Lucky Last – Solar Focus from Florida

Barbara Young in Florida, USA writes on solar power. Her work is devoted to helping people save energy using solar powered energy to eliminate CO2 emissions and energy dependency. She has a simple solution to help individuals learn how solar panels work and provide information to make the transition from a full-time energy dependent to successful energy efficiency.

Barbara Young  started 12voltsolarpanels.net in 2008 to help people who want to save energy using solar power or deal with the sometimes overwhelming prospect of starting a PV system.

What’s solar energy?

Solar energy is radiant energy that’s produced by the sun. Daily the sun radiates, or sends out, an enormous volume of energy. The sun radiates more energy in a second than people have used since the beginning of time!

The energy of the Sun originates from within the sun itself. Like other stars, the sun is really a big ball of gases––mostly hydrogen and helium atoms.

The hydrogen atoms in the sun’s core combine to create helium and generate energy in a process called nuclear fusion.

During nuclear fusion, the sun’s extremely high pressure and temperature cause hydrogen atoms to come apart and their nuclei (the central cores of the atoms) to fuse or combine. Four hydrogen nuclei fuse to become one helium atom. But the helium atom contains less mass than the four hydrogen atoms that fused. Some matter is lost during nuclear fusion. The lost matter is emitted into space as radiant energy.

It takes an incredible number of years for the energy in the sun’s core to make its way to the solar surface, after which just a little over eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles to earth. The solar energy travels to the earth at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, the velocity of sunshine.

Simply a small part of the power radiated by the sun into space strikes the earth, one part in two billion. Yet this volume of energy is enormous. Every day enough energy strikes the united states to supply the nation’s energy needs for one and a half years!

Where does all of this energy go?

About 15 percent of the sun’s energy which hits our planet is reflected back to space. Another 30 percent is used to evaporate water, which, lifted into the atmosphere, produces rainfall. Solar power is absorbed by plants, the land, and the oceans. The remaining could be used to supply our energy needs.

Who invented solar technology ?

Humans have harnessed solar energy for hundreds of years. As early as the 7th century B.C., people used simple magnifying glasses to concentrate the light of the sun into beams so hot they would cause wood to catch fire.

Over 100 years ago in France, a scientist used heat from a solar collector to produce steam to drive a steam engine. In the beginning of this century, scientists and engineers began researching ways to use solar power in earnest. One important development was a remarkably efficient solar boiler invented by Charles Greeley Abbott, an american astrophysicist, in 1936.

The solar water heater came into common use at this time in Florida, California, and the Southwest. The industry started in the early 1920s and was in full swing just before The second world war. This growth lasted before mid-1950s when low-cost gas had become the primary fuel for heating American homes.

People and world governments remained largely indifferent to the possibilities of solar technology until the oil shortages of the1970s. Today, people use solar energy to heat buildings and water and to generate electricity.

How we use solar energy today ?

Solar energy is used in a variety of ways, of course. There’s two standard kinds of solar energy:

 * Solar thermal energy collects the sun’s warmth through one of two means: in water or in an anti-freeze (glycol) mixture.

 * Solar photovoltaic energy converts the sun’s radiation to usable electricity.

Listed below are the five most practical and popular ways that solar energy is used:

 1. Small portable solar photovoltaic systems. We see these used everywhere, from calculators to solar garden products. Portable units can be utilised for everything from RV appliances while single panel systems can be used traffic signs and remote monitoring stations.

 2. Solar pool heating. Running water in direct circulation systems through a solar collector is an extremely practical method to heat water for your pool or hot spa.

 3. Thermal glycol energy to heat water. In this method (indirect circulation), glycol is heated by natural sunlight and the heat is then transferred to water in a warm water tank. This method of collecting the sun’s energy is more practical now than ever before. In areas as far north as Edmonton, Alberta, solar thermal to heat water is economically sound. It can pay for itself in three years or less.

 4. Integrating solar photovoltaic energy into your home or business power. In numerous parts of the world, solar photovoltaics is an economically feasible solution to supplement the power of your property. In Japan, photovoltaics are competitive with other types of power. In the US, new incentive programs make this form of solar power ever more viable in many states. A frequent and practical way of integrating solar energy into the power of your home or business is through the usage of building integrated solar photovoltaics.

 5. Large independent photovoltaic systems. If you have enough sun power at your site, you could possibly go off grid. It’s also possible to integrate or hybridize your solar energy system with wind power or other types of renewable power to stay ‘off the grid.’

How can Photovoltaic panels work ?

Silicon is mounted beneath non-reflective glass to produce photovoltaic panels. These panels collect photons from the sun, converting them into DC electrical energy. The power created then flows into an inverter. The inverter transforms the power into basic voltage and AC electrical energy.

Photovoltaic cells are prepared with particular materials called semiconductors like silicon, which is presently the most generally used. When light hits the Photovoltaic cell, a particular share of it is absorbed inside the semiconductor material. This means that the energy of the absorbed light is given to the semiconductor.

The power unfastens the electrons, permitting them to run freely. Pv cells also have more than one electric fields that act to compel electrons unfastened by light absorption to flow in a specific direction. This flow of electrons is a current, and by introducing metal links on the top and bottom of the -Photovoltaic cell, the current can be drawn to use it externally.

Do you know the positives and negatives of solar power ?

Solar Pro Arguments

- Heating our homes with oil or propane or using electricity from power plants running with coal and oil is a cause of global warming and climate disruption. Solar power, on the other hand, is clean and environmentally-friendly.

- Solar hot-water heaters require little maintenance, and their initial investment may be recovered in just a relatively short time.

- Solar hot-water heaters can work in almost any climate, even just in very cold ones. You just have to choose the best system for your climate: drainback, thermosyphon, batch-ICS, etc.

- Maintenance costs of solar powered systems are minimal and also the warranties large.

- Financial incentives (USA, Canada, European states…) can reduce the cost of the initial investment in solar technologies. The U.S. government, as an example, offers tax credits for solar systems certified by by the SRCC (Solar Rating and Certification Corporation), which amount to 30 percent of the investment (2009-2016 period).

Solar Cons Arguments

- The initial investment in Solar Hot water heaters or in Solar PV Electric Systems is greater than that required by conventional electric and gas heaters systems.

- The payback period of solar PV-electric systems is high, as well as those of solar space heating or solar cooling (only the solar warm water heating payback is short or relatively short).

- Solar water heating do not support a direct combination with radiators (including baseboard ones).

- Some air conditioning (solar space heating and the solar cooling systems) are costly, and rather untested technologies: solar air-con isn’t, till now, a truly economical option.

- The efficiency of solar powered systems is rather determined by sunlight resources. It’s in colder climates, where heating or electricity needs are higher, that the efficiency is smaller.

Barbara Young in Floida, USA writes on solar power. Her work is devoted to helping people save energy using solar powered energy to eliminate CO2 emissions and energy dependency.

Source:  www.12voltsolarpanels.net