What is solar energy?
Most people have heard of solar panels and solar operated clocks and toys, but how does it work?
In a simple answer, it’s similar to photosynthesis in the way sunlight is captured and turned into energy.
Solar energy is a form of green, clean-sourced energy that doesn’t take any sort of fossil fuels to run. This helps keep the environment clean and reduce people’s carbon footprint.
Today though, we’re going to explain how it works on a deeper level.
How The Panels Work
Solar energy as mentioned above works when we take the sun’s energy and use it to power things.
Large solar panels, which are one of the more common forms of solar power, are filled with small, double-sided silicon wafers.
Since each side is either positively or negatively charged, when the sun hits them the atoms around them begin to shake. This movement is what causes the sun to be converted into an electric current
Those electric currents then get converted from a DC (Direct Current) into an AC (Alternating Current) so that it can power things in homes and buildings.
From there, any extra energy that goes through the solar panels then can get stored in a battery. This is important because people will still have electricity when the power goes out if it’s dark.
One of the many great things about solar energy is how good it is for the environment. Since energy is created by the sun making a few atoms shake, extensive amounts of water aren’t needed to try to keep the electricity going.
The Grid
“While renewable energy systems are capable of powering houses and small businesses without any connection to the electricity grid, many people prefer the advantages that grid-connection offers.” energy.gov has a more in-depth article about what’s required to feed back into the grid and exactly how it works.
Most of the time if a home has solar panels, it will still be hooked up to the “grid” so that if there’s every not enough energy, you’ll be able to draw power like you normally would from the electric company.
But, sometimes it’s the other way around.
Since nobody can turn off the sun, solar panels continue to collect more and more power throughout the day, easily becoming much more than you would typically need.
When this happens, the power that your panels have collected gets fed back into the grid and helps to power it on the other end.
Commonly, companies will give credits back to the homes that are feeding the power they make back into the grid. That makes it a win-win for both parties!
The Two Types Of Solar Energy
“Like water and air, the Sun is one of the Earth’s life support systems, providing heat and light. Solar energy, which is renewable, widely available and clean, provides enough energy to meet the world’s annual consumption needs every 50 minutes. The challenge is to collect a share – however small – of this heat and radiant energy.”
Planete energies has an article with in-depth information of how each of the two types of solar power works. You can read more on it here.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how the different types of solar power works-
- Photovoltaic
The first solar energy we’ll talk about is Photovoltaic solar technology. This type of technology takes direct sunlight and turns it into power. For this type of power, the panels are made up of what’s called semiconductor cells.
This type of solar power known as the “photovoltaic effect” was first discoed in 1839 by a French physicist named Edmond Becquerel. It wasn’t until 1954 that this type of energy had begun to be used in industrial applications.
- Solar Thermal Technology
The second kind of solar power is Solar Thermal Technology. This type of power is created by taking the sun’s heat and converting it into power.
After the heat has been captured, it’s directly converted into mechanical energy and then into electricity.
This type of solar energy is used to do things such as heat homes and hot water, rather than power your tv.
Both of these types of solar energy have their place, but photovoltaic is what you’ll most likely see when people have panels installed onto their homes.
How Is Solar Power Used?
Lots of things in our world today use the power of the sun to get their power supply, but there are more uses to solar power than you might think.
One of the more commonly known ways to use solar power is to power homes. People will commonly install panels on top of their roof to harness the sun’s light, enabling them to stop using traditional forms of electricity for their homes. Instead, they use a clean form of power and cut down on their electric bill costs.
Ventilation is another thing that people have started to use solar energy for. With things like solar attic fans, we can now use solar power to help cool homes during the day rather than HVAC units, or forced air.
One we all know and love is solar lighting. It is one of the easiest solar items to find no matter what store you go to. Solar lawn ornaments are very common to see and a great example of how easy it is to use solar energy. You don’t even have to turn them on!
Another use that people have now found for solar power is for portable things. Finding an outlet to charge your phone or electronics at is hard enough, but now you have the option to carry around solar chargers for all of your needs. While these may not save you on a rainy day, any time the sun is shining through, you can recharge to your heart’s content.
How Is Solar Energy Different?
There are lots of different ways to get electricity and power nowadays, things like wind power, fossil fuels, or even riding a bike to power something.
So then, how is solar different?
Apart from being possibly the easiest form of energy to obtain, solar energy is also the cleanest energy around.
It doesn’t produce any greenhouse gas emissions, nor does it waste any of Earth’s water to cool off if it gets too hot.
Solar energy is also a renewable resource. Things like fossil fuels aren’t renewable and therefore once we’ve used up all of Earth’s resources, there won’t be a way for us to get any more.
When you compare all the different kinds of energy like fossil fuels, gas, and coal next to solar, it’s amazing to see that it’s not being used more.
Other kinds of energies emit so many greenhouse gasses that end up polluting the Earth, as well as taking nonrenewable resources from Earth.
Solar energy will always be renewable. The sun will always be in the sky and giving us light, so why would we not want to harvest that light while we have the chance?
Compared to all of the other types of energy, solar comes out on top as the most clean, efficient energy that’s available today.
Below is an example of how much water is used to produce electricity between Solar Power, Nuclear Power, and Coal Power.
“The Nuclear Energy Institute estimates that, per megawatt-hour, a nuclear power reactor consumes between 1,514 and 2,725 litres of water. This is compared to coal with figures of 1,220 to 2,270 litres per MWh, and 700 to 1,200 litres per MWh for gas,” an article by Monarch Partnership talks about nuclear water consumption as compared to gas and coal power. You can find more in depth information on the article here
Conclusion
While we may never get to personally build a solar panel by hand, at least we can understand how they work and what they do.
Solar panels are a great use of our sun’s energy source and simply seem to always rise to the occasion and how good they are for the planet.
Now that you’ve gotten a better understanding of what solar energy is and what it can do, the next step is to look into if it’s a good fit for your life.
You’ll be able to reduce both your carbon footprint as well as the dent that your utility bill takes out of your wallet, and who doesn’t want that?
Help our Earth become a cleaner, better place by switching to solar energy.
More Information
https://solect.com/the-science-of-solar-how-solar-panels-work/
https://solartechnologies.com/solar-energy-uses-in-your-daily-life/