Solar is Renewable Energy Source
Solar is an original renewable energy source as the sun gives us heat and light.
The tremendous growth in the U.S. solar industry is helping to pave the way to a cleaner, more sustainable energy future. Over the past few years, the cost of a solar energy system has dropped significantly — helping to give more American families and business access to affordable clean energy.
Unknown Facts:
- Solar energy is the most abundant energy resource on earth —173,000 terawatts of solar energy strikes the Earth continuously. That’s more than 10,000 times the world’s total energy use.
- The first silicon solar cell, the precursor of all solar-powered devices, was built by Bell Laboratories in 1954. On the first page of its April 26, 1954 issue, The New York Times.
- Today’s demand for solar in the United States is at an all-time high. The amount of solar power installed in the U.S. has increased more than 23 times over the past eight years — from 1.2 gigawatts (GW) in 2008 to an estimated 27.4 GW at the end of 2015. The U.S. is currently the third-largest solar market in the world and is positioned to become the second.
As prices continue to fall, solar energy is increasingly becoming an economical energy choice for American homeowners and businesses. Still, the biggest hurdle to affordable solar energy remains the soft costs — like permitting, zoning and hooking a solar system up to the power gird. On average, local permitting and inspection processes add more than $2,500 to the total cost of a solar energy system and can take up to six months to complete.
- California’s Mojave Desert is home to Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, the world’s largest operating solar thermal energy plant. It uses concentrating solar power (CSP) technology to focus 173,500 heliostats, each containing two mirrors, onto boilers located in three power towers. The plant, which came online in 2014, has a gross capacity of 392 megawatts (MW).
Solar technology can be classified as:
Active Solar − Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar power and solar water heating to harness the energy. Active solar is directly consumed in activities such as drying clothes and warming of air.
Passive Solar − Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light-dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air.
Conversion of Solar Energy
The other form of obtaining solar energy is through thermal technologies, which give two forms of energy tapping methods.
The first is solar concentration, which focuses solar energy to drive thermal turbines.
The second method is heating and cooling systems used in solar water heating and air conditioning respectively.
The process of converting solar energy into electricity so as to utilize its energy in day-to-day activities is given below −
- Absorption of energy carrying particles in Sun’s rays called photons.
- Photovoltaic conversion, inside the solar cells.
- Combination of current from several cells. This step is necessary since a single cell has a voltage of less than 0.5 V.
- Conversion of the resultant DC to AC.
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