Sun is the main source of solar energy. Sun is about 3 lack time size of earth. Sun have a very large mass and huge heat and nuclear energy. Sun is the main source of energy for this world. Sun provides main source of energy for light.
Solar energy is the wonderful idea to use solar light. Solar light is used to generate electricity. In solar system power is taken from sun and converted into electrical energy using photo cells. Solar energy is free of cost.
How solar energy system works?
When sunlight falls on solar electric panels, solar electricity is produced. Solar light and photovoltaic panels are main source of solar energy. Sun generate a large amount of nuclear energy radiations. These radiations generate light energy called photons. These photons have no physical mass but they large amount of energy and momentum. These photons have different wave length of lights. Photons may have visible or non visible light radiations. These photons take million earn to reach the surface of sun. These photons travel with the speed of 700 million miles per hour. With this huge speed, these photons reach surface of earth in almost 8 minutes. While travelling to earth these photons collide with each other and produce heat. That is why some articles absorb heat and absorb more heat energy. This is the reason we feel warming weather around us in summer days. This is also a reason in winter we feel these photons less warm.
Intensity of photons is much higher in middle of the day than in early morning and evening due to less atmospheric conditions in middle of the day.
Working principle of solar energy system:
Working principle of solar energy is photoelectric effect. Now being an electrical engineer you should know what is photoelectric effect.
“Specific quality two materials generates an electric current when light falls on”
Two semi conductor materials are combined in the form of layer to produce this effect. Light falls on one semi conductor’s material. Due to light energy electronics excites and semi conductor material absorbs light energy. This absorbed light energy excites electrons in semi conductor material and force electron to flow in other semi conductor material. In this way electric current is produced with these materials with the help of light energy. This is called photo electric effect.
This effect is used to design photoelectric solar cells. Silicon is used as a semi conductor material to build solar cells. Whenever light falls on solar cell, solar cell absorb light energy and works on photo electric effect to convert light energy into electrical energy. Light contains photons. Its mean greater the number of photons, greater will be the output of solar cells. Solar cells generate electrical energy with the help of intensity of light. Solar cells can also generate electricity in cloudy days or even in full moon nights. But output of solar cells is very low in these conditions. Solar cells alone produce very small amount of electrical energy. Therefore solar cells are connected together to produced useful amount of energy. Solar panels connected together to make solar panels or photovoltaic panels.
Things to consider before selecting solar energy for domestic and industrial applications:
In fact, solar energy is free source of electrical energy, but you have to consider many constraints before selecting solar energy for domestic and industrial applications. Location of installation of solar panels is very important in this regard. You should consider following points before selecting solar energy for your source of electricity:
- There should be a considerable amount of light source or sun light available in your location.
- Sun should be available for maximum days of year in your location.
- Your location should be free from trees and high building. Because their shade will affect the performance of solar panels.
- Solar energy is effective only when there is no other source of energy available in your area.
- Solar energy is suitable for low power applications, not for heating applications.
- How much energy you need to generate.
Advantage of solar energy:
If you can avoid above mentioned constraints, solar energy have many benefits. Most important is that it can save your money. Some other advantages of solar system are given below:
- It provides continuous power supply in case of outage in main power source.
- It is free of cost source of energy except installation cost and annual maintenance cost.
- There are many other advantages of solar energy which is beyond the scope of this article.
- Solar power system have high capital cost but as compared to other power sources it have low running maintenance cost.
Reasons why you should select solar energy system:
Following points will give you reasons to select solar system for domestic applications.
- If there is no source electrical power source is available in your area or your location is too far away from grid station.
- When there is load shedding in your country, solar system is provide cost-effective reliable power source.
- Solar electric system is more economical for low power application like to provide power source to gardens, workshops and garage.
- You can become independent from other power sources by installing sufficient amount of solar panels.
- Other than installation cost solar power provide free of cost energy. You have no need to worry about bills.
- Solar power system becomes more reliable when combine with wind power system.
Solar system can work in many configurations. Some of them are given below:
- Stand alone solar system.
- On grid solar system
- Off grid solar system
This is all about this article, in short solar energy is wonderful way to get free energy and it is suitable for locations where other power sources are not easily available. Solar panels used photons energy to generate electrical energy. Solar energy system is not suitable for colder regions.