Solar Energy: A basic Idea

My earlier blog have some idea on the different renewable energies. This will focus little bit on the Solar energy.

The word Solar is Latin and it means Sun.so the solar energy refers to the various way we can generate our usable energy from the Sun.

It is measured by scientists that the amount of energy which our planet receives in one hour is equivalent to the energy what we all use in an year. So you can have an idea the amount of energy we are blessed with through Sun. Solar energy uses this energy source to make it in the usable format like electricity or thermal energy. Following are two of the technologies that converts solar power to usable energies:

Concentrating Solar Power:

Most of the power plants uses fossil fuel be it petroleum oil or coal to produce electricity. They heat the water by those fuels and steam is used to spin the turbine and thus release electricity. With solar power technology the heat from the sun is concentrated to boil the water and thus omits the use of fossil fuel. Only downside is that it requires to focus the lenses to the sun and thus the uses of this type of solar power can be limited to the sunniest parts of the globe only.

Photo-Voltaic Cells:

Another technique is the use of photo-voltaic cells to produce electricity from the sun light. It was first discovered by scientists in 1954 that silicon generates some electric charge when exposed to sun light. Initially solar cells are used to power space satellites, calculators and watches but in later stages the uses of solar cell have increased very widely. Solar panel which consists of many solar cells are used power the houses. In an average 10 to 20 such panels are enough the power the house.

Once the sun light falls upon solar cells it convert the light (not heat) to the direct current(DC). These cells can even perform on the cloudy days also. But more the intensity of the light more current will be generated. These DC then taken to an inverter which converts it to AC(alternative current) and then you can use it like normal electricity.

Initially these are created only from silicon but now a days they are prepared from silicon as well as non silicon materials. On the downside, this photo-voltaic cells are expensive to start with. But if you consider the total use span it usually evens out.

There are other technology also which uses the heat of the sun and provide hot water to the houses and businesses. There is also a process called solar process heat, which uses solar energy to heat or cool the commercial and industrial buildings.

What do you think about solar energy? Are you a part of it? Share your thoughts.