Iraq Petroleum Company, was formed that included

Accounting System of a Firm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Accounting System of a Firm - Essay Example Certain step must then be followed in planning a systems development project plan. Typically, this procedure starts with the identification of the problems as well as the objective for conducting the project. Along with the identification of the capability of the organization to support the project, designing the system to be applied is then created. In order to ensure the efficacy of the designed system, this will undergo a series of tests and evaluation procedures. After which, the system is then installed. The process however does not stop here as the system will have to be monitored continuously. Furthermore, the employees who will be using the new system must be trained properlyThe process involved in a systems development project plan is indeed an essential tool that enables project developers and managers to ensure the efficacy of the system employed. The systematize process provides significant controls that helps in people and task management. Following a specific project pl an also allows the project staff to identify potential problems that could arise. Thus, this organized procedure helps the staff to prepare alternatives and solutions that could address these possible problems. In order to comprehend the process of implementing a systems development project plan, a case of a small accounting firm will be taken as an example. With the expert help of an IT consulting firm and a sixty thousand dollar budget, the firm intends to have a system that will integrate its main operations including administrative functions and report production. In this case example, the objectives of the project, the role of the project manager and the problems that could occur during the different phases of the project plan will be identified. The small accounting firm aims to implement a systems development project. With this main goal, the firm intends to achieve the following objectives: To design and apply an integrated system that will allow it to perform administrative functions and produce essential accounting reports To develop a specific step-by-step procedure for the project's application To implement an effective system development project within a limited budget To have the system installed in eight weeks time Though these established objectives will help in directing the project team, certain constraints could hinder their achievement. Time and budget for instance are significant constraints for this project. Within eight weeks, the integrated system must be installed in the firm. Unlike bigger corporations, smaller firms have fewer resources to support long term project plans. Thus, the project team must work rapidly so as to meet the deadline and avoid financial shortage. These factors in turn add more pressure to the project staff. Putting the project team into much pressure can cause the members to prioritize time over quality, which can significantly affect the efficiency of the project. When the main objective of the project team is to finish the project on time, the long term success of the project may be negatively affected. Quality is also an important factor for a successful project. However, working under time pressure while maintaining work quality can be difficult and can burnout and stress among the participants (Gobeli, Gray & Larson, 1991). Time is indeed a major constraint in project management, especially when the firm expects to see the project results within an unrealistic time span (Baumgartner, 1979). Unrealistic work schedules can not only cause stress among the staff but can also affect their motivation to finish the project. Handling people is also a major constrain

Final Strategic Plan and Presentation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Final Strategic Plan and Presentation - Essay Example Strength includes all the positive factors of Dynasties Motors which will help in their future growth. Weaknesses are the shortcomings in the company. These are the internal factors which can be controlled easily. The external factors are the Opportunities and Threats. The opportunities show us all available opportunities for the company to grow. We need to utilize them. The threats are the dangers and the negativities that can harm us. We need to avoid them as we cannot control them. Our pricing strategy will be dependent upon focused Blue Book qualities (wholesale and retail) in addition to vehicle taking care of expenses. We wont surpass aggressive retail costs, and will endeavor to offer at wholesale in addition to a reasonable profit, for the most part 15-25%. Quality and value say a ton in regards to our vehicles. The vehicles that are uncommon or not promptly accessible to take care of demand will be estimated in like manner. The normal business imprint up for comparative vehicles is 20-30%. Sales payment is dependent upon a percent of profits. We will put satisfactory time and assets into preparing every part of the sales group and into great client relations. Salesmen will be paid a share of their pay dependent upon requisition. Great execution is compensated with expanded requisition and rewards. However honesty wont be relinquished for sales. Client fulfillment will keep on ing a top necessity. All potential sales will be attended to in a convenient manner and long haul salesperson-client relationships will overshadow sales conclusion. We anticipate that sales will build at a moderate rate for every month for every item in the first year. From June through September we need negligible development throughout our begin up period. October through December we anticipate that diminished sales due will chronicled patterns, and deterioration in quality dependent upon less request. February through August we want

Rate of cooling Essay Example for Free

Rate of cooling Essay The problem for this experiment is to investigate the rate of cooling in three different types of cups. They will be used as typical coffee cups for commercial purposes. The cups a polystyrene cup, a paper cup and a plastic cup. Water has a high specific heat capacity. This makes it a very useful material for storing and carrying heat energy. Its heat capacity is 4200 joules per kilogram per i C (4200J/kg i C). Heat tends to flow away from a hotter object to a cooler surroundings. Heat is mainly lost I conduction, convection, radiation and evaporation. For this experiment I will be only using convection, radiation, evaporation because conduction is mainly in solids. Convection Convection mainly occurs in gasses and liquids gases and liquids are very poor conductors so convection is usually dominant process. When convection cant occur, the heat transfer by conduction is very slow. Convection only occurs when the more energetic particles move from hotter region to a cooler region and take their heat energy with them. Convection doesnt happen in solids because there are no particles movement. Radiation Radiation travels through anything transparent. Heat radiation is given out by anything warm or hot. The amount of it that is absorbed or released depends on the colour and texture of the material. Heat radiation is also called infra-red radiation. It consists purely of electromagnetic waves of a certain frequency. All objects continually absorb and release heat radiation. The hotter the object the more heat radiation it release. Dark surfaces absorb more heat radiation than bright surfaces. Silver surfaces reflect nearly all heat radiation falling on them. Evaporation Evaporation is when water vanishes without boiling it to change into gas. This is because some liquid molecules move faster than others and the ones close to the surface may escape and form a gas. Variables These are things that may change during an experiment The independent variable: These are things that I will decide to change e. g. the material of the cup, replacing equipment. The dependent variable: This is the measurement that is effected by the independent variable e. g. the rate of cooling. The control variable: These are the things that I will try to keep the same so I can make sure that its a fair test e. g. volume of water, room temperature, size of the cups etc. Hypothesis I predict that the polystyrene cup would cool down the slowest because it has thick walls and when you go to restaurants and ask for a hot drink they give it in polystyrene cup. I think the paper cup will cool down the quickest because its made out of paper and paper has thin walls and it absorbs water.

Vygotskys Work on the Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotskys Work on the Zone of Proximal Development Critically evaluate the contribution of Vygotskys work on the Zone of Proximal Development Vygotskys original ideas on the relationship between child development and learning, leading to his concept of the ‘zone of proximal development, have become hugely influential in education and teaching practice, spawning much research in this field in recent years.   It is important firstly, to situate  Vygotskys work alongside that of Piaget, whose theories have underpinned much of educational thinking and practice for many decades.   The concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) has opened up many new ideas, not only about the nature of child development itself, but also about how children may be helped to learn more effectively within the classroom context.   Researchers have studied work within the ZPD from a variety of perspectives and there are clearly contrasting views, emanating from Vygotskys work, about the nature of childrens learning and how it might best be enhanced through the interrelationships between children and adults and children and their p eers.   Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist writing in the 1920s and early 1930s, presented a view of child development and learning which was radically different from that of his contemporary, Piaget. Piagets work achieved recognition and subsequently became highly influential in the realm of education and teaching practice. However, as highlighted by Schaffer (1996) and Faulkner and Woodhead (1999), Vygotsky died in 1934 and his ideas became recognised only more recently, having been translated, during the 1960s and 1970s, into English from Russian.  Vygotsky criticised Piagets basic notion that the developmental process begins in infancy with the child progressing through a period of relative egocentricity, eventually reaching a condition in which his or her thinking and behaviour become socialised.   He suggests that this approach â€Å"precludes the notion that learning may play a role in the course of development or maturation of those functions activated in the course of learningâ⠂¬  (Vygotsky, 1978, p.79).   Whilst Piaget, then, essentially saw the child as initially egocentric, only gradually becoming a social being, Vygotsky turned this view completely around, suggesting that even the youngest infant is profoundly social.   In contrast to Piaget, Vygotsky believed that development moves from the social to the individual, the child progressively achieving self-awareness and a capacity for reflection through his or her interaction with others. Vygotsky, then, argued that interaction with others is crucial for the childs achievement of mental maturity and individuality.   He suggested further that this achievement depends upon interactions with those people, within the childs environment, who are more capable and advanced than the child.   Processes of interaction, through discussion and argument between the child and these others, become the basis for processes which take place within the child at an individual level (Faulkner and Woodhead, 1999).   These notions form the basis of what Vygotsky has termed the ‘zone of proximal development (ZPD).   Vygotsky (1978) points out that it has been commonly understood that learning, and instruction, should be matched in some way to the childs developmental level.   The teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic, for example, has been traditionally initiated at a specific age level.  However, according to Vygotsky, we should not â€Å"limit ourselves merely to d etermining developmental levels if we wish to discover the actual relations of the developmental process to learning capabilities† (Faulkner and Woodhead, 1999a, p.11).   Instead, he suggests that we must take account of at least two developmental levels. Vygotsky acknowledged the existence of the actual developmental level which is the summation of a childs mental functions, as determined through the childs performance on a battery of tests or tasks at varying degrees of difficulty.   He argues, however, that, through testing in this way, we tend to judge the level of the childs mental abilities according to those things that children can do on their own.   If the child is offered leading questions or is helped towards a solution in collaboration with other children, thereby perhaps just missing an independent solution to the problem, this is not regarded as evidence for his or her mental development (Vygotsky,1978).   We have failed, then, according to Vygotsky, to recognise that what children can do with the assistance of others could be even more indicative of their mental development than what they can do on their own. The zone of proximal development, then, constitutes those mental functions which are currently in an embryonic state but in the process of maturation.   Vygotsky summarises this idea thus â€Å"the actual developmental level characterises mental development retrospectively, while the zone of proximal development characterises mental development prospectively† (Faulkner and Woodhead, 1999a, p.12).   Vygotsky suggested, then, that if we were to seek to discover the maturing functions of a young child, his or her capabilities as shown in collaboration with others, we will be able to obtain an accurate picture of that childs future actual developmental level.   In terms of classroom practice, instruction which aims for a new stage in the developmental process, rather than oriented towards learning which has already been mastered, is seen as ultimately more effective for the learning process.   Vygotsky essentially argued that the relationship between learning and developme nt is not straightforward with development following school learning in a linear way.   Rather, the two processes tend to interact with each other continually in highly complex and dynamic ways (Vygotsky, 1978). The Vygotskian concept of the zone of proximal development, along with others, such as scaffolding and guided participation, is central to the socio-cultural approach to development.   Guided participation, for example, as outlined by Rogoff (1990), is rooted in the idea that cognitive, linguistic and social competencies are developed through childrens active participation in a variety of adult-guided activities.   Meadows (1994) describes how the more expert person, whether adult or peer, provides a context or â€Å"scaffolding† within which the child may act as though he or she were able to solve the problem posed and, ultimately, indeed master the problem.   The adult, for example, gradually leaves more for the child to do as he or she becomes more familiar with the task and is able to accomplish the whole task successfully and independently.   Once the task, together with its associated cognitive competency, is achieved, the child is then able to develop and pass o n these skills to peers.   Commentators such as Faulkner et al (1998) and King and ODonnell(1999) have highlighted that Vygotskys concept of ZPD has been commonly understood to imply that neither the task difficulty nor the guidance given to children should be too far in advance of their current level of ability.   The research evidence, particularly that presented by Tudge et al (1996) and Tharp and Gallimore (1998), for example, seems to be generally supportive of this observation.  Schaffer (1996) expands on Vygotskys emphasis on the importance of the ‘knowledgeable other for childrens learning and development.   He highlights the distinction between vertical and horizontal (also known as asymmetrical and symmetrical) relationships, and the unique contribution that each kind of relationship makes to childrens development.   Vertical relationships are those in which partners have unequal power and knowledge, such as that between adult and child or achild and older sibling.   The equal status between peers in horizontalrelationships, as Schaffer points out, allows children the opportunityto acquire skills, such as those involving co-operation andcompetition, turn-taking, sharing and leadership qualities moreeffectively than might be possible through, say family relationshipswhich are not egalitarian in terms of knowledge and power. Many researchers focus on play as an important medium through whichyounger children develop skills in negotiating shared understandingswith each other.   Pretend play, in particular, was seen by Vygotsky asproviding opportunities for children to explore role relationships andacquire social skills, perspectives and cultural roles that are far inadvance of their ‘actual developmental level.   Pretend play, thus,constitutes a good example of learning within the ZPD since childrenare constructing for themselves many possibilities for learning.   Whenwe consider peer collaboration in general, whether inside or outsidethe classroom, the concept of prolepsis, first articulated byRommetveit (1979), cited in Goncu (1998), has been identified as animportant mechanism through which children construct and communicateunderstandings with each other.   Stone (1993), for example, describesprolepsis as a communicative device whereby children take for grantedthat their partners share the ir knowledge and, therefore, will leaveimplicit some of the meaning embedded in that knowledge (cited inFaulkner and Woodhead, 1999).   This, in turn, is said to motivatepartners to test out assumptions about each others meanings andunderstandings, creating a climate for intersubjectivity to develop.   Schaffer (1996), however, points out that simply providing childrenwith appropriate experiences, whether in play or structured group workwithin the classroom, is insufficient for effective new learning totake place.   In keeping with the concept of ZPD, Schaffer defineseffective tuition as teaching which elicits from the child performanceat a developmentally advanced level.   Like Meadows (1994) mentionedearlier, Wood (1988) and Schaffer (1996) also argue that effectiveteaching involves the gradual transfer of responsibility for masteringthe task in hand from adult to child, as the child is able to masterincreasingly complex aspects of that task.   Although these lattertheorists focus upon adult-child tuition, these ideas could applyequally well to the transfer of skills and knowledge between childrenand their peers (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky saw the ZPD as an essential feature of learning,maintaining that â€Å"learning awakens a variety of internal developmentalprocesses that are able to operate only when the child is interactingwith people in his environment and in co-operation with his peers†(1978, p.90).   However, as Faulkner and Woodhead (1999) point out,children do not necessarily acquire communicative and social skillsfrom each other.   Neither can it be assumed that effective learning isachieved by the strategies teachers use through discussion.   It seemsclear that, for example, in group situations the social dynamicsdictate that individuals tend to take on different roles.   Someindividuals emerge as dominant or natural leaders; some take on therole of mediator or critic or perhaps adopt a very passive stance.   Itcannot be assumed, therefore, that even the most skilled tutor canensure that group discussion and interaction will create an effectivelearning space for each participant (F aulkner and Woodhead, 1999). Researchers such as Wood (1988) and Mercer (1995) have noted thatformal teaching and learning contexts are ‘contrived encounters in thesense that, in contrast to informal, spontaneous gatherings, peoplehave to acquire specific ways of talking and behaving according toparticular ground rules.   Edwards and Mercer (1987) have presented adetailed analysis of one common teaching strategy, defined as theinitiation-response-feedback (IRF) mode of exchange.   In the IRF mode,the teacher initiates by posing a particular question or problemassociated with the topic of the lesson and pupils respond and aregiven feedback in terms of the rightness or wrongness of theiranswers.   However, it is argued that this reduces learning into asomewhat sophisticated guessing game which renders children as passiverespondents, merely trying to search for the answers required of them,rather than as active participants, through perhaps posing questions oftheir own, in the learning process (Wood, 19 88).   Mercer (1995) explores this theme further in his analysis of classroomdiscourse and its role in knowledge creation.   He describes how jointunderstandings and shared frames of reference between pupils andteachers are established in effective classroom discourse.   The aims ofskilled teachers are seen as firstly, to orientate students learningactivities to the formal curriculum, secondly, to co-construct with thestudents a shared understanding of educational knowledge and thirdly,to help students commit their learning to memory (Mercer, 1995).   Inhis socio-cultural analysis of the teaching/learning process, Mercerhighlights the many ways in which teachers sustain classroom discourseby â€Å"confirming, reformulating, repeating, elaborating, rejecting orignoring the contributions learners make to classroom discussions†(Faulkner and Woodhead, 1999, p.84).   Through his extensive experienceof classroom research across different societies, Mercer concludes thatsuch guidanc e strategies, although commonly used in schooled societies,are underpinned by certain ‘common-sense assumptions about teachingand learning and may, therefore, be questioned and challenged. Mercer and Fisher (1998) argue that scaffolding, as a concept, isuseful for analysing how teachers may actively organise and supportchildrens learning when they in pairs or small groups.   However, theymaintain that a focus upon learning within the ZPD is too narrowlyrestricted to the dyadic interactions between adults and children andis therefore less useful within the classroom context.   They suggestthat in terms of analysing the quality of teaching and learning inclassrooms, the ZPD seems to have limited applicability becauseâ€Å"practical circumstances force most teachers to plan activities on thescale of classes or groups, not individuals.   The notion of any groupof learners having a common ZPD seems untenable!†(Mercer and Fisher,1998, p.127).   Other researchers, however, such as Moll and Whitmore (1998), haveargued that the ZPD concept can be useful in classroom contexts.   Theysuggest that traditional conceptions of ZPD based on dyadicinteractions are, indeed, too narrow and do not account for thesocio-cultural dimensions of the classroom as a context for learning.  Moll and Whitmore (1998) use examples of childrens written work todemonstrate how one particular class teacher provided a series of‘authentic social contexts within which her bilingual students wereable to explore the myriad of oral and written conventions of theirlanguages.   Moll and Whitmore (1998), thus, suggest that it isunnecessary to view ZPD simply in terms of the characteristic of eachindividual child but that classrooms can accommodate ‘collectiveZPDs.   They redefine the ZPD as â€Å"a zone where children can beencouraged to participate in collaborative activity within specificsocial (discourse) environments† (Moll and Whi tmore, 1998, p. 132).  They conclude that classrooms should be viewed as socio-cultural systems where, over time, teachers and students build up a history of shared understandings and generate new knowledge. The idea of creating shared meanings and joint understandings, whilst central to the socio-cultural approach to teaching and learning, has been queried in other circles.   Stone (1998), for example, has been concerned to elaborate more precisely the mechanisms involved in the process of intersubjectivity.   He argues that the quality of the interpersonal relationship between teacher and learner is crucial for the quality of learning that takes place within the classroom.   Stone emphasises the importance of shared understanding between teacher and learner and observes that adults may not always be sensitive enough to the lack of understanding, particularly in younger children, of the pragmatic conventions apparent for effective communication and dialogue.   He is particularly concerned to point out that shared understandings and commonly understood frames of reference between teacher and pupils do not occur instantly but take time to develop.  The argument for longitudinal studies, such as the research by Moll and Whitmore (1998) mentioned earlier, is therefore a strong one since these provide a richer description over time of teacher/learner relationships than ‘snapshot studies of isolated teaching and learning exchanges which can often produce a skewed and negative view of teachers competence. King and ODonnell (1999) point out that although Vygotsky himself focused more on the benefits of adult-child interactions rather than those of peer collaborations, his theory has â€Å"tremendous implications for our understanding of peer collaboration† (p.40). Many researchers have explored the ways in which peer interaction impacts upon childrens learning, problem solving and cognitive development.   Forman and Cazdan, for example, investigated how â€Å"the reasoning strategies of collaborative problem solvers differ from those of solitary problem solvers† (1998, p.192).   They compared the performance of three pairs of 9 year old children working on a series of scientific reasoning tasks with the performance of three pairs of 9 year old children working alone on identical problems.   They found that, when a Vygotskian perspective is adopted, children gained more valuable social and linguistic experiences through working collaboratively on the tasks than throu gh working alone on the same tasks. King and ODonnell (1999), along with Light and Littleton (1998),provide evidence that, in some circumstances, peer interaction does not promote individual cognitive progress.   Not all children work well together, and not all tasks are conducive to joint problem solving.  King and ODonnell (1999), for example, argue that applying Vygotskys theory to collaborative problem-solving involves more than simply pairing a child with a more competent other and focusing on the interactions between them.   They suggest that relying on the ZPD in terms of the interpersonal aspects of interaction is insufficient.  What is required instead, according to King and ODonnell, is anâ€Å" interweaving of different aspects of development, involving the individual and the cultural-historical as well as the interpersonal†(1999, p.40).   They cite evidence which demonstrates that not all social interaction has beneficial effects and, under some conditions, collaboration can, in fact, have detrimental outcomes.   Factors such as age, gender and ability level of the child and partner(s) and childrens motivation to collaborate can all affect the quality of learning outcome.   The extent to which children are exposed to more sophisticated reasoning by a partner together with willingness to accept and use that reasoning can also play a key role.   King and ODonnell, thus, note that â€Å"individual and contextual factors interact and mutually affect each other† (1999, p.46). King and ODonnell (1999) cite other research by Ellis and Rogoff(1982; 1986) and Gauvin and Rogoff (1989) which provides support for the idea that a ZPD can be constructed with either an adult or a peer.  However, they also point out that this research â€Å"indicates that pairing with an adult has different consequences (often more beneficial) for childrens learning† (King and ODonnell, 1999, p.50).   Many researchers have explored the ways in which teachers can guide knowledge construction through promoting effective group work in the classroom.   As mentioned earlier, children are likely to need adult input if they are to work on collaborative tasks productively.   Tharp and Gallimore (1998), for example, use the concept of scaffolding to support their argument that individual self-determined competence in any area may be generated only after successful performance has been achieved by assisted learning in the childs ZPD.   They characterise the ZPD not as a disti nct, discrete growing point for an individual child but rather as a complex array of growing edges involving all areas of developing competence.   They describe in some detail how the adult assistance provided between parent and child is not a linear, step-like procedure but an ongoing process involving a myriad of reciprocal interactions which reflect, monitor and adjust to the childs learning needs at any given time.   Tharp and Gallimore argue that â€Å"attempts by assisting adults to assess a childs readiness for greater responsibility (in the mastery of a task) often are subtle and embedded in the ongoing interaction† (1998, p.105). One example of teaching as assisted performance through the ZPD, as delineated by Tharp and Gallimore (1998), is the study by Baker-Sennett et al (1998) which explored the relationship between group collaborative processes and the nature of childrens creativity.   This study includes a fascinating account of the ways in which the ideas, planning and organisation of a play based on a fairy tale by one group of six girls, aged between seven and nine, changed over a period of one month.   The role of the class teacher in structuring the task for her pupils was also discussed.   The ways in which this teacher encourages the girls to reflect upon and address the interpersonal dilemmas they encounter are also illuminated in the research report.   Baker-Sennett et al (1998) draw out the evidence in the study for the girls movement, collectively, through parallel interpersonal zones as well as literary, creative zones.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tharp and Gallimore (1998) suggest, however, that the kind of assisted performance commonly evident, and successful, in the interactions of parents and children is rarely found in teacher/student relationships within the classroom.   The assistor, if he or she is to work effectively within the ZPD, must remain in close touch with the learners relationship to the task.   In short, it seems that commonly in the classroom, there are too many children for each teacher and not enough time available for working closely enough with the ZPD.   As Tharp and Gallimore observe, â€Å"public education is not likely to reorganise into classrooms of seven pupils each† (1998, p.107).   They do remain optimistic, however, suggesting that small group collaborative working, promoted through innovative instructional practices, together with the increasing use of new materials and technology could create the conditions for assisted performance to flourish in the future. In conclusion, then, Vygotskys work on the zone of proximal development, and its associated concepts of scaffolding and guided participation, has stimulated thinking and research about the nature of child development itself, its relationship to childrens learning and the implications for classroom practice.   It seems clear that there are contrasting views on the ways in which children relate to the ‘knowledgeable other, the nature and value of peer collaboration, the nature and extent of adult-assisted learning and the implications of all this for the quality of learning achievable.   As Tharp and Gallimore (1998), King and ODonnell (1999) and others argue, it seems that working effectively with the ZPD must take account of not only individual factors and immediate interpersonal interactions between children, adults and peers, but also the myriad of cultural-historical influences upon children and adults.   This undoubtedly presents a challenge in terms of current constr aints on classroom size and organisation in public education.   Some research studies, for example the account by Baker-Sennett et al (1998), have shown that through sensitive and creative classroom practice the conditions for optimal learning through working with the ZPD can be created.  Ã‚  Ã‚   References Baker-Sennett, J, Matusov, E, Rogoff, B (1998) ‘Sociocultural processesof creative planning in childrens playcrafting, in Faulkner, D,Littleton, K, Woodhead, M, Learning Relationships in the Classroom,Routledge, London, pp. 237-257 Edwards, D, Mercer, N (1987) Common Knowledge: the development of understanding in the classroom, Methuen, London Faulkner, D, Woodhead, M (1999) Child Development in Families,Schools and Society Study Guide, The Open University, Milton Keynes Faulkner, D, Woodhead, M (1999a) Child Development in Families,Schools and Society Offprints, The Open University Press, MiltonKeynes Forman, E, Cazdan, C (1998) ‘Exploring Vygotskian perspectives ineducation: the cognitive value of peer interaction, in Faulkner, D,Littleton, K, Woodhead, M, Learning Relationships in the Classroom,Routledge, London, pp. 189-206 Goncu, A (1998) ‘Development of intersubjectivity in social pretendplay, in Woodhead, M, Faulkner, D, Littleton, K, Cultural Worlds ofEarly Childhood, Routledge, London, pp. 117-132 King, A, ODonnell, A.M (1999) Cognitive Perspectives on Peer Learning, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, London Light, P, Littleton, K (1998) ‘Cognitive approaches to group work,in Faulkner, D, Littleton, K, Woodhead, M, Learning Relationships inthe Classroom, Routledge, London, pp. 171-188 Meadows, S (1994) ‘Cognitive development, in Bryant, P, Coleman, A (Eds) Developmental Psychology, Longman, Harlow Mercer, N (1995) The Guided Construction of Knowledge, Multilingual Matters Ltd, Clevedon Mercer, N, Fisher, E (1998) ‘How do teachers help children tolearn?   An analysis of teachers interventions in computer-basedactivities, in Faulkner, D, Littleton, K, Woodhead, M, LearningRelationships in the Classroom, Routledge, London, pp. 111-130 Moll, L.C., Whitmore, K.F (1998) ‘Vygotsky in classroom practice:moving from individual transmission to social transaction, inFaulkner, D, Littleton, K, Woodhead, Learning Relationships in theClassroom, Routledge, London, pp. 131-155 Rogoff, B (1990) Apprenticeship in Thinking: cognitive development in social context, Oxford University Press, Oxford Schaffer, R (1996) Social Development, Blackwell, Oxford Stone, C (1998) ‘What is missing in the metaphor of scaffolding?,in Faulkner, D, Littleton, K, Woodhead, M, Learning Relationships inthe Classroom, Routledge, London, pp.156-167 Tharp, R, Gallimore, R (1998) ‘A theory of teaching as assistedperformance, in Faulkner, D, Littleton, K, Woodhead, M, LearningRelationships in the Classroom, Routledge, London, pp. 93-110 Tudge, J, Winterhoff, R.A., Hogan, D.M (1996) ‘The cognitiveconsequences of collaboration and feedback, in Child Development, Vol.67, pp. 2892-2909 Vygotsky, L.S (1978) Mind in Society: the development of higher psychological processes, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA Wood, D (1988) How Children Think and Learn, Blackwell, Oxford

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