Solar Energy | The World’s Largest Power Source
The energy which we get from the sun can use to produce electricity, hot water, or heat through the use of solar collectors called solar energy. Solar energy is one of the types of Renewable Energy Sources.
The most commonly used technologies for homes and businesses are solar water heating and solar photovoltaic for electricity.
Now a day’s Businesses and industries also use solar energy to improve the efficiency of work and also to save money. The future
First of all the size of your solar system depends on many factors such as how much electricity or hot water you need, the size of your roof, how much you’re willing to invest, and how much energy you want to generate.
Solar Panels:
Solar panels absorb sunlight as a source of energy to generate electricity or heat.
There are two types of solar panels, those that collect heat (thermal), and those that produce electricity (photovoltaic). A photovoltaic system typically includes an array of photovoltaic modules, an inverter, a battery pack for storage, interconnection wiring, and optionally a solar tracking mechanism.
Types of Solar Energy System:
There are four common types of solar energy:
Photovoltaic Cells:
Solar panels on a red roof collecting energy from the sun.
Solar cells, also called photovoltaic (PV) cells by scientists, convert sunlight directly into electricity. PV gets its name from the process of converting light (photons) to electricity (voltage), which is called the PV effect. The function of photovoltaic cells is to convert sunlight into electricity for homes, businesses, industries, offices.
- Photovoltaic cells convert sunlight directly into Direct Current (DC) Electricity.
- The inverter converts DC into Alternating current (AC) Electricity.
- The electrical panel sends power to your lights and appliances.
- The electric meter measures the energy you draw and feedback to the grid.
Solar Process Heat:
Many large buildings need ventilating air to maintain indoor air quality. In cold climates, heating this air can use large amounts of energy. But a solar ventilation system can preheat the air, saving both energy and money.
This type of system uses a transpired collector, which consists of a black metal panel seated on a wall to absorb the sun’s heat. But this type of process heat would be impractical for a home.
These technologies include ventilation air preheating, process heating, and solar heating for hot water in commercial and non-residential buildings.
Solar water heating:
Solar water heating systems use free heat from the sun to warm domestic hot water. A conventional boiler or immersion heater can use to make the water hotter or to provide hot water when solar energy is unavailable.
There are two types of water heating panels:
Evacuated tubes
Evacuated tube collectors are the most efficient collectors available. Each evacuated tube is similar to a thermos in principle. A glass or metal tube containing the water or heat transfer fluid is surrounded by a larger glass tube. The space between them is a vacuum, so very little heat is lost from the fluid.
Flat plate collectors:
Flat-plate collectors typically consist of copper tubes fitted to flat absorber plates which can fix on the roof tiles or integrated into the roof.
The most common configuration is a series of parallel tubes connected at each end by two pipes, the inlet and outlet manifolds. The flat plate assembly is contained within an insulated box, and covered with tempered glass.
Finally after observing and reading the types of the solar energy system. We will discuss some advantages and disadvantages of the solar energy system.
Advantages of Solar Power System:
- Hence solar energy is Pollution-free and causes no greenhouse gases to be emitted after installation.
- Consequently Money Saving
- Reduced dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels
- Return on investment unlike paying for utility bills
- While Ability to live grid free if all power generated provides enough for the home/building
- It Can be installed virtually anywhere in a field to on a building
- Use batteries to store extra power for use at night
- It can use to heat water, power homes and building, even power cars.
- Safer than traditional electric current
- As a result, Efficiency is improved, the same size solar that is available today will be more efficient tomorrow.
Disadvantages of Solar Power System:
- While solar energy systems required high initial costs for material and installation.
- Can Required lots of space, therefore installed on the rooftop of the house or building.
- While no solar power at night so, therefore need a large battery bank.
- While Devices that run on DC power directly are more expensive.
- Depending on geographical location the size of the solar panels vary for the same power generation.
- Hence cloudy days do not produce much energy.
- Therefore Solar-powered cars do not have the same speeds and power as typical gas-powered cars.
