The Future of Solar Energy How It Looks and

The Future of Solar Energy How It Looks and How It Affects Nature

The future of solar energy lies on the indigenous hands of people who never tire out from thinking of ways in order to make life easier to live. With the advancement in the technology, the boom of the Internet age and a lot of other things, there will come a time when people will turn their backs on whatever is conventional. This can be good and bad in many ways, depending on who is looking at it and from what perspective.

But peoples quest for the advancement and development of everything that surrounds them provides lots of negative effects as well. Here are only some.

1. Sometimes, people neglect the environment and how to properly take care of it for the mere fact that they are greedy to get their ideas done no matter what the consequences to the nature will be. Such advancements create harmful effects in the whole state and balance of nature. How many times have you heard about forest denudation or grave floods that kill people? All these occurrences can also be rooted to the activities of men that suffice for their own good without so much consideration for their natural habitat and the nature.

2. With the continuing advancement of everything that surrounds people, the generational gap becomes wider and wider. Old folks will fight for the benefits of the conventional tools and mediums. The newer generations cannot afford to sit on those old ways to do things. They are a slave to the continuing technological developments.

It is okay to initiate change. It is good to find better ways to do things. But people must be cautious in achieving this. They must think about everything around them before they even start on their venture to newer and better ways to achieve greatness.

The Innovations

As of today, solar energy is one of the best options that people have with regards to alternative power sources. This has already evolved. There was a time when you can only avail such power source when the sun is present and that is during daytime. With the genius of the people behind the development of this resource, they were able to create green gas that can produce electricity. This is done by splitting water properties into hydrogen and oxygen. Both gasses will then be grouped into a cell that will be the electricity source.

The same geniuses estimated that the entire planet can rely to an hour of sunlight for its one year electricity consumption. Solar cells have been developed to produce electricity from the energy coming from the sun. The panels for such technology can also be used to heat water and cook food. There are now the solar heating, solar cookers and solar furnaces as add-ons to this innovative venture.

There are now hydrogen based cars. These are fueled by the split hydrogen in water. The solar cells also power the satellites that orbit through the surface of the Earth. This is the reason why there are advancements that people benefit from such as satellite phones and TV, accurate weather forecasting, even the development of the GPS technology and a lot more.

There are a lot of benefits that people can gain from the future of solar energy. You just have to think that whatever you do or however you use such technology for your own good, you must always think of ways to protect your environment first to be able to get the most out of such improvements.

The future of solar energy on transportation

Are you familiar with the World Solar Challenge? It is a race specifically for solar cars. Solar cars basically have arrays of photovoltaic cells which converts the suns rays into usable electrical energy. The purpose of the race is to raise awareness on the use of the suns energy on transportation and the development of other alternative forms of energy particularly the solar cells.

The future of using solar energy on transportation services may still be a little hazy given the practical difficulties involve in converting ordinary cars into solar cars but the idea is here to stay and hopefully develops into something promising and useful.

At this point, solar cars have been built to join solar car races. Very few have been constructed for practical and commercial purposes. There are several reasons why the solar car remains on the background.

The design of a solar car relies on the electrical system of the vehicle. The system controls the electricity the flows from the photovoltaic cells to the batteries, to the wheels, and to the controls. The electric motor that moves the vehicle is powered purely by the electricity produced by the solar cells. The solar cells, depending on the number installed on the vehicle, can produce more or less 1000 watts of power from the suns rays. To give you an idea, 1000 watts is just enough electricity to power an electric iron or even a toaster.

And since the sun will most likely be covered by clouds at one time or the other, or the car goes through a tunnel or something, solar cars are equipped with batteries to serve as backup power supply for the motor. The battery packs are charged by the solar cells. However, the batteries are not charge while driving the solar car unless you intend to go very slow.

Just like a gas pedal in conventional motors, a motor controller regulates the amount of electricity that enters the motor to speed up or slow down the vehicle whenever needed. Solar cars are not that slow as perceived by almost everyone. These cars can go to as fast as 80-85 mph.

With this, you can see why solar cars are not yet into commercial production. Nowadays, solar cells can harness more than 21% of the suns energy that hit the surface. If the time comes that the cells can actually get more energy from the sun then maybe we can see solar cars on the streets. But at this time, it is quite difficult to make a commercial production model of a solar car.

Nevertheless, there are companies who have already created some concept solar cars and are testing how road worthy they are. Theres even a scooter that is street legal and runs from batteries charged from photovoltaic cells. Other possible application of solar car technologies is on golf carts which runs pretty slow in the first place and can be appreciated by golfers as well.

The future of solar energy on transportation is still not that clear. The application of solar energy on homes and buildings has been moving forward in recent years so hopefully we can find new ways of converting the suns energy into usable electricity. And this time something that can be economically and efficiently installed in conventional cars.

The downsides of solar energy

Not that Im against using solar energy or anything but there are some downsides of using solar energy. My intention is to illustrate these disadvantages so that people can realize the other side of the coin to prepare them and not so much as to dissuade them from using solar energy. I am for everything that can save the planet. View this article as an introduction where we can still improve the current technologies involving solar energy.

One of the first and major drawbacks of using solar power is the costs. The expense is considerably higher than the conventional electric installation. From the purchase to the initial installations of the solar panel unit, the cost is a significant factor to consider. The high costs of solar power panels lie on the expensive semi-conductor materials that convert sunlight into electricity.

However, as technology progresses and as the need slowly increases, the costs of solar panels are expected to go down, something on the level of being competitive with other energy resources.

Another to consider is space. Were talking about installing a solar panel which is not small. It requires a significant amount of space which also helps maximize the amount of sunlight it can collect and convert into electricity. Some households will have the panels installed on their roof others will designate a place for it on the year or on top of a pole. The same space problems will need to be readdressed once you decide to add panels when your current setup is no longer enough for your familys needs.

Positioning is also vital. The solar panels will need to be facing a direction where it will receive the most amount of sunlight in a day. However, there is always a solution. If space does not permit such installations, there are some add-ons that can help maximize sun exposure.

Aside from the location and positioning of the panels relative to the sun, another aspect that you might want to consider is the amount of pollution in your areas. The degree of air pollution in the area might also be a factor in producing electricity. The smog as well as the clouds in the area can affect the amount of sunlight that reaches the panels. One way around this predicament is to purchase more panels so can gather more than enough sunlight to power your home.

At night, you might encounter a problem with relying solely on solar power. Although the solution here is to purchase batteries which you can charge during he day and use at night. You will need a couple of batteries though to be able to sustain your electricity needs through cloudy, stormy or smoggy or foggy times during the day.

As far as solar powered transportation services go, there are still some quirks that need to be fixed before mass production of such vehicles is rolled out. The most noticeable difference is the speed. Solar powered cars are far slower that their counterparts. But again, due to the fast development of the solar car and the technologies that go with it, this drawback will soon disappear.

When you look at the things that I mentioned about the disadvantages of solar energy, you will see that most of them have solutions while others you just need to compromise a bit. I still think that harnessing the power of the sun is the way to go, so these downsides of solar energy are just a small obstacle that we need to overcome.

Technologies for harnessing solar energy

Harnessing the suns energy efficiently is not an easy feat. The sunlight is so widespread that finding the most effective way of capturing it requires advanced knowledge and technology. There are several technologies for utilizing solar energy and all are unique and are dedicated for specific applications.

First up are the photovoltaic cells or commonly known as solar cells. These are probably the best known way of harnessing the energys sun. Whenever one talk about solar power, the first things that come to mind include having panels and panels of photovoltaic cells or PV. These cells contain semi-conductors, commonly are made from silicon, which absorbs the light from the sun. When sunlight hit the surface of the silicon, new free electrons are created. As the electrons are channeled out of the silicon, electric current is created.

The second solar power technology is the concentrating solar power systems. This one involves using mirrors to reflect sunlight to one area. Some systems incorporate high tech devices to track the movement of the sun and adjust the mirrors to maximize the amount of sunlight the system receives. The sunlight reflected from the mirrors is used to heat or power a conventional power plant. Other systems channel the light from the mirrors to an area filled with photovoltaic cells.

There are several kinds of concentrated solar power systems, the most popular ones are the solar trough, parabolic dish and solar power tower. The solar trough uses large, U-shaped (parabolic) reflectors to point the sunlight to a tower at the center of the mirrors. At the center tower, hot oil is heated by the suns energy and help boil water to create steam which is then used to power convention plants.

The power tower system uses the same concept as solar troughs. Mirrors are used to reflect sunlight to a center tower where a liquid is heated and utilized for the creation of steam which will power a power. The parabolic dish system uses mirrored dishes to focus and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver. The size of the dish varies but it is commonly 10 times bigger than an ordinary cable satellite dish.

Another solar power technology used today is the solar water heating systems. This is a simple one. The process involves collecting the energy directly from the sun to heat water or liquids which in turn heats up the water. This is more common in households are ideal for family use.

In order to capture the sunlight, solar panels have to be installed in your home or in the place where you will be needing hot water like a swimming pool area. You will need a big space for this but in the long ru, you will be able to save lots of money from your electric bill.

For commercial establishments, an ideal solar power technology is the transpired solar collector or otherwise known as the solar wall. It involves using perforated solar collectors where outside air passes before it enters the building.

These are but a few of the technologies around which can be used for utilizing the power of the sun. The technologies for harnessing solar energy continue to evolve as new technologies and discoveries are being accomplished. Everything might change in a few years time. Plus, the whole solar power technologies will become more price competitive which will benefit the general consumers.

Solar Energy is the Future

We consume fossil fuels at a greater rate than we have ever had over the past 50 years. That demand is fueled by the increase of cars on the street, the number of planes that take to the air and the number of homes that need electricity. Sadly, we will have depleted these resources by the end of this century which is why we have to come up with other ways to get power and solar energy may be the future.

Solar energy is simply extracting the suns energy for power. Just to tell you how powerful the sun is, it can burn scrub lands and give you sunburn if you are out in the sun without any protection. In fact, the Greeks and the Chinese used this to set fire until the 1880s by Charles Fritts made the first solar cell.

Instead of using a heater to warm up the home, sunlight can be used to control the temperature. You will just need large windows and shades to control the amount of sunlight that will go inside and keep the heat absorbed during the day to remain at night.

Solar energy can also provide warm water as it warms up cold water that passes down through the closed flat panels called collectors.

But solar energy does not only give warmth to the home. It can also be used to help power it which reduces our dependence on non-renewable resources like oil or coal.

This occurs when solar cells are installed on the roof so it will be able to capture as much solar rays as possible and then converts this into electricity. You will need 10 or 12 to capture at least a kilowatt of power and more if you are powering more than just your home.

The only limitation which challenges the use of solar energy is that it can only generate power during the day. The answer to this is to put an auxiliary system in place that will store the energy and kick when the sun is not available. This comes in the form of batteries which will provide power in the evening or a brownout.

Advances in technology have taken solar energy to the next level. NASA uses it to power satellites in orbit, solar panels installed onboard aircraft allow it to fly across oceans while cars can travel speeds up to 40 miles per hour. It is used to power a lighthouse so seafarers will be able to find their way at sea while aircraft can land in an airport in the middle of the frozen desert.

Solar energy is safe for the environment since it does not emit any harmful gases or chemicals into the air. It is a renewable resource that has not yet been fully tapped by a lot of countries which makes it very viable for the future.

But is it the only answer to reduce our dependence on oil? No because solar energy is just one of the options. We can also harness the power of the wind, the wave in the oceans, geothermal heat, hydroelectricity and a lot more instead of relying on coal or even nuclear energy that may harm the environment.

It is something we have to push for the next generation.

Solar Energy – How Does It Benefit the Agricultural Sector

Solar Energy – How Does It Benefit the Agricultural Sector

What is solar energy? To put it simply, this is the energy coming from the sun. The heat and light that the sun provides are essential to life. Can you even imagine life without the sun? It will not be normal and there are lots of things and experiences that people can no longer indulge into if ever that will be the case.

Everybody relies on the sun for its benefits. Did you know that the earth gets 174 petawatts of insolation or the incoming radiation from the sun? This happens at the upper part of the atmosphere. Almost 30% gets reflected back to the space. The rest of the percentage is being absorbed by the clouds, land masses and oceans.

The Agricultural Sector
If you can think of one industry that wont survive without the energy coming from the sun, what will be the first thing on your mind? There may be many sectors that must rely on the suns benefits. But the agricultural and horticulture industry will not thrive without it. They have no other options. If the sun will be gone, these sectors will die.

The sun is need by the agricultural and horticulture departments to be able to grow their produce. The latter is needed by people as well as animals. These sectors productivity will depend on the amount of energy that they are getting from the sun. It must be balanced in all ways. It can never too little. And it must also not be so much.

If it is too little, the plans may not be able to grow accordingly. The farmers wont achieve the required harvests in order to feed the population. And if it is too much, this will damage the crops. This will also cause bad effects on peoples health. But if the latter is the case, people can think of ways in order to achieve the needed produce by manually trying to reduce the amount of heat that can be directed on the plants. But if the situation becomes unbearable, it might lead to drought and deaths.

Farmers must know when the sun will be up, when sunny days will be long and factors like that so that they can settle for what kinds of plants they must plant to survive the kind of weather condition. Here are only some of the things that they resort to in order to optimize the full benefits of the energy coming from the sun.

Timed planting cycles
Different heights of plants in between rows
Tailored row orientation
Mixing different varieties of crops to improve the yields

Do you ever wonder what farmers did in times like the Little Ice Age? It is said that English and French farmers resorted to fruit walls. These fruit walls help in maximizing the collection of the energy from the sun. These serve as the thermal masses. These walls help in keeping the plants warm to speed up the process of growing and ripening of produce.

The suns energy is also being utilized in these sectors in vital activities such as drying the crops, pumping of water, drying animals manure, brooding of chicks and a lot more.

It is hard to imagine the agriculture and horticulture sectors to survive without the solar energy. If there are anybody who knows the importance of the sun, these people are the first in line.

Solar energy simplified

The sun shines, we collect the sunlight, we convert the sunlight into usable forms, and we enjoy the benefits. You cant get any simpler than that. But okay, I know you need more explanations. Youve been looking all over the web for information and you need, no you deserve, more than just a single sentence. The following would be my attempt in simplifying the concept of solar energy and I just hope you get something out of it.

The sun produces huge amounts of energy. But what the earth gets is a pretty small share of that energy. However, even if we get only a miniscule amount, the energy we receive from the sun is more than enough for our needs. Believe it or not, a days worth of sunlight when harnessed properly can power a big country like the US for more than a year.

So if thats how much energy we can get from the sun, why do we rely too much on fossil fuels which will disappear in 40 to 50 years time? The main problem is that the sun shines all throughout the world. That energy is so spread out that harnessing it is really a challenge. But still, there are other factors at work here, political, economical, and even cultural in nature which contributes to the slow progress of solar technologies. But that will need a whole chapter, nay, a whole book to discuss so lets leave that alone for a moment.

There are various ways how we harness sunlight and the specific way may depend on how we plan to use that energy. But we can divide the usage into two general concepts, converting solar power into heat and the other one is converting it into electricity.

Using solar power to heat homes is a pretty good example of the first category. There are two ways that can be used, the first one relies on the positioning of the houses windows and the second one involves the use of some mechanical devices to distribute the heat throughout the house.

Solar water heaters are also now available. What you do is provide a solar collector where the heat from the sun is trapped and collected. That heat is then transferred to the after that goes out of your faucets and showers.

Converting solar power into electricity, however, needs a little bit more explanation. There are basically two ways we can get electricity out of solar power. The first one involves the use of photovoltaic cells and the second one is using various solar thermal systems.

Photovoltaic cells are more commonly known as solar cells. These cells are made from silicon wafers and phosphorous. When sunlight strikes the surface of the silicon wafers, free electrons are produced. The electrons are then harnessed via attaching a wire to the cells. As the electrons leave the cells and pass through the wire, an electronic current is produced.

One major flaw of the photovoltaic cells is that they can be quite expensive plus they only convert a small amount of sunlight. Hopefully these cells can be cheaper, more efficient and more suitable to the needs of consumers in the future.

The great thing about solar energy is that it does not produce any kinds of pollution unlike fossil fuels which spit out substantive amounts of pollutants in the air and even in the water. Plus the sun is pretty much in good health ad it is still very far from dying. We can utilize more than enough energy from the sun that will last us for a lifetime.

Solar energy in households

The sun is a great source of energy. It would be great to use solar energy in your homes especially nowadays when the prices of oil and gas continue to increase. Because of the high fuel and gas prices, more and more people are experimenting on the use of solar energy in their households in their attempts to minimize the costs of basic utilities.

The suns energy can be harnessed in different ways depending on how you would utilize the end product. There are so called solar collectors which are placed on the roof tops or used in buildings. The main purpose of these solar collectors is to provide heating and even ventilation for the houses and buildings. These collectors harness the suns energy by magnifying the sunlight several times and transferring that heat to air or water. That heated air or water is stored and will provide the building or home heating and hot water whenever needed.

The only problem here is that not all places have equal amounts of sunlight. As you go farther from the equator, the strength of the sun is reduced. But still, this is a much better solution than relying on electric grids which do not reach remote areas. It is just a mater of storing the heat generated from the solar collector properly. For example, some buildings in Sweden utilized an underground storage facility where solar energy is stored resulting to savings from heating the building and their water.

In areas where gas and fuel are out of reach of the pockets of poor communities, residents have to rely on solar cooking for their meals. They use this bowl shaped discs equipped with mirrors or reflectors which directs all the sunlight on the middle where a pot is placed. The same technology is being used in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. This serves are a good alternative from conventional fuels like coal, firewood, and gas. They can use these solar stoves during a sunny day and use traditional fuels when the weather is not that good.

This reliance by communities on solar cooking should encourage more studies on how to make photovoltaic cells cheaper for an ordinary household. At this time, the use of solar cells is not economically friendly for a single household. However, the approach here is to install a series of solar panels which would be shared by the whole community. This could be a good idea depending on your usage, but for basic lighting purposes these could work in small poor communities.

In some areas, community cooperatives have found ways to bring electricity to households out of reach of power grids. In the Philippines for example, a local cooperative provided households loans to enable them to install a basic solar power module which can produce enough electricity for three light bulbs. This ay be laughable in our standards but to these people who have been living all their lives with the flickering light of the candles, three electric light bulbs make a great deal of a difference.

The story is the same in other countries. In Israel, the high costs of photovoltaic cells have clamped down the growth of solar energy in the country. It if fortunate, therefore, that the Israeli government is now providing incentives for households that would use solar energy.

However, according to industry analysts, the costs of solar cells production will go down as the demand increase. Also, most are hopeful that recent discoveries and advancement in technologies will find a way to bring down costs of using solar energy.

Ordinary households using solar energy is an ideal scenario that we should all strive to achieve.

Net Metering and Solar Energy

You cant help but get into net metering when you decide to invest in solar energy because you sometimes consume more or less than what you actually generate. When you consume less energy, your electric meter spins backward, if you use more then it goes forward.

Net metering is simply a special metering and billing agreement between you and the electric service provider. You are eligible for this if you reside in a residential area and generate some form of energy using solar, wind energy or a combination of both. It also has to be located on your premises and connected to the grid.

For this to work, you need to have a meter capable of moving in both directions. Most meters these days can do that but if your provider wants to use two meters, they will have to pay for it. However, if you enter into a time of use billing agreement, you will have to be one to buy the unit.

The net metering agreement works by letting you use the electricity you generate first before you use what you normally get from your electric service provider. Your meter should show the net which is measured as the difference between the electricity you purchased and what you actually purchased.

The benefit of the net metering system is that it allows you to store electricity when you are not there and then use it the moment you get home. Since there is a law that expands net metering, you can take advantage of it by generating electricity during peak hours and then using it during off peak periods.

Another benefit is the fact that you only pay the net electricity that you use. If you consume below the baseline, you pay less and more if you go over it. If what you use offsets what you normally get from a provider, then you will most likely pay a lower rate.

Since you entered into an agreement with your provider, you will still be billed monthly. This will state the amount of power you generated and the amount you actually consumed. On the anniversary of your agreement, you will be billed for the previous 12 months but you can also request for this on a monthly basis. Keep in mind that you will not be paid for the excess generation of electricity in a given year although some do.

If you want to use solar energy, you have to contact your electric service provider and ask if they offer net metering. When the papers are drawn up, remember that they cannot require you to pay for any meters beyond the bi-directional meter. They cannot conduct any tests or impose any requirements if it meets existing national standards for grid-interconnected systems. Lastly, you dont have to buy additional insurance or buy power from any of their affiliates.

Net metering is a policy and also an incentive when you decide to use solar energy. This is because you reduce the number of kilowatts used by your electric service provider which in turn decreases the emissions of carbon dioxide into the air.

If you happen to live in either New Jersey or Colorado, consider yourself lucky since they have the best net metering policies in the US. In fact not all states have such a policy in place for people who decide to use solar energy.

How Does Solar Energy Work

Ever wondered how solar energy is converted into electricity? Well, this will give you an idea how it works.

First, solar panels are installed over a flat surface like the roof of your home. Once activated, it absorbs the suns rays since the panels are made of semi-conducting materials such as silicone.

Electrons are then knocked off loose from their atoms so it can produce electricity. This process by which light is converted into electricity is better known as the photovoltaic effect.

From there, you now have direct current electricity and when this enters an inverter, it is converted into 120 volt AC which is the electricity needed to power the home. Of course this is connected to the utility panel in the house so the lights and the appliances will work when these are switched on.

If you are not using that much electricity from the solar energy generated, it is stored in a battery so will be able to supply the house with power during a power outage or at night. Should the battery be full, the excess electricity is then exported to the utility grid if your system happens to be connected to it. When your solar energy runs out, utility supplied electricity kicks in.

The flow of electricity of solar energy is measured using a utility meter which spins backward and forward. It will go backward when you are producing more energy than you need and forward when you need additional power from the utility company. These two are only offset when you pay for the additional energy from the utility company. Any surplus is sod back to what is known as net metering.

A smaller version of this is used to power a water heater inside the home. Using the same principles, homeowners get to convert sunlight into heat to get warm water.

As you can see, transforming sunlight into solar energy is very easy. But why do countries like Germany and Japan use it more often than the US? The answer is because it is much cheaper for them to use this form of alternative energy compared to oil.

Also, although the US initiated this during the 1973 oil crisis, it is not as popular as it was back then because the government neither increased the budget in research for alternative forms of energy nor gave incentives so people will be encourage into doing that again.

Most state regulations also prohibit individuals from installing their own devices even if this is used to give you warm water. Chances are, you wont even find anyone to do it so you will probably have to do it yourself. Just remember that if there is a problem with the plumbing, your insurance will not cover it. Should the state allow you to install such a system, you will not be entitled to the rebate.

Using solar cells is just one way to make the most out of solar energy. Your other option is passive solar energy which helps avoid heat loss so those inside will not feel too cold or too hot throughout the day. This is used by a lot of homeowners living in the southwest since they do not need that much insulation compared to homeowners who live in other parts of the US.

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